Kerala Job seekers -What is Certificate Attestation?

When a person from India goes abroad for job his certificates has to be authenticated by that country's embassy or consulate in India. Since there are many Indians working in GCC countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Kingdom Saudi Arabia (KSA), and United Arab Emirates (UAE) it is necessary for them to attest their documents in corresponding foreign embassy or consulate in Delhi or Mumbai. Same procedure is applicable for other countries in Europe, Africa, Australia and American continents.

Attestation Procedure

Exact attestation procedure depends on the type of the certificate and destination country. To get embassy or consulate attestation the document has to be attested by Govt. of India. It has two separate departments to take care of certificate attestation procedures, Human Resource Development Department (HRD) and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Documents can be divided into three categories.

1. Educational Certificates
These are the certificates obtained from school and college like SSLC/10th/CBSE, PDC/+2/HSC, Degree certificates like BA, Bsc, Bcom, BTech, BE, BBA, CA, MBBS, Post graduate certificates like MA, Msc, Mcom, MBA, MCA and other Diploma, Nursing and ITI certificates.

2 non-Educational Certificates
This includes marriage and birth certificates, affidavit, transfer and leaving certificates, medical, death, divorce, experience and provisional certificates.

3. Supporting Documents
These documents has to be submitted along with the above mentioned documents for attestation. Exact number and type of supporting documents may vary from country to country. Some of the supporting documents are mark lists, transcripts, registration, selection letter, passport copy, photo etc.

Human Resource Development Department (HRD) and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)
Attestation procedure also different for education and non-educational certificates and again it depends on the destination country of the applicant. Normally to attest an educational document from the embassy it has to be authenticated by MEA. To get an MEA authentication it has to be authenticated by HRD.

Home Ministry, SDM and GAD
For a non education certificate, prior to MEA and Embassy authentication, it has to be authenticated by the respective state home ministry or Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM). If the certificate is from Andhra Pradesh then it has to be authenticated by General Administration Department (GAD) prior to MEA/Embassy Attestation.
University Verification, Translation and Notary Attestation
For some embassies it has to be authenticate by a Notary before submitting to the home ministry. University verification and translation also required by some embassies. For UAE attestation and Kuwait attestation education certificate procedures are same but non-educational certificates are dealt in different way. So you have to enquire with the corresponding embassy or consulate for exact procedure of attestation.

Delhi, Mumbai and State level Attestation
At present most of the HRD and MEA authentications are done in Delhi. But state level HRD authentication also happening in some state home ministry departments. If attestation is done in Mumbai consulate then certificates has to be authenticated by Mumbai notary, home ministry, mantralaya prior to the consulate submission.