Attestation Apostille

[Cris Luczak]

Indiasince 2005, is a member of the Hague Convention of October 5 1961 that abolished the requirement of legalization of foreign public documents. Apostille is acceptable in all member-countries of the Convention (For more info please visit the website: www.hcch.net). 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. As India is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, 1961, no further attestation or legalization of a document apostilled by a member country, should be required for using such apostilled document in India. An apostilled document should, therefore, be treated as legalized document for all purposes in India by all concerned, in accordance with the international obligation under the Convention.

This is done for all the countries which are not a member of Hague Convention and where Apostille is not accepted.(Names of countries that are not members of the Hague Convention are available at the following link)

Legalisation of documents:The Ministry of External Affairs thereafter, legalises the documents on the basis of the signature of the designated signing authorities of the State Government/Union Territory/Chambers of Commerce. Hence it does not take responsibility of the contents of the documents.

Outsourcing of receipt and Delivery of Documents. As a result to outsourcing of receipt and delivery of documents for attestation/Apostille with effect from July 2012, no document is directly accepted from individuals at the Ministry of External Affairs Counter at CPV Division, Patiala House Annexe, New Delhi. The original document/true copy is to be submitted directly to any of the five outsourced service providers along with a photocopy of the document and a photocopy of the Passport of the applicant. It would be pertinent to point out that the Ministry does not legalize photocopies. Applicants are advised not to rely on unauthorised persons/touts for Apostille or Attestation services.

Decentralization of Attestation/ Apostille Services.W.e.f. January 01 2019, Attestation/Apostille services have been decentralized to Branch Secretariats/RPOs in 16 cities Ahemdabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Chandigarh, Cochin, New Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Panaji, Jaipur, Patna and Thiruvanantapuram. The contact details of these RPOs and the collection centres of the five service providers in these 16 cities are as given above.NORKA ROOTS, a public sector company under the Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs, Government of Kerala is authorized to submit documents for Attestation/Apostille by RPO, Thiruvanantapuram.

Applicants are requested to approach their respective Branch Secretariats/RPOs as enumerated above through the five outsourced service providers for obtaining the requisite services of apostille/attestation as required.

Outsourced agencies: As the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is not accepting documents directly from the applicant/individual, all documents for the purpose of Attestation/Apostille by MEA are to be submitted and collected from the five designated outsourced agencies. The fee chargeable by the outsourced agencies per document for its collection and delivery for Apostille/normal attestation by MEA will be Rs. 84/- (Service Fee) and Rs 3 per page (Scanning Fee).

No, authentication is not necessary or valid when interacting across the United States or its territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, etc.). You must contact the courthouse where the notary took their oath and request a Notary Certification of Good Standing.

A Special Commission met from October 28 to November 4, 2003 to discuss many issues regarding practical operation of the Hague in connection to Apostille, evidence and service conventions. The formal requirements of the Apostille were discussed and the Special Commission concluded that there are a variety of means of affixing an Apostille to a public document. These means may include rubber stamp, glue, (multi-colored) ribbons, wax seals, impressed seals, self-adhesive stickers, grommets, staples, etc. It is noted by the Special Commission that all these means are acceptable under the Convention, and that, therefore, these variations cannot be a basis for the rejection of Apostilles. Virginia has chosen the staple method of affixing the Apostille to the document.

Our office does not provide notary services. Many local banks, FedEx stores, UPS stores, and USPS have notary services. You may find notary services in other locations throughout Virginia at your discretion as well.

Our office is not affiliated with any apostille companies or services. The Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth provides all Authentications from the State of Virginia. You may use any company at your own discretion but please be aware; they are not representatives of nor connected in any way to the Authentication Division of the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Any discrepancies or differences created in translating this content from English into another language are not binding and have no legal effect for compliance, enforcement, or any other purpose. If any questions arise related to the accuracy of the information contained in these translations, please refer to the English version of the website.

e-Sanad is a project aimed at online submission/verification of documents with an ultimate object to extend contact less, cashless, faceless and paperless document attestation service for apostille and normal attestation to applicants in India (to be extended to applicants abroad in a phased manner). It is designed and developed by NIC.

Any type of document viz personal, educational or commercial can be authenticated/apostilled using e-Sanad. The document should be available in the digital repository for getting attestation/apostille through e-Sanad.

e-Sanad is currently operational in five passport offices and in Attestation Section, CPV Division, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. With further decentralization of attestation related work to other locations, it is going to be extended to entire country very soon.

To begin with, the e-Sanad, will start with CBSE depository (for years 2014 & onwards) and verification of the CBSE documents would be done online. As regards its implementation/integration with States/UTs, the matter is being taken up with Telengana State, as a pilot project and others will be included in a phased manner.

The project is being implemented by NIC in coordination with CBSE, States/UTs and the Ministry of External Affairs in a phased manner. Initially only those Document Issuing Authorities(DIAs), that have digital depository of their documents(such as CBSE), are taken on board . This service would be extended to other DIAs in phased manner as and when they are capable to providing digital depository of documents issued by them.

An Apostille is a certificate that authenticates the origin of a public document (e.g., a birth, marriage or death certificate, a judgment, an extract of a register or a notarial attestation). The Model Apostille Certificate is reproduced at the beginning of this brochure. Apostilles 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.

An Apostille may not be required if the laws, regulations, or practice in force in the country where the public document is to be used have abolished or simplified the requirement of an Apostille, or have exempted the document from any legalisation requirement. Such simplification or exemption may also result from a treaty or other agreement that is in force between the country where the public document is to be used and the country that issued it (e.g., some other Hague Conventions exempt documents from legalisation or any analogous formality, including an Apostille).

The Status table of the Apostille Convention has two parts: the first part lists countries that have joined the Apostille Convention and are also Members of the Hague Conference (i.e., the Organisation that developed the Convention); the second part lists countries that have joined the Apostille Convention but are not Members of the Hague Conference. In other words, a country does not need to be a Member of the Hague Conference to be party to the Apostille Convention.

If your public document was issued or is to be used in a country where the Apostille Convention does not apply, you should contact the Embassy or a Consulate of the country where you intend to use the document in order to find out what your options are. The Permanent Bureau (Secretariat) of the Hague Conference does not provide assistance in such cases.

The Convention only applies to public documents. Whether or not a document is a public document is determined by the law of the country in which the document was issued. Countries typically apply the Convention to a wide variety of documents. Most Apostilles are issued for documents of an administrative nature, including birth, marriage and death certificates; documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with a court, tribunal or commission; extracts from commercial registers and other registers; patents; notarial acts and notarial attestations (acknowledgments) of signatures; school, university and other academic diplomas issued by public institutions. The Apostille Convention does not apply to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents. The Convention also excludes from its scope certain administrative documents related to commercial or customs operations.

Applicant can, however, submit and collect documents directly at the four under-mentioned Branch Secretariats of the Ministry of External Affairs. They also Attest/ Apostille documents in addition to MEA

Outsourced agencies: As the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is not accepting documents directly from the applicant/individual, all documents for the purpose of Attestation/ Apostille by MEA are to be submitted and collected from the four designated outsourced agencies. The fee chargeable by the outsourced agencies per document for its collection and delivery for Apostille/normal attestation by MEA will be Rs.22/- (Personal document), Rs.18/- (Educational document) and Rs.16/- (Commercial document).

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