MyChinaDocs is the trusted leader in document authentication at the Houston Consulate.  Fully accredited with the Better Business Bureau (with an A+ rating), we have provided this service to families, businesses, and the legal community for over twelve years.  

IMPORTANT! 

The Houston Consulate requires that all documents be submitted intact.  This includes the original document with the notary statement, the county certification (if required in the document's originating state), and the state certification. 

Once a document has been state certified, it becomes official and it is very important that it be kept intact.  Once official, there can be no indication that the document has been tampered with or modified. 

The Consulate also requires that you submit a plain paper copy of each document.

While our clients never tamper with a document intentionally, we do sometimes notice that people will remove staples after the county and/or state seals have been applied to make it easier to copy.  Unfortunately, the Consulate staff considers this the same as tampering and they will NOT accept or authenticate documents where staples have been removed and then re-applied to allow for easier copy making. 

When a document is no longer intact, the only remedy is to re-do the entire document.  In other words, you will need to create a new original document and take it through the notarization, county and/or state certification process again.

The best way to make copies of an official document is to copy all of your original documents BEFORE getting them county and/or state certified.  As you receive the certifications back from the county and/or state, carefully copy just the certification page without removing any staples and then attach the certification copy with the corresponding copy of the original document.

We started our business to specialize in helping people with their documents.  Recently, the Consulate has been changing its' requirements for documents more frequently than in the past.  We work closely with Consulate staff to make sure that we know about any new requirements - often before they are made public.

With thousands of satisfied clients, we look forward to helping you. 

The Chinese Consulate in Houston authenticates documents originating in the following states:  Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.  The Houston Consulate will also authenticate documents from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Documents must be sent to the correct Consulate location.   The correct location is the Chinese Consulate whose service district includes the state that certified the document.

For a list of where to get your documents state certified, please click on this link which will take you to our friend Laura Morrison:   The Assistant Stork.  Laura maintains current information about the different state certification and vital records offices on her website.

Document Aging Policy  - The Houston Consulate enforces an aging policy for police clearances and medical/health evaluation documents.  Any of these documents older than six months (calculated at 180 days from the date that the original document was signed - not the notary date) will be returned without authentication.

No White Out! - The Houston Consulate will no longer accept applications or authentication documents where White Out liquid or tape was used to make corrections.   The proper way to make a correction is to draw a line through whatever needs to be changed, hand write the correct information using blue ink, and then initial each place where a correction was made.

Holiday and Vacation Closings:

The Houston Chinese Consulate will be closed for Chinese Tomb Sweeping day on Friday, April 5, 2013.             

Document Service

Rush Service

My Service & Fees

Items Needed

Application Form

Shipping Info.

Document Authentication Services

Normal processing time for documents brought to the Houston Chinese Consulate by courier service is 4 business days.  

Consulate Fees for Authentication & Notarization: 

If you need a faster turnaround time, rush service is offered.  

Rush Service:

Expedited, next business day service is available for documents brought to the Consulate either in person or by courier. 

The table below summarizes the different types of service and related fees.

Consulate Service and Fee Comparison:

The excellent staff at the Houston Consulate are very good at meeting the timeframes promised.

Obviously, the most economical approach for families planning an adoption is to have as many documents authenticated at the normal fee as possible.  What I often do is make one trip with the bulk of a family's documents to be processed at the normal rate and then, if necessary, make a second trip with any late documents (typically the I-171H or I-797) to be processed on a 24-hour rush.  

For most families this strategy saves anywhere from $200 to $300 in Consulate rush fees.   

My Service and Fees

For your fee, the day your original documents arrive I carefully review each one and make sure that everything is O.K.   I check your application, make corrections where needed, verify that dates on each document are correct, and that notarizations and state certifications have been done properly.  Finally, I assemble your documents into the order preferred by the Consulate.  This allows them to approve the documents and complete the authentications quickly.   

In recent months, the Consulate staff have been enforcing document requirements very strictly.  Reviewing your documents allows us to identify and correct any potential problems before they result in delays at the Consulate. 

The following business morning, I take your original documents to the Consulate and submit them to the appropriate officials for processing.     

On the scheduled pick-up date, I will drive back to the Consulate, and:

• Pick-up all of the documents

• Check and make sure that the Consulate properly authenticated each document.

• Place the documents in the desired overnight shipping pack.

• Return the documents via FedEx or UPS.

My fees are:

We charge a $60 minimum fee for 1, 2, 3, or 4 documents.  After the minimum, the fees are:

• $75 for 5 documents,

• $90 for 6 documents,

• $105 for 7 documents, 

• $120 for 8 documents,

• $135 for 9 documents,

• $150 for 10 to 14 documents,

• $175 for 15 to 19 documents,

• $200 for 20 to 24 documents. and

• $225 for 25 to 29 documents.

Note:  If you need more than 29 documents authenticated, please e-mail us for pricing information.

Items You Will Need:

The completed and signed document authentication request form.  You can open and download an Adobe Acrobat^© version of the form using the following link:

    Authentication Application Form (129k)

You will need Adobe Acrobat^© Reader to open the form.  Click on the Adobe graphic to download and install free copy of Acrobat reader.

In addition to the original documents and your completed, signed application you will need a:

1. A money order made payable to the "Consulate General of the P.R.C. in Houston" for the Consulate fees.  

The Houston Consulate accepts payment by money order only.  As of 1/4/07, the Consulate no longer accepts company or "certified" bank checks.

(Don't forget to include the appropriate rush fees if you want the expedited service).

2. One plain paper file copy of each document sent for authentication.  The file copy must include the notary signature and the state certification.  The Consulate retains this copy for their records.  This file copy does NOT need to be notarized or state-certified.  

3. A plain-paper file copy of the applicant's passport photo/signature pages (if married and the document's are being submitted for adoption we need a copy of both passports).  This copy does NOT need to be notarized or certified.

4. Self-addressed, prepaid return FedEx or UPS express shipping pack airbill and envelope.

Make shipping easy - set up an account with FedEx. Click this link to find out how.

5. Personal check made payable to "Cindy Marut" for our fee.

Shipping Instructions:

When you are ready, please send the documents and payments to me using the shipping service of your choice (we recommend Federal Express)  to:

Cindy Marut

MyChinaDocs.Com

1860 FM 359, # 125

Richmond, TX  77406

Please e-mail before you send your documents so I'll know to look for them.

NOTE:  Want to ship for delivery for us on Saturday?  Please call or e-mail us first for special instructions.

Please Note:  We recommend using FedEx for shipping visa applications and dossier documents.   FedEx has proven services that are very reliable and - almost always - deliver your documents on schedule.   For FedEx, we recommend their Standard Overnight service for delivery to us by 3 PM the next day.  If you prefer UPS, we recommend their Next Day Air Saver for delivery to us by 5 PM the next day.

DHL no longer provides domestic shipping operations within the U.S.A. All the DHL drop boxes and shipping centers located close to our office or to the consulates have been closed. While we can continue to receive international DHL packages, we will no longer be able to ship return packages via DHL. 

Important:  Never use any form of regular mail or USPS "Priority" Mail to ship important documents.  These services are NOT tracked.  Even with their new "delivery confirmation" service, if the postal service fails to deliver your documents, there is no way to trace the package.

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