Apostille / Attestation !!!
Apostille: India is a member of the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, abolishing the requirement of legalization of foreign public documents. Apostille is acceptable in 98 member-countries of the Convention. Apostille is done for personal documents like birth/death/marriage certificates, Affidavits, Power of Attorney, etc. and educational documents like degree, diploma, matriculation and secondary level certificates etc.
Procedure: All original documents requiring attestation or Apostille should be first authenticated by the designated authorities of the State from where the document has been issued. The Ministry of External Affairs legalises the documents on the basis of the signature of the designated signing authorities of the State Government/Chambers of Commerce; hence it does not take responsibility of the contents of the documents.
Normal Attestation is done for all the countries who are not the member of Hague Convention and where apostille is not accepted.
The Hague Conference has currently 98 Members where any type of document can be Apostilled.
| A | ||||
| Albania | Andorra | Antigua and Barbuda | Argentina | Armenia |
| Australia | Austria | Azerbaijan | ||
| B | ||||
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| Bahamas | Bahrain | Barbados | Belarus | Belgium |
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| Belize | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Botswana | Brunei | |
| C | ||||
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| Cape Verde | Colombia | Cook Islands | Costa Rica | Croatia |
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| Cyprus | Czech Republic | |||
| D | ||||
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| Kingdom of Denmark | Dominica | Dominican Republic | ||
| E | ||||
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| Ecuador | El Salvador | Estonia | ||
| F | ||||
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| Fiji | Finland | France | ||
| G | ||||
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| Georgia | Germany | Greece | Grenada | |
| H | ||||
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| Honduras | Hong Kong | Hungary | ||
| I | ||||
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| Iceland | India | Ireland | Israel | Italy |
| J | K | |||
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| Japan | Kazakhstan | Kyrgyzstan | ||
| L | ||||
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| Latvia | Lesotho | Liberia | Liechtenstein | Lithuania |
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| Luxembourg | ||||
| M | ||||
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| Macau | Macedonia | Malawi | Malta | Marshall Islands |
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| Mauritius | Mexico | Moldova | Monaco | Mongolia |
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| Montenegro | ||||
| N | ||||
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| Namibia | Kingdom of the Netherlands | New Zealand | Nicaragua | Niue |
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| Norway | ||||
| O | P | |||
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| Oman | Panama | Peru | Poland | Portugal |
| R | ||||
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| Romania | Russia | |||
| S | ||||
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| Saint Kitts and Nevis | Saint Lucia | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Samoa | San Marino |
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| São Tomé and Príncipe | Serbia | Seychelles | Slovakia | Slovenia |
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| South Africa | South Korea | Spain | Suriname | Swaziland |
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| Sweden | Switzerland | |||
| T | ||||
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| Tonga | Trinidad and Tobago | Turkey | ||
| U | ||||
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| Ukraine | United Kingdom | United States | Uruguay | Uzbekistan |
| V | ||||
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| Vanuatu | Venezuela | | ||
Procedure for Apostille of EDUCATIONAL DOCUMENTS
Authenticated by the designated authorities of the State or Sub-Divisional Magistrate.
Apostille Sticker from Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Procedure for Apostille of NON EDUCATIONAL DOCUMENTS
Sub-Divisional Magistrate.
Apostille sticker from Ministy of External Affairs (MEA).
Turnaround time for attestation -5 days ( Approx )
APOSTILLE / ATTESTATION
Attestation of Personal/Educational & commercial certificates is the act of witnessing a certificate by authorised person/persons/Departments/authorities with their official seal and signature. This attestation also confirms that, the specified certificate has been issued by that mentioned department and Seal and signature on that particular birth certificate is authentic.
ATTESTATION FROM MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, NEW DELHI
Attestation/Apostille from MEA can be done after attestation is done from relevant state authorities. For Example in case of Educational Documents document has to be attested from concerned state education department first. In case of personal documents, document needs to be attested from concerned home department prior to MEA attestation.
APOSTILLE
An apostille is a certificate that authenticates the origin of personal, educational or commercial documents.Apostille can only be issued for documents issued in one country party to the Apostille convention and that are to be used in another country which is also a party to the convention. Essentially, Apostille is an international attestation that is acceptable in about 92 countries, and most of the western world recognises Apostille.
For the list of countries that require documents to be apostilled, please refer to the following link:
http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=states.listing
Type of Documents -Documents can be divided into three categories for Attestation/Apostille:
Apostille / Attestation in Educational Documents -
Apostille / Attestation in Personal Documents -
Marriage Certificate Apostille / Attestation
Birth Certificate Apostille / Attestation
Leaving Certificate Apostille / Attestation
Police Clearance Apostille / Attestation
Registration Certificate Apostille / Attestation
Power of Attorney Certificate Apostille / Attestation
Marriage Affidavit Certificate Apostille /Attestation
Bona-fide Certificate Apostille / Attestation
Medical Certificate Apostille / Attestation
Commercial Documents -
Export Invoice Apostille / Attestation
Packaging list Apostille / Attestation
Power of Attorney Apostille / Attestation
Certificate of Origin Apostille / Attestation
Certificate of incorporation Apostille / Attestation
Chemical analysis report Apostille / Attestation
Physical analysis report Apostille / Attestation
Please note that above mentioned list is not all-inclusive and can include more documents.
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