The connection between India and Gulf countries persisted for centuries now. Still, Indian employee is an integral part of GCC’s success story. From trading to employment, from education to leisure, we do travel to GCC countries more often than before. Here we are listing out the attestation process for GCC countries
What is GCC?
Gulf Cooperation Council known as GCC is a union of Gulf countries including, Saudi, Oman, Kuwait, UAE, and Bahrain. However, Iraq is still not part of this union. GCC countries follow the same process of attestation. A notable point is Oman and Bahrain are also part of the Hague Convention and they follow the apostille process.
Below listed are the different type of certificate attestation GCC demands.
- EDUCATIONAL CERTIFICATE
- MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE
- BIRTH CERTIFICATE
Educational Certificate
For education certificate attestation, the requester should have a valid educational certificate issued by the school, college, private educational institute or university which have government recognition and under the ministry of education. Mostly the requested attestation is Degree Certificate Attestation. If we brief the whole process, we are requesting the ministry of education to verify your education certificate again to reassure the credibility of the certificate before your host country. So this process explained in details below.
1.HRD Attestation/ State Attestation
As a primary step, concerned education certificate send to the corresponding state from where it issued and state department pass it to their education department to verify the credibility of the certificate in order to attest it from the state level
2. MEA Certificate Attestation
Once the certificate is verified at the state level educational department, Ministry of External Affairs receive it from state officials. MEA then verify the details and attestation from State Education Department and attest the certificate on behalf of Indian Government. If this certificate requested for Bahrain or Oman, MEA will seal it with a special stamp as a process of Apostille and details will be uploaded online for Hague Convention Countries.
3.MOFA Certificate Attestation
Just after the MEA attestation from India, the educational certificate will send out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the host country. This is the final step for educational certificate attestation and with the completion of this process, the requester can attend the visa interview for further proceedings.
Marriage Certificate
For Marriage Certificate Attestation, the requester should submit a valid marriage certificate issued by the court or concerned embassy (if one partner is already living in the host country). Marriage certificate validation will be processed once again by the state department, however, the ministry of justice at the state level would do the root verification. In addition to Education Certificate, Embassy attestation also required in this process.
1.HRD Attestation/ State Attestation
State Department will receive the certificate from the requester and intimate the ministry of justice at the state level to verify the certificate at the state level. Hence the corresponding department will verify the details with the issuing office and confirm the credibility. Based on the investigation, State department validate and confirm the certificate for attestation.
2. MEA Certificate Attestation
State Department pass it to MEA department for the final validation on behalf of Indian Government. MEA do a validity check and based on the attestation and report provided by state justice ministry will attest the certificate from MEA end. For Bahrain and Oman, MEA will stamp Apostille attestation and will upload the details online.
3. Embassy Certificate Attestation
Embassy attestation in a part of Marriage certificate attestation for GCC countries. Hence Embassy verifies the certificate soon after MEA attested it. The embassy will do a quick validity test and stamp it from their end.
4. MOFA Certificate Attestation
Soon after Embassy certificate attestation, the embassy will send out the certificate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the host country for their attestation. This is the final step for GCC Marriage certificate attestation. Upon completing this final attestation process requester can proceed with visa formalities.
