People from other countries and residents of the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and Taiwan can file cases online, the Supreme People’s Court said on Feb 3,2021.

The cross-border litigants in the regulaton include foreigners, HK Special Administrative Region, Macau Administrative Region, (hereinafter referred to as HK and Macau Special Region), Inhabitants in Taiwan, mainland civilians whose normal residence is abroad or HK, Macau and Taiwan regions, and the enterprises and organizations that are registered overseas or HK, Macau and Taiwan Regions.
The scope of online filing service provided for cross-border litigants include cases of civil and/or commercial filing in the first trial.
People’s court provides online filing service for cross-border litigants by Wechat mini program of the China Mobile Micro Court. ID verification mainly is done online, relying on the Exit-Entry ID verification platform and etc. of National Immigration Administration.
After real-name registration, these people can file cases and enjoy other related litigation services, according to a document on providing online filing services for cross-border litigants issued by the SPC.

The document said courts will provide services including online case filing guidelines, registration and inquiries. The scope of the online filing service includes first-time civil and commercial litigation, it said.

Citizens from the Chinese mainland who have their habitual residences in and enterprises or organizations registered in other countries and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan can also enjoy the same services.

When applying for online case filing, litigants should submit a statement of complaint, evidence and materials confirming their identities. All materials must be submitted in Mandarin, it said.

The court will verify the identities of those who apply for the first time based on the identity authentication platform of the National Immigration Administration.

If a person’s identity cannot be verified online, the court will do the verification manually. Litigants will be notified of the result of the identity check within three working days.

The court will file cases within seven days for successful applicants. If the materials do not meet the requirements, the court will notify the litigants and offer them 15 days to make corrections. The time can be extended up to 30 days after application if necessary.

Litigants can also check the processing progress and filing results online.