What is an Apostille & Why do you need it?

 

Have you heard about Apostille?

An Apostille is simply the name for a specialized certificate, issued by the Secretary of State. The Apostille is attached to your original document to verify it is legitimate and authentic so it will be accepted in one of the other countries who are members of the Hague Apostille Convention.

 

If you are a businessman who travels frequently, then you might know about Apostille. But what about the first time travellers or one who is preparing to study abroad, then this article is really very important for you.

 

Visa documentation process requires Attestation and Apostille of documents from the departments like Embassy, MEA, State Government, SDM, HRD, Notary. An Apostille is a final seal from the Embassy or Consulate that allows you to use the documents, implying travel to in any country which is a member of the Hague convention.

 

Do You Know About the Hague Convention?

Wait Hague Convention is not that difficult.

As mentioned above, every document which is essential for the immigration must be authenticated from their respective issuing authority which is a time taking process, so to make it more convenient and hassle-free different nations came together and authorized this convention on 5 October 1961, called as the Hague Convention. According to Hague convention, Countries which are members of this convention do not need to take Embassy attestation from other Hague convention country members.

Essentially, the following documents are required for the Hague convention members:

1. Court Documents
2. Administrative Documents
3. Notarial Acts
4. Official Documents

The Attestation Service needs documents like Personal documents, Educational documents & Commercial documents.

Apostille Process can be divided into 3 steps that are- Notary, State Government and MEA.

If you are you thinking about other countries which are not listed here?

The other countries also have the procedure for apostille. However, the difference is, for all Hague Convention members the required list of documents is the same but for non-member, list of required documents is a little bit different. Remaining countries which are not part of the Hague Apostille convention, require additional legalization by Embassy Office.

Already Attested documents not having an expiry date are used instead of issuing documents. However, some other documents like case files need to be updated; 6 months old documents will not be recognized by the embassy or the consulate.

However, if you require documents attestation & apostille and still confused with it, contact our experts for detailed information of any countries’ apostille, attestation, visa & other translation services as well.