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Tips for Quick Attestation of Certificates for Immigration 

Tips for Quick Attestation of Certificates for Immigration 

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Are you risking delays and rejections to get your certificates attested?

Certainly, it’s a big challenge to handle the red tape in the system. There are thousands of people, including students, visitors, business owners, and employees, who are likely to visit abroad or emigrate. No matter what the reason is to go abroad, the immigration process is incomplete without obtaining attested certificates.

Understanding the Attestation of a Certificate 

The word attestation refers to legalizing documents for acceptance by national and international government agencies or authorities. It’s just a stamp on the paper, which ensures that the paper is authentic and valid. Sometimes, it is also recognized as apostille services (valid for the Hague Convention member countries’ visits). Let’s say a student is likely to study in the USA. Certainly, he has to present educational degrees, transcripts, or any other academic document with the stamp of the notary and the HRD ministry of the Home and Union governments. Then only his degree would be considered original and valid. Likewise, professional qualifications and personal identification papers are attested for employment and other purposes.

Attestation of documents is not just a stamp, but a verified piece of paper. The request for legalization initiates the process of verification by the designated authority. Once it is proven that all supporting documents are original, the competent authority legalizes the certificate.

This blog will guide you on how to get any document attested and describe all the steps to make it easier for you.

Types of Documents Requiring Attestation

A certificate, in this case, can be related to a business, academics, profession, or employment. The need for certificate attestation may arise according to the reason for the foreign visit. So, these are the categories of certificates that should be verified and stamped.

  1. Educational Certificates

The very first category is related to academic degrees, diplomas, and transcripts (consolidated marksheets) from a recognized educational institution. These papers are helpful in figuring out the purpose of an individual’s visit.

     2.Professional Certificates

The next category is related to professional qualifications, licenses, or memberships. They also require a stamp from the designated authority before immigration. This is for individuals who are seeking employment or employed in a new country.

     3.Personal identification papers

This category of document is concerned with people who are non-residents or are going to be non-residents. They must have attested birth certificates, marriage certificates, and police clearance certificates, which verify the originality of these identification records.

Steps to Obtain Attested Certificates

Step 1. Verify requirements

To begin with, you should research the specific attestation requirements of the country where you are going to visit or emigrate. Because every country has unique requirements and procedures, So, your aim should be to discover attestation requirements from specific authorities.

Step 2. Obtain Original Documents

Now that you have researched and discovered everything, collect all the original copies of the documents to be attested. Sometimes, designated authorities do not accept scanned copies or photocopies of the original papers. So, keep your originals ready.

Step 3. Notarization

The next step is to notify them. This is a type of verification that a licensed notary public does. He certifies the validity and authenticity of a birth certificate, marriage proof, transcript, etc. A notarized document can be recognized through the seal or stamp of the designated notary public.

Step 4. Home Country Attestation

This step is associated with the stamp and verification by the home authorities of the state, which can be government departments, educational boards, or professional regulatory bodies. It completely depends on the type of document.

Step 5. State’s Home Attestation

For this step, the state’s home ministry would be competent. The person can visit the ministry for the attestation or hire a consultant to provide support.

Step 6. Legalization

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stamps the documents. But an individual cannot raise the request personally. A few outsourcing agencies or consultants are authorized to accept requests and collect documents for legalization. Once requested, the documents are forwarded to the embassy of the destination country. This step ensures that the foreign government recognizes it.

Step 7. Translation (if applicable)

If your documents are in a local language and that is not the official language of the destination country, you may have to provide a transcription. It is a translated copy of your paper. But there is a strict protocol associated with it, which is to get it from a registered or qualified translator.

Step 8: Submission

The next one is related to submission. As your documents are all stamped, submit them along with the immigration form so that you can easily navigate the destination country. Sometimes, the designated officer may ask for additional documents and their verification. So, prepare yourself for it also.

Step 9. Follow-Up

Now that you have submitted, closely monitor the status of your application. Any kind of delay or discrepancy in processing can impact your immigration process.

Step 10. Retain copies

Once received, you should secure those attested documents for backups and future reference.

As a piece of advice, contacting a consultant like Services2NRI or a legal advisor can be helpful. For any query, you can raise a request. Or, you can send an email.

Conclusion

The attestation process is typically required for employment, admission, or immigration. It requires designated authorities’s support or assistance, which can come from consultants or legal matter experts. You can discuss your individual requirements and then understand the entire process so that an informed decision can be made. Seek suggestions from them and ensure that you follow the prescribed format throughout the attestation process.

