In the
present times, a lot of people from India go abroad for work, family union and
studies. Many of these destination countries require your certificates to be
apostilled. Before, coming to the role of Home Department in Indian apostille process, let us come to the definition of
apostille process, since it is imperative for you to know what apostille is. Apostille
is defined as 'Certification' in French. Prior to 1961, if you wanted to go
abroad then you had to get your certificates like birth,
marriage etc.
authenticated from different authorities from different departments. This led
to a lot of inconvenience to applicants, since
they had to seek permission and appointments with various authorities to get
the necessary work done. Realising the need for a uniform system of
authentication, the Hague Convention of 1961 devised a new method of
legalization known as Apostille. In this process, once your
certificate is apostilled from one member country, then it is automatically
valid in a different member country. For example, if your birth certificate is
apostilled in India,
then it is equivalent to the birth certificate in Oman, and there is no need
for validation from the Oman Embassy. In India, Indian
govt has appointed Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi as the supreme
authority for apostille legalization. Only,
the MEA has the exclusive right to perform apostille legalization in India for
all kinds of personal documents.
Responsibility
of the Home Department in Indian apostille
Home
Department is a legal body which is constituted by the various state Govts like
Punjab, Haryana etc.
to validate personal documents like birth, marriage, death which are
issued from the districts inside their jurisdiction. This
means that if your birth certificate emanates from Jalandhar in Punjab, then
only Punjab state Home Department has the authority to validate the document.
For majority of the Home Departments in India, the General Administration
Department or commonly known as GAD does the substantiation. The GAD
authority will verify the information on your birth certificate and then put
his signature, seal 'Home Department attested' on the papers. The fee structure
of the GAD varies depending upon the state and the type of document. In some
states like Delhi, the Sub Divisional Magistrate or widely known as SDM
performs the Home Department attestation. After verifying your certificate, the Home
Department will return the document back to you. Finally,
you have to submit your birth certificate to the MEA in Delhi. The MEA
authorities, after confirmation will put an apostille stamp, besides their seal
and signature on the papers. Congratulations, your birth certificate is ready
to be used in Oman. Very often, it has
been discovered that in order to avoid hassles, Indian
applicants take the assistance of authorized agencies to provide them Home
Department attestation services for optimum charges.
Advantages
of Home Department authentication
There
are lots of advantages of Home Department authentication particularly,
when you are applying for overseas visas. The biggest advantage is that your
documents once attested by the Home Department are valid lifelong. This
means that
your birth certificate which was
validated 10 years ago, will be applicable now in the same format for applying
for Oman visa. Secondly, the charges for Home Department services are quite
low, considering the work they do. Thirdly, your personal document once
attested are applicable in all the countries. For example, if you have done SSC
from India and you wish to pursue BBA in Oman and MBA in USA, then the same
authenticated birth certificate holds good in all the three cases.
