The word Attestation means proof of something. When you visit abroad for education, business, job, or anything else, you require a passport, visa, and other necessary documents & there is a legal procedure for each of these documents.
There is a process to verify the documents you will use in a foreign country for a job, education, business, etc. So, attestation means verifying your documents authenticity from an authorised entity.
This article provides you with detailed knowledge about the types of attestation, and the differences between them.
Types of Attestation
Embassy Attestation
Here your document is attested by the respective Embassy of the country where you have applied for. Embassy attestation is the final step before that your document needs to be attested at regional, state and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) level.
MOFA Attestation
MOFA stands for ministry of foreign affairs, which is a ministry responsible for maintaining the foreign relations with other nations. If you’re travelling to any of the gulf countries listed below, then MOFA Attestation is mandatory for your documents.
- Bahrain
- Kuwait
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- United Arab Emirates
In the Embassy Attestation, the Embassy of the concerned country provides an Attestation for documents. However, for MOFA attestation, the procedure includes the regional, state, MEA, embassy, and MOFA.
Apostille Attestation
It’s also known as MEA attestation. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is authorized to provide Attestation of the documents that can be used in the Hague Apostille Convention Countries. Now, you might be thinking, what is this Hague Apostille Convention?
It is a rule or an act made in 1961 to abolish the requirement of repeated verification of foreign public documents by the governments of member countries.
Apostille attestation is a way of attesting the required documents so that they can be made admissible in any country that belongs to the Hague Convention countries list.
It’s legally acceptable in more than 116 countries, most of the European & American countries accept the format.
Let us explain it with example
For instance, if you require an MEA Apostille stamp on your childbirth certificate for his school admission in the United Kingdom.
Generally, you have to follow the steps of Embassy attestation where the Embassy of the concerned country provides an Attestation after scrutinizing the authenticity of the document.
But, in the case of the MEA Apostille, the Embassy of the member country of the Hague Apostille Convention does not participate in the Apostille Attestation procedure.
Types of Documents Require Attestation
Educational Documents
This includes all your educational documents such as Mark sheets, B Tech. degree, B.Com degree, Chartered Accountant degree, MBBS, BE certificate, MS certificate, MD certificate, HSC certificate, SSC certificate, Degree certificate, Nursing certificate, Diploma certificate, etc.
Non-Educational/Personal Documents
Birth certificate, marriage certificate, leaving certificate, offer letter, bonafide certificate, registration certificate, medical certificate, & others fall under Non-Educational/Personal documents category
Commercial Documents
Export invoice, power of attorney, certificate of origin, packaging list, chemical analysis report, certificate of incorporation, etc. fall under commercial documents
Procedure Of Embassy Attestation
Below are the three steps to get an embassy Attestation for educational, non-educational, and commercial documents.
Steps for Educational Documents Embassy Attestation
Educational documents first need bonafide authentication from the regional level then state Human Resource Department (HRD).
After the state HRD, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) checks the documents.
In the end, the concerned country Embassy verifies the document to manifest it legal to use with an Attestation stamp or sign.
Steps for Non-Educational Documents for Embassy Attestation
Like the educational documents, the non-educational ones first need attestation for regional level then from the state home department.
After the home department, the MEA, and Embassy do the document verification and manifest it legitimate to use with an Attestation stamp or sign.
Steps for Commercial Documents Embassy Attestation
This time the Chamber of Commerce does the document verification for the Embassy attestation.
After the first authentication of the document, it is again necessary to verify it by the MEA and Embassy for an Attestation stamp, sign, or certificate.
MEA Apostille Procedure
If you have read the blog carefully, you know, there are four steps in the Embassy Attestation, but because the MEA Apostille does not include the Embassy, there are only three steps included in the procedure of Apostille.
Step 1- Regional Level
This level of legalization can be done from where the documents were issued, and each type of document follows a different path.
Step 2- State Level
Here the documents are attested at state level & can be verified by different authorities based on your document type. These authorities are the State Home Department (SHD), Human Resource Department (HRD).
The educational documents for the MEA Apostillefirst need to get attested from the state HRD.
For the non-educational/personal documents, the verification has to be done by the SHD.
And the commercial documents attestation done by the Chamber of Commerce Department.
Step 3- MEA attestation
All three types of documents, when attested at regional & state level then finally the MEA scrutinizes them after which an MEA stamp or sticker is applied to the document.
Now, I think you might have understood the types of Attestation. One more essential point is that the MEA only accepts applications from its authorised outsourced agencies to maintain the privacy of the process.
How Can We Help You?
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