Birth, Marriage, Degree
PCC Certificate Apostille
Embassy Attestation

When a person is planning to go abroad or some companies wish to export their products even the companies wish to establish their branch in abroad, then their certain documents need to be Attested, Apostilled or Legalized from the concerned departments in India. The departments are General Administrative Department (GAD), Regional Attestation Centre (RAC), Human Resource Development (HRD), Higher Education Department, Home Department, Sub divisional Magistrate (SDM), Chambers of Commerce (CoC), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and various Embassy or Consulate present in India. The mentioned attestation departments are located in across India like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata etc.

The Detail process of Attestation, MEA Apostille and Embassy Legalization in India is mentioned hereunder.

As far as Certificate Attestation, Apostille and Embassy Legalization is concern, Certificate are divided into two major types and these are Personal Documents like Degree, Diploma Birth, PCC, Marriage Certificate etc. and Commercial Documents like Certificate of Origin, Commercial Invoice, Packing List, Bill of Lading, Insurance Certificate etc. All the above mentioned Indian Certificates and Documents could be Attested, Apostilled or Legalized from any foreign Embassy or Consulate present in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata: India. To complete the whole process of Apostille Attestation or Embassy Legalization of any Document or Certificate, it has to pass through some compulsory and primary Attestation process from different Government of India authorized Departments. The process, time frame, charges or requirement of Supporting Documents for Attestation, Apostille or Embassy Legalization of Document / Certificate depends on the type of the Document, State of issuance of the Document, the Country where the Certificate will be used and purpose of the Attestation. The Attestation Authorities in India are mainly Human Resource Development (HRD), General Administrative Department (GAD), Home Department, Regional Attestation Center (RAC), Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) etc. The detail description of Certificate Apostille is as under,

The word “Apostille” pronounced as "Ah-pos-tille" is derived from French language which meaning is re-attestation and it could be defined as “The Hague Convention Abolishing the requirement for Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (FPD), the Apostille convention.”

“The Apostille agreement is an International pact summarized by the Hague Conference on Private International Law."
It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory Countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory Countries. Such a certification is called an Apostille. It is an international Certification and it is equivalent to a Notarization in domestic law.

In India, Apostille Attestation is done by the Competent Authorities like Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Higher Education Department, Foreigners & NRI Department, Human Resource Department (HRD) etc. designated by the Government of India. A list of these authorities is maintained by the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

To reach the final process of Apostille Attestation or Embassy Legalization, the Certificate firstly must be Attested by an officer recognized by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) or Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Government of India. These designated authorities are different in different States in India like, Human Resource Department (HRD), General Administrative Department (GAD), Regional Attestation Center (RAC), Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) etc. Once the Certificate will be Attested from any one of the prior mentioned Departments, then the Apostille Attestation or Normal Attestation will be done by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) or Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata: India.

Point to be Noted that the Apostille Attestation from Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Govt. of India is the final process if the destination Country is the member of Hague Convention (HCC) on the other hand if the destination Country is not a non-Hague Conventional Country then the Document / Certificate will be further Attested and Legalized by the Ambassador or Consular of the intended Country’s Embassy or Consulate present in India.