What Is Document Attestation?
While applying for a new passport or renewing an old one, all citizens are required to provide a list of documents for perusal. While the requirements for the same may vary from country to country, by and large, the list includes a proof of address, proof of date of birth as well as a document to prove citizenship. These documents, once submitted, have to be verified, and the process is called Document Attestation.
The Document Attestation Process involves authenticating or legalising the submitted documents by respective embassies and is a process most often followed when applying for a visa to different countries. Apart from these required documents, embassies also accept document attestation for other necessities like education degrees, marriage certificates, any kind of diploma, police clearance certificates and so on.
As part of the document attestation process in countries like India, there are, by and large, three types of attestations:
State Attestation: different kind of documents will require different kind of state authorities to attest the same. For example, in case of an educational document, the State Education Department will be required to validate the document. In case of a personal document, however, different departments will be called to verify the same.
Ministry of External Affairs Attestation: MEA attestation is a document attestation process that normally follows state-level document attestation. For the most part, three kinds of documents get attested: Educational, Non-educational and commercial documents.
Embassy Attestation: After state-level and MEA-level attestation is completed, various embassies will also be called upon for document attestation. While this process may seem a bit tedious, many consulates and embassies also outsource their services to visa and consulate service firms. These firms will help you not only run through the document attestation process, but also help with document scanning service, and in many cases, also offer to help you digitize and protect your hard copies.
This document scanning service is invaluable when it comes to safety, as it helps to safeguard your documents, do away with the worry of damage and can be retrieved very easily. These firms also help to make the process of document attestation relatively painless, as many offer to take up the entire process for a certain fee and promise to deliver in a fixed time frame. It is important to check whether these firms work in tandem with the embassy that you wish to apply for a visa with and the kind of fees that the same charge for.
