When applying for your passport or visa, it is necessary to get your document attested. Attestation of documents is a crucial requirement that need to be undertaken before you plan your trip to another country. Most of the countries abroad have made it mandatory to undergo a documentation attestation process. Why has this been done? As it is hard to prove the genuineness of an Indian document, the document scanning service and attestation by any official Indian signatory body that is recognized internationally, proves the document is a genuine one.
The requirements of the document attestation process can differ from country to country. Be it tourist visa, business visa or a student visa, you will be prescribes a list of documents that need to be scanned as part of the document scanning service for attestation. The following list encases the requirements for different types of visa:
• Employment visa
This visa requires attestation of all the education documents, especially the highest education qualification. If you have previously worked in another company, you will be required to attest documents proving it. Some companies even ask for letters of recommendation from the previous workplace.
• Business visa
Documents like certificate of origin, certificate of incorporation, invoice, physical / chemical analysis reports of products, packaging list, special certificates, Memorandum of association, power of attorney etc require attestation.
• Student visa
All the educational qualifications and documents need to be attested for the student visa, inclusive of the 10th and 12th standard reports.
• Dependent visa
This documentation attestation process is relatively easy than the rest. This depends on the individual applying for the visa. For the spouse, you will need to attest the marriage certificate. With children, birth certificates will be required.
The document scanning services and attestation process can be down by two processes:
• Ministry of external affairs
The documents are first presented to the notary and then to the home department. After this, it goes to the MEA, where the authorized person completes the process of validating the genuineness of the documents with a seal and a signature. This document is then sent to the embassy for approval.
• Human resources department
Normally this is where the educational documents are presented for validation. First, it is sent to the institute or university there the individual has passed out from. Here, the institute validates the document with their personal seal and sends it back to the HRD. They send the documents to the MEA for further comparison with the originals and then the MEA attests it with their official seal. This is then send to the embassy
One should remember this document attestation process takes around anywhere between 15 to 20 days. If the documents are not attested by the HRD they can be presented to the General Administrative Department (GAD) for attestation.