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All information about Apostille Attestation

 What is Apostille attestation ?

Apostille attestation is a process of authenticating the documents which are intend to be used in country other than the origin of document from where the document has been issued. For example: If your birth certificate is issued from any state in India and this certificate is required by Immigration, University or any department in country other than India then it should be attested by the competent authority in India and then only it will be accepted as a authenticated document.

In earlier days, this process of authentication of document was very slow , time consuming and costly because before Apostille convention the legalization process was in place to authenticate the document in order to be accepted by foreign country as a genuine and valid document. Legalization is a process where several individual authentications are required to be done firstly by the officials from the country  where the document has been issued and lately by the Embassy or consulate of the country where documents is to be submitted and this was the reason that Legalization process  was slow and time consuming.

In order to replace the process of Legalization with any fast process, a convention between 100’s of countries was organized in the year 1961 which is called “ Hague convention of 5th October 1961”. In order to simplify the process of authentication one treaty was signed between several countries accepting the Apostille convention a process to authenticate public documents to be used abroad. Now in the countries where Hague convention is applicable, the process of authenticating the document is cut short to a single formality whereby candidate can get authentication done by an authority appointed by the government of the country where document is issued.

Apostille attestation is a kind of certificate which is pasted on the back side of the document and is sealed and signed by the authorized signatory of the competent authority. From last many years Apostille attestation has proven to be extremely useful and is applied on millions of documents among the countries where both the countries are part of Hague Convention.



Do I need apostille attestation to be done on my documents?

If you are an individual applying for Education or Student visa, Residency visa, Job or Employment Visa, Dependent visa,  Long term visa, want to setup an office or company abroad and export of goods abroad you may be required to get your Personal, Educational and Commercial documents authenticated by Ministry of External affairs by putting apostille sticker on your document. But it depends on various factors and requirements of different countries. So, its better to have look on below points to understand if you require apostille attestation or not:

If all 4 points below apply in your case then you are required to get apostille attestation:
      1)      Check if the country from where your document has been issued is a party to Hague Convention or not. Because only if your country is a party to Hague convention than only Apostille attestation is required and valid.

      2)      Check if the country where you want to submit these documents is part of Hague convention or not. Because only if the country where you have to submit your document is a party to Hague convention than only Apostille attestation is required and valid.

      3)      Check if law of your country where document has been issued considers your document as a public document.

      4)      Check if the country where you have to submit your document requires apostille attestation in order to consider it as an authenticated foreign public document.

But it is always better to check and confirm with the recipient authority to know if they require apostille attestation of your documents or not. Because it might be the case, that the country where document is to be used has abolished or simplify the need of Apostille attestation. Also, be informed that apostille attestation is generally or never required to authenticate the document in same country where it has been issued.


What is the alternative of apostille attestation?

In case if you are applying for a country which is not member of Hague conference or a party to Apostille convention or your own country from where your document has been issued is not member of Hague conference or a party to Apostille convention then you should check with the Embassy or consulate of the country you are applying to for appropriate information.

Which is the competent authority in India to do Apostille Attestation?

Government of India has appointed Ministry of External affair as a competent authority to authenticate the public documents by issuing apostille certificate. Ministry of External affairs Delhi is authorized to do apostille attestation for the documents issued in India and are to be used abroad. Contact details of Ministry of External Affair, Delhi is as follows:  

Ministry of External Affairs
Kasturba Gandhi Marg, 1688 Barracks,
New Delhi-110001

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