Citizens around the world are travelling in and fro for different purpose such as education, work, tourism, business, etc. Since Global market increasing and innovating its way, the number of travel from one country to another is increasing rapidly. For a smooth travel from one country to another, the Attestation process introduced all around the world. Attestation services differ from country to country, however, the main purpose of this process is to verify the document by government authorities in order to provide secured movement between nations.
Although the attestation process differs from country to country, document attestation can be majorly differentiated into 2 types.
- Attestation
- Apostille
Apostille & Attestation services go through the same process until MEA provide special stamp and online details Hague convention countries during the apostille process. Below are the different stages of certificate attestation.
- HRD/State Attestation
- SDM Attestation
- MEA Attestation
- Embassy Attestation
- MOFA Attestation
What is Attestation?
Attestation is a process to validate your certificates by a delegated officer from the Government department by their seal and signature. During this process, a verification is done via legal authorities to ensure the genuinity of the certificate. Upon successful verification, the government department certifies the document as legal. Document attestation process differ based on the certificate type and the country to visit.
Below are the different categories of document attestation.
1) Education Certificate Attestation
For educational certificate attestation, you have to attest below-provided certificates. Once you submit these certificates for attestations. They will send out to corresponding departments at the state level for inquiry. Based on the report, State Department will attest certificates from their side.
Requirements
- Mark Sheets
- School certificate
- Degree/Diploma certificate
2) Non-Educational Document Attestation
Below certificate attestation are mostly requested when the requester is either spouse or seek ground level work in the host country. The process may vary a bit for such process like Netherland Embassy asks for a reissued birth certificate to be verified for apostille. Hence requester will have to ask for a new birth certificate from the place it issued and process it for apostille.
- Birth Certificate
- Marriage Certificate
- Death Certificate
- Divorce Certificate
- Employment Certificate
- Single Status Certificate/ CENOMAR/ Bachelorhood Certificate
- Non-availability of birth certificate
- Commercial Certificate
3) Immigration Certificate Attestation
Immigration Certificates attestation is often asked either for Work-related Visa or Moving to another Country.
Requirements
- Medical Certificate
- Police Clearance Certificate
- Visa, Visa Extension
- PIO (Person of Indian origin) card
- OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card
The process for immigration certificate starts from the state department who issued the certificate. They send out their verification to MEA and MEA does the attestation which holds the highest power. Then comes Embassy Attestation who then grand the attestation from host Country. However, for middle east countries, MOFA certificate attestation needs to be done for immigration certificate.
What is Apostille?
The apostille is an attestation process which valid in 92 countries who are signed Hague convention in 1961. Apostille process attests the required document if you are going to any of the Hague convention member countries. An apostille process is more simplified one since an apostille certificate need not be apostilled again as the document attested can be tracked online by Hague convention countries. Currently, 105 nations are aligned with the Hague Convention.
Apostille Certificate Attestation also follow the same path as other attestations such as, state department verifies the certificate via different departments and after their report and state level attestation, MEA attests to the certificate. In the end, Embassy does the document attestation. However, after apostille stamping, MEA provides a different stamp and online info for those verified documents which can be verified via online by Hague Convention countries. Hence, once your document apostilled, you don’t need to apostille it again.
Process of Attestation
A process of Attestation starts with authenticating the certificate by delegated authorities of the state department or union territories from where the document issued. Personal documents are verified by home authorities of the state or union territories and Education documents are validated by educations department on concerned state or union territories. Commercial documents are checked by the chamber of commerce department of state or union territory.
Once it is verified by corresponding departments State ministry attest the document based on the report. Soon State provides the feedback and attested certificate, MEA will attest the document as it is verified by state ministry. AS final attestation concerned embassy will attest the document from their side.
What is HRD Attestation?
Attestation process starts from HRD department which is concerned state department. HRD department of respective state does the verification and attestation from their side. HRD department categories the attestation requests and send it to the corresponding departments. Such as personal document will send out to home authorities of the state department. The educational certificate will mail to the Educational department to verify and commercial documents are notified to the chamber of the commerce department. Based on the report from the state departments, HRD attests to the document and report it back to the Ministry of External Affairs.
What is SDM Attestation?
SDM attestation is attesting your documents from the Sub-divisional magistrate of concerned state situated in Delhi than attesting it from State Department. This ease the attestation procedure. However, verification would be done at the state level by the corresponding department. Upon completing the verification attestation will be done from Sub Divisional Magistrate in Delhi than in HRD level.
What is MEA Attestation?
Ministry of External affairs controls the attestation from the process. MEA keep track of attestation progress and waits for the detailed report and attestation from HRD department (Concerned State department) and do the document attestation.
What is Embassy Attestation?
Embassy Attestation comes at the end of attestation process Once MEA do the attestation, Embassy will receive the MEA attested document and will verify and legalize it from their end to validate the person for traveling to the respective country. Once the certificate is legalized from Embassy, they will intimate the requester to request the schedule for Visa Interview.
What is MOFA Attestation?
MOFA Attestation is mainly done for Middle East countries where it is mandatory to attest the document of the requester at their own Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This step is mainly requested by Middle East countries. MOFA attestation is after the Embassy attestation done from home country.
Hereby providing you some common questions asked by the customer and its answers.
What is the process for a birth certificate attestation or apostille?
Birth Certificate Attestations are mostly asked by Hague Convention nations and they required a birth certificate which is less than 6 months old. Hence here are the process of Birth Certificate Attestation.
- Request a new birth certificate from the place where it issued.
- Do a notary attestation of your new birth certificate as a basic step.
- This Birth Certificate needs to send out to State/HRD Department for HRD attestation.
- Home Department of concerned state will verify the document with officials from where a certificate issued.
- Home Department will report their investigation report to State level.
- State department will attest the certificate and send it to MEA.
- Based on the attestation and report from state team, MEA will attest the document.
- After MEA attestation, the birth certificate will be considered as apostille certificate from India with reference to Hague Convention countries to verify its status online.
- As the last stage of attestation, Embassy will attest to the birth certificate from their end.
- If the host country from the Middle East, they may ask for MOFA attestation. Which will be done by the Foreign Ministry of the host country.
Performing all these coordination will take time and effort from a normal person. To save your time and energy, you can approach an attestation agency who does attestation services such as NEW INDIA ATTESTATION for the easy process of attestation.
What is the educational certificate attestation process for UAE Visa?
Educational certificate attestation is normally requested by Middle East countries such as UAE, Saudi, Kuwait, etc.
Attestation of Educational documents process requires below documents.
- Degree Certificate
- Passport (to support your identity)
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- HRD Attestation:- As the first step, degree certificate needs to be attested from the education department of state. Soon after the verification report submitted by the educational department, HRD will attest the document based on the report.
- MEA Attestation:- Ministry of External Affairs reply on State verification and their attestation to do the attestation from MEA end. MEA is the highest link in the hierarchy from the Indian government in attestation part.
- UAE Embassy attestation:- After MEA attestation UAE embassy will attest the degree certificate from their side. This is certifying your certificate from the host country. Sometime UAE or any other middle east country may ask for MOFA attestation. In such case, foreign ministry of host country verifies and attest the degree certificate as a final step.
As confused as it looks, it will drain your time and energy while following this process all along. Attestation agencies like us NEW INDIA can help you to do all these processes in just 7 days. Do check out our website for more details.
