Chinese Immunization Record Translation

A certified English translation of a Chinese vaccination booklet costs about $20–60 per page, and most booklets contain one to three pages of actual entries — so $20–150 all in. Inside China, agencies quote roughly ¥150–400 a page; a notarial certificate from a public notary office adds another ¥100–400 per document. What matters more than the price is the form: for USCIS, the translation must reproduce every entry and carry the translator's signed certification of competence and accuracy under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3). A tidy summary table will be rejected.

First, work out which document you actually have

Three different Chinese documents get called "the vaccine record" in English, and they are not interchangeable.

• 预防接种证 — the vaccination certificate booklet. Issued to every child born in mainland China, normally within a month of birth, and stamped at each visit by the community health service centre. Kindergartens and primary schools in China inspect it at enrolment. Entirely in Chinese, handwritten in parts, often with the clinic's red seal over each row. This is the document that usually needs translating.
• 预防接种证明 — a printed vaccination certificate. A one- or two-page printout generated from the provincial immunization information system and stamped by the clinic or district CDC. Cleaner to read and to translate than the booklet, and the usual replacement if the booklet is lost.
• The WHO yellow card — the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis. In China this is issued by an International Travel Healthcare Center, it is printed bilingually in English and French, and it needs no translation at all. It normally covers travel vaccines (yellow fever, meningococcal, sometimes others) rather than a full childhood history.

If you are being asked for a childhood immunization history, the first two are what you need. If you are being asked for proof of a travel vaccination for a visa or an entry requirement, the yellow card is the document, and the China visa medical exam page covers where those are issued.

Chinese vaccine names in English

This table is the part people actually come looking for. Chinese records often print the Latin abbreviation alongside the Chinese name — 百白破（DTaP） — but not always, and the handwriting on older booklets can be unforgiving. Doses are numbered 第1剂, 第2剂, and so on; the injection site column reads 左臂 (left arm), 右臂 (right arm) or 左大腿 (left thigh).

Chinese records separate 免疫规划疫苗 (Category 1 — given free under the national programme) from 非免疫规划疫苗 (Category 2 — parent-paid, such as varicella, Hib, PCV13 and rotavirus). Both appear in the same booklet, sometimes in different sections, and a translation that silently drops the self-paid section will look incomplete to a school nurse checking varicella.

What the dates should look like: the 2026 national schedule

Knowing the schedule tells you whether a record is complete or whether a page is missing. China revised its childhood immunization programme in June 2026, and the changes matter when you are reading a record: the bivalent HPV vaccine entered the national programme, the DTaP series moved to a 2-month start with a fifth dose at 6 years, and Japanese encephalitis vaccination extended to Tibet, Qinghai and Xinjiang from March 2026.

Older records follow the previous schedules and will look different without being wrong. Before June 2026, DTaP was four doses starting at 3 months with a DT booster at 6 years — under the 2026 rules, DT is used only for catch-up in 7- to 11-year-olds. And records from before October 2019 may show 麻风 (MR) at 8 months rather than MMR. A good translation notes the schedule in force at the time rather than trying to reconcile the record to today's table; that reconciliation is the receiving physician's job.

Who needs it, and in what form

United States — green card and Form I-693

Adjustment-of-status applicants have their vaccination history reviewed by a USCIS-designated civil surgeon, who records it on Form I-693. A Chinese booklet must be accompanied by a complete English translation with the translator's certification of competence and accuracy, as required for any foreign-language document under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3). Practical consequences: translate every visible line including stamps and marginal notes, keep the layout recognisable so the surgeon can match rows to the original, and bring the original booklet to the appointment — the surgeon will want to see it next to the translation. Anything the record does not cover gets given at the exam.

Schools and universities

US state school-entry rules, UK and Australian school and university requirements, and international schools inside China all ask for a history mapped to their own required list. A certified translation is normally enough; notarisation is rarely requested. Two Chinese-specific friction points recur: varicella, which is a self-paid Category 2 vaccine in China and so is often genuinely absent, and meningococcal ACWY, which US universities frequently require while China's programme uses A and A+C polysaccharide vaccines. Expect to top up rather than to argue.

Employers, insurers and visa files

Employer occupational-health files and some visa categories ask for hepatitis B status or tetanus currency rather than a full history. That is usually faster to satisfy with a current blood test or a single booster than with a translated childhood record — and if you are already having a checkup, it can be added as a line item. Costs for those are in our blood test cost guide.

Certified, notarised, or neither

The three tiers are often conflated, and paying for the wrong one wastes both money and days.

• Plain translation — no certification. Fine for your own reference or a doctor's informal use; not accepted by USCIS or most registrars.
• Certified translation — the translator or agency attaches a signed statement of competence and accuracy, with contact details and often a company chop. This is what USCIS, schools and universities mean. $20–60 a page, 1–3 working days.
• Notarised translation (公证书) — a Chinese public notary office (公证处) issues a bound notarial certificate binding the original and the translation. Required mainly for consular legalisation or an apostille, adoption files, and some foreign government filings. Since 7 November 2023 China is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so for destinations that are also parties (the US, UK, EU states, Saudi Arabia) a single apostille from the Chinese MFA or an authorised local Foreign Affairs Office replaces the MFA-plus-embassy chain; the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait are not parties and still need full consular legalisation. Add ¥100–400 per document and several working days. Ask the receiving institution before paying for this; most do not need it.

The same tiering applies to clinical documents, which is set out at more length in our guide to medical records translation in China and, for narrative reports specifically, translating a Chinese medical report into English. Note that immunization records are Simplified Chinese from mainland clinics; a Hong Kong or Taiwan record will be in Traditional Chinese with a different vaccine list, and that is a different translation job.

If the booklet is lost

This is less of a crisis than it feels. Since the national immunization information systems came in, doses are recorded provincially, not only in the booklet you cannot find.

• Go back to the community health service centre (社区卫生服务中心) for the district where the child was registered — that is where Category 1 vaccines were given, and it can reprint a stamped 预防接种证明 from the system.
• If the family has moved cities or the clinic has closed, the district CDC (疾控中心) can trace the record across the provincial system.
• Bring the child's hukou booklet or passport and a parent's ID. Several provinces now issue the certificate through a health-commission WeChat mini-program, which is worth checking before travelling.
• A hospital-born child's first hepatitis B dose and BCG may sit in the birth hospital's records rather than the community clinic's — ask for both if the early rows are missing.

Requesting the printed certificate first, then translating it, is usually faster and cheaper than translating a battered booklet: the printout is typed, in a consistent layout, and typically one or two pages.

Frequently asked questions