Whether you are traveling abroad for higher studies or job opportunities, document attestation is important. Whichever documents your university or employer demands, you should get them attested to affirm they are genuine. The documents will be recognized as valid in the foreign countries only if they are declared by a witness and demonstrated by his/her signature.
Attestation procedure is same for all the countries except the ones that are a member of the Hague Convention. If you are planning to travel to any such country, you should get your document attested by the Ministry of External Affairs or MEA.
MEA Document attestation is a final step of legalization where both, the home country and destination country are the members of the Hague convention.
In this post, we will discuss the Ministry of External Affair and its attestation procedure.
About Ministry Of External Affairs
Located in New Delhi, India, the Ministry of External Affairs is the only apex body having the authority to attest the document issued from India. As per the requirement of the applicant, MEA attests the documents or issues Apostille Stamp.
With effect from March 1, 2012, the Ministry of External Affairs has outsourced its General Attestation and MEA Apostille Document Services. After outsourcing, no document/certificate from individuals is accepted by the MEA counter.
The applicants have to submit the original documents directly to the outsourced agencies along with the photocopy of the documents and photocopy of their passport. So you should connect with an attestation service provider for completing the MEA document attestation process.
Procedure of MEA document Attestation
The outsourced attestation agency will handle the attestation procedure and deliver the attested document to you. But still, you should know the steps to have complete clarification.
The 2-steps procedure of MEA document attestation is:
- All original documents and photocopies are authenticated by the designated authorities of the concerned State or Union territory from where the document is issued. The designated authorities for different document types are:
- Education or Human Resource Department (HRD) is for educational documents.
- State Home Department or General Administration Department (GAD) is for non-educational documents.
- The respective Chamber of Commerce is for commercial documents
- Based on the signature of the designated authorities of the State Government or Union Territory or Chamber of Commerce, the Ministry of External Affairs legalizes or attests the documents. The department does not take responsibility for the contents of the documents.
This is how the Ministry of External Affairs works and attests the documents for the validation in the foreign countries.
The guide claims that the MEA document attestation process isn’t easy, especially because no individual is allowed to submit the documents directly at the MEA counter. So the best is to work with a certified attestation service provider.