Consular authentication refers to the activity that a consular authentication agency confirms the authenticity of the last seal and signature on a domestic foreign-related notarial certificate, other certification documents or foreign related documents according to the application of a natural person, legal person or other organization. The purpose of consular authentication is to enable documents issued by one country to be recognized in other countries, and will not affect its extraterritorial legal effect because of doubts about the authenticity of seals and signatures on documents. Consular authentication does not exercise the certification function for the matters certified by the notarial certificate or other certification documents, and is not responsible for the authenticity and legality of the contents of the document itself. The content of the document is the responsibility of the document issuing agency.

China's domestic consular accreditation agencies refer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the foreign affairs departments of local people's governments entrusted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereinafter referred to as local foreign affairs offices). China's foreign consular accreditation institutions refer to embassies and consulates stationed abroad and other institutions stationed abroad entrusted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

          two March, 023 eight China acceded to the Convention on the Cancellation of Certification Requirements for Foreign Official Documents (hereinafter referred to as the Convention). The Convention came into force in China on November 7 Initial issuance attachment Plus certificate, Instruments with additional certificates can be used universally among the States Parties to the Convention without going through consular authentication procedures. It should be noted that the original consular authentication procedure is still used between China and non parties to the Convention. For the list of States parties to the Convention, see the China Consular Service Network "Additional certificate" column (website: http://cs.mfa.gov.cn/ zggmcg/fjzms/）。