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Document Attestation: Steps, Benefits, & Challenges

Document Attestation: Steps, Benefits, & Challenges

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Attestation refers to the verification of or making documents legally acceptable. This is a crucial process for those who are settled abroad. This process is also called legalization, which is essential for employment, education, immigration, or any other legal purpose in the host country.

One should always remember that each country has its own rules and regulations related to this attestation process. Here, we are going to describe the procedure for document attestation. But first, let’s discover which documents should be legalized.

Key Documents That Require Attestation

These are categorized into three. Let’s find them out below:

  1. Educational Certificates: Degrees, diplomas, transcripts, and certificates that your educational institutions have issued as proofs of your academic records, which can be asked to present for further education and employment abroad.
  2. Personal Documents: Documents like birth certificates, marriage certificates, CENOMAR, non-availability of birth certificates, and affidavits are often presented before immigration authorities to discover the date of birth and marital status.
  3. Commercial Documents: Like the aforesaid documents, commercial documents like power of attorney, certificates of incorporation, and financial documents can be required by non-residents or residents who are doing or likely to do business abroad.

These are some papers that one may have to get legalized by the responsible authorities.

Let’s move on to comprehend the process to follow for attestation in India.

Document Attestation Process for NRIs

There are multiple levels of attestation in India. You should know about them to avoid any hassles.

Home Department Attestation:

This is the very first step of authentication, which is done in the very town, city, or village where your roots are.

Step 1: Notarization

Notarization is a document verification step that is conducted by a notary public in a court. The local notary public verifies the originality and validity of the presented documents and discovers the intention of the applicant. Once satisfied, he or she stamps the authenticity of the documents.

Step 2: State Attestation

The very next step is to visit the state’s home ministry or human resources department and get the requisite documents legalized. The competent officer examines the originality of the supporting documents and then attests to them if he or she is satisfied.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)

Now comes the verification from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) department.

Step 3: MEA Attestation

This is mostly required when you’re likely to visit abroad or have a purpose like marriage or study abroad. Before that, you have to pass through the aforementioned steps of attestation. For this step, you should always remember that an outsourcing consultant like Services2NRI can help you forward your request. It does not accept any requests from individuals or applicants. The outsourcing consultants forwarded the document. Thereby, this ministry is not responsible for the authenticity of the content in the documents, which were previously legalized. It’s role is to finally put its own stamp.

Step 4. Embassy or Consulate Attestation

The very next attestation is the embassy attestation. Mostly, it is required in the case of a change of status or background verification via the police clearance certificate of the applicant. He or she has to obtain this attestation from the country of origin.

These are various types of attestations that can help an individual legalize a document.

Tips for NRIs During Document Attestation

There are multiple ways to get your documents attested. If you are a bureaucrat, it won’t be a difficult task. But a layman faces the real challenge, as he or she does not have any information, nor does he or she know bureaucrats. In this case, hiring a consultant or legal advisor can be helpful. A few more tips can also make this journey easier. Let’s share with you.

  1. Research the requirements.

Before taking any step, non-residents or any citizen should dive deeply online and ask friends or relatives about specific requirements. This can be concerned with the documents and supporting documents required for attestation

  1. Plan Ahead

Avoid taking random steps. Start by brainstorming how long the attestation procedure is for a particular document. Then, make a plan and decide the right time to apply, especially when it is related to a case, marriage, employment, or study abroad.

  1. Choose reliable attestation services.

Another step is to decide if you are going to handle everything yourself or hire a professional for attestation services. This decision can make this procedure more efficient and hassle-free.

  1. Keep copies of documents.

The attestation procedure requires multiple copies of the original documents. So before going ahead, you should keep multiple copies of your original papers. This is how you can get rid of unforeseen circumstances wherein you require additional copies.

  1. Stay updated on legal changes.

You should remember that laws and regulations regarding attestation change over time. So, you should keep yourself updated regarding the changes that recently happened in the rules to avoid hassles.

  1. Authentication of Online Documents

Multiple things are involved in this process. So, you or NRIs must discover its online procedure. It can help in discovering the requirements of digital signatures, secure online platforms, and authentication methods.

Challenges and Solutions

In order to come across hassles, you must be aware of risks or challenges. Although there are just a few, they are there.

  1. Language Barriers

Your language can prove a big roadblock, interrupting the entire process. So, you must get the documents translated into English, the official language of the country where you’re likely to go.

     2.Changing Regulations

A sudden change in regulations may hamper your way. So, keep your eyes on the latest laws and regulations to avoid difficulties or delays.

