Cross-Border Jurisdictional Protocol
China acceded to the Hague Service Convention on May 6, 1991, with the treaty taking effect domestically on January 1, 1992. Like India, China objected to the alternative channels in Article 10, so service must be routed exclusively through China's Central Authority: the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of International Judicial Assistance, operating through the International Legal Cooperation Center (ILCC) in Beijing. Every document must be translated into Simplified Chinese, submitted with a completed USM-94 request form, and accompanied by the Central Authority's processing fee. Technical rejections are common and can add six to twelve months to a case, so precise, first-time-correct filings matter more here than almost anywhere else.
We prepare the USM-94 request form, certify a complete Simplified Chinese translation of every document, and submit the package with the required processing fee to the Ministry of Justice's ILCC in Beijing, then track the file through the local court responsible for effecting service.
Start a China Central Authority filing →Article 5 requires all served documents to be in Chinese or accompanied by a Chinese translation. Incomplete or improperly certified translations are the leading cause of rejected requests, restarting the clock on an already lengthy process.
Get documents translation-ready →Chinese courts are frequently slow to act on incoming Hague requests, particularly where the defendant is a well-connected local entity. We maintain direct, Chinese-language follow-up with the ILCC and the receiving court to keep a filing moving.
Request active case follow-up →Complete National Jurisdiction
Active network of local agents, court officers, and Central Authority specialists covering every administrative region.
All international document handoffs are executed pursuant to local sovereignty statutes and returned with court-certified evidentiary declarations.
Judicial Knowledge Base
Yes. China acceded on May 6, 1991, and the Convention entered into force domestically on January 1, 1992.
No. China objected to the Article 10 alternative service methods, so service must go exclusively through the Central Authority — the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of International Judicial Assistance — rather than through private agents, mail, or direct judicial contact.
Typical processing runs four to six months, though it can extend to a year or more, especially if the defendant is a well-connected local entity or the initial filing contains a technical error requiring resubmission.
Every document served must be in Chinese, or accompanied by a complete Simplified Chinese translation. Requests submitted with incomplete or improperly certified translations are routinely rejected, which restarts the process.
A rejection on technical grounds, such as an incomplete translation or an incorrectly sealed summons, means the request must be corrected and resubmitted from the start, which can add many additional months to the case timeline.
Consult with our international legal support specialists about service of process in China.