Procedure for a Chinese Lawyer to Represent a Foreign Affairs Related Case
Foreign affairs related cases include, but are not limited to the following cases:
(1) The client or the other party is a foreigner or a stateless person;
(2) The client is residing or staying outside the territory of China when he or she is hiring a lawyer or during the litigation period;
(3) Where the client or the other party is a resident of Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan in China, The Foreign Affairs Related Cases shall be dealt with in accordance with the procedure applying to the foreign-related case.
For cases concerning foreign affairs in the field of marriage and family, lawyers may accept service scope as special authorization as the case may require. The letter of power of attorney shall specify the authority and the scope of authorization.

If a lawyer accepts entrustment with overseas client for the marriage dispute and if the client cannot return China for completing the entrustment procedure or the entire litigation procedure, the lawyer shall guide the clients in advance with respect to the procedure issues for submission of power of attorney, complaint, pleadings, client identification papers and other divorce-related materials, all the materials shall be notarized and authenticated before sending to China for submission to the court.

A lawyer who is entrusted by a foreign client to act as an attorney in a marriage case is usually required to submit the following legal document to the court.
 (1)  A copy of the passport of the client;
 (2)  An authorizing letter with the special authorization power of entrustment signed by the client;
 (3)  The complaint signed by the client as provided by the client as the plaintiff;
 (4)  The signed answers and the divorce opinion as provided by the client as the defendant;
 (5)  Marriage certificates;
 (6)  All evidence and procedural materials.

The above documents shall be notarized by the notary office of the host country and shall be authenticated by the embassy or consulate in the country where they are located and the embassy or consulate shall issue a "certificate of authentication".

If the aforesaid legal documents are in foreign languages, they shall be translated by a translation agency recognized by the court and such translation shall be submitted to the court; If the foreign client cannot participate in the litigation and if the court requests that the client to provide proof why the client cannot join the hearing, the lawyer shall guide the client to provide the relevant supporting materials and get them gone through notarization and authentication procedures.