     3.Geographical Challenges

Remote locations can hamper or delay your application for attestation. So, you should hire a professional consultant if you come across this challenge.

Conclusion

Document attestation is a journey to legalize documents, which can serve multiple purposes like marriage abroad, study, employment, and business. In all cases, you must have attested documents to prove your citizenship and status. The aforementioned description and steps will help you get attestation services and come across challenges that can delay your application.

 

 

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Attestation Procedure, Documents Required, & Fees

Attestation Procedure, Documents Required, & Fees

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Attestation refers to legalizing documents by competent authorities, especially the embassies and the ministry of external affairs. If you have attested documents, studying and residing abroad for work or any other purpose would be easy. It means that your struggle with formalities with a government, visa, or passport official will be lesser.

Here in this blog, we’re going to make this battle of document attestation easier to win for you. These apostille or attestation tips and processes will help you deal with challenges.

What is Apostille and Attestation?

As aforementioned, apostille is simply explained as the process of making a document officially acceptable overseas. This kind of legalization is termed as attestation.

When this very purpose is achieved through attestation by the Hague Convention (set up in 1961), it is termed as apostille. The applicant has to follow this process, especially when he or she is likely to visit the member country of this convention.

All in all, the objective is similar (which is to make documents legally acceptable), but the verification authorities differ.

Here, prospective applicants should be aware of the fact that their documents may or may not be verified in this phase because the state government and notary officer has already certified it before. These attestation services confirm that the document is legally valid and acceptable overseas.

Now that you know the difference, let’s figure out what documents should be presented to apostille.

Documents that Typically Require Apostille or Attestation

Here is the list of all important papers that can be required for apostille or attestation.

  • Academic or educational certificates like diplomas, degrees, and school certificates
  • Personal documents, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, and other personal documents
  • Commercial papers that can be company registration documents, trade licences, and other business documents
  • Legal papers like power of attorney (POA), affidavits, and more

Here is how you can get these documents legalized.

The Procedure for Apostille and Attestation in India

Here is an overview of different levels of attestation/apostille.

  1. State Level Attestation
  • Verification: This process is concerned with the authenticity and validity check of the enclosed documents. The respective state authorities, such as the Home Department or the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of the area where you live, examine if the document is genuine.
  • Notary Attestation: Notary public is a local officer in the court who deeply checks your documents to find if they are original.
  • State Home Department Attestation: When the local authorities pass your documents in the authenticity check, the State Home Department verifies them.

      2. Central Level Attestation

  • MEA Attestation: The MEA stands for the Ministry of External Affairs, which is the apex authority to verify your documents. One thing to consider in this matter is that the request cannot be raised personally. You have to hire a recognized agent. These can be outsourcing companies or consultants who submit your documents and request for attestation.
  • Apostille Certificate: The applicant should determine if he or she is likely to fly to the member country of the Hague Convention. If it’s the member country, the documents should be apostilled, but not attested. Its advantage is that no further process of legalization in the embassy will be required.
  • Embassy Attestation (if required): This is the case when the country of intended use is not a member country of the Hague Convention. It means that you may have to get embassy or consulate attestation. Submit the documents to the respective embassy for attestation.

          Fees for Apostille and Attestation

Let’s find out the fee structure that you all like to discover. You should understand that the amount to pay for apostille and attestation services may differ. Also, the type of document, which can be educational, non-educational, and commercial papers, also matters when it comes to paying out for these solutions.

The cost may be start from INR 1200 onwards per document for apostille. You may visit its official website to discover its actual prices.

Checklist of Required Supporting Documents 

  • Original document (educational, non-educational, and commercial) that you want to get legalized
  • Photocopy of original document
  • A photocopy of your passport
  • Filled application form with necessary details
  • Pay out the requisite fees

Timeframe

Generally, people get worried about when they can have their document attested. This part will have the answer. You can obtain any attested document in a week to a month from the State government.  The central-level verification will again take a few days. Then comes the embassy attestation, which is separate from other authorities. It will again take a few days.

In the nutshell, the applicant should be prepared to raise a request at least three-four months before. This can help you in meeting the purpose within stipulated timeline

Conclusion

Apostille and Attestation, both, are similar and very crucial for validating your documents. Both of these processes make a document legalized, which means that the document is accepted internationally. The process in both cases will be similar, involving multiple steps at the state, central, and embassy levels. However, the process may change per country. The applicant should follow the procedure on various levels, including the state and central government level. Later, he or should reach out to the embassy for the final stamp of authority.

 

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