The process of having your academic, non-academic, and commercial papers, such as degrees, birth/marriage certificates, agreements, contracts, and so forth, authenticated for travel abroad or the application for a work permit, dependent visa, or resident permit for a foreign country. Typically, attestation involves three steps.
What Is MEA Attestation – Apostille
Apostille Attestation, a word for legal verification that originates from French and means to certify or authenticate The term “apostille” describes the process of verifying official seals and signatures on official papers. All countries that are Hague Convention members recognise those documents.
Apostille, which is used to certify personal documents like birth, death, and marriage certificates, is defined differently for each nation.
Before MEA, a state apostille must be attested, and based on the type of document, the appropriate state certification may be needed. For instance, a certificate from the Ministry of National Education is necessary for educational documents.
Benefits Of MEA Apostille Attestation
When applying for one or more Hague Convention member countries, citizens who have received an apostille attestation in India for specific original papers benefit from not having to get their documents separately attested.
Apostille guarantees that documents from one signatory nation will be recognised as valid in another signatory nation. In other words, it is a valid document that you carry to a destination country that certifies the authenticity of the information on the document and that the person who issued it is lawfully authorised to do so. Apostille is a foreign certification that serves as an addition to local notarization of the document and is analogous to a notarization in domestic law.
MEA Apostille Attestation Procedure
The designated authorities of the state or union territory where your document was issued should first authenticate all original papers that you intend to have apostilled. After receiving approval from the required state government agencies, an apostille from the MEA may be obtained. The Apostille Certificate Attestation process is necessary when someone needs a paper to be legalised so it can be used in a Hague Convention member country. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the Government of India can apostille any degree issued in India.
Types of Attestation Documents
The proper authority of the State or Union Territory where the document was issued must first validate all original documents or copies that need an Apostille or attestation from MEA.
Personal Documents
Personal documents will be verified by the state’s or union territory’s Home/General Administration Department, depending on where they were given.
Educational Documents
The Education Department/Human Resource Development (HRD) of the relevant State Government/Union Territory must first certify the paperwork for educational papers. The Department stamp and the name and designation seals must be used for authentication.
Commercial Documents
The relevant Chambers of Commerce must pre-authenticate these. Each paper needs to have the name and title of the authorized signatory, as well as the rubber stamp of the relevant Chamber of Commerce.
Step 1: Attestation by a notary public is the first stage of certification. Locally, it is carried out by approved government representatives.
Step 2: The State Home Department is in charge of paperwork verification.
The paper is sent to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for further attestation after state level attestation. When necessary, MEA issues the regular stamp and the Apostille sticker, two different kinds of attestation.
Apostille is completed for nations that adhere to the Hague convention, which presently has 92 members. Without an additional attestation from the embassy or high commission of the nation where the paper is to be submitted, an Apostille stamp suffices. On the document’s back, there is a computer-generated stamp in the form of a square.
For all other nations, MEA places a regular stamp on the back of the paper after which it is forwarded to the appropriate Embassy or High Commission for attestation.
Step 3: The MEA gives a sticker with the applicant’s name and other information in this step. Sometimes, particularly for commercial documents, a MEA stamp is required in addition to the apostille sticker. The central government carries out the apostille’s final stage.
In this stage, the MEA issues a sticker containing the applicant’s name and other information. Occasionally, in addition to the apostille sticker, a MEA stamp is needed, especially for commercial papers. The final step of the apostille is carried out by the central government.
Apostille Of Documents
The papers are then legalised/apostille by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) based on the signature of the appropriate representative of the State Government/Union Territory/Chambers of Commerce, and an Apostille Sticker is attached to the rear of the original documents.
Apostilles must be obtained from the Minister of Foreign Affairs in order to travel abroad. The authentication is carried out by the Ministry of External Affairs, a federal organisation. Your papers are sent with a MEA apostille, which is only recognised by nations that are signatories to the Hague Convention. This MEA apostille, however, is recognised by all of the convention’s signatory countries. One of the most important procedures in document authentication is the MEA apostille.
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