Are you planning to travel to a foreign country to study, work or migrate with family? You need to attest your documents from the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs). Document attestation is a cumbersome process, so you need someone who can guide you properly or you can hire an agency who can attest the documents on your behalf.

The document attestation should be done timely so that you can apply for a visa and travel safely to a foreign destination. All educational and personal documents need to be attested before you travel to a foreign country. In some countries attested documents are a part of the visa application process. It is crucial to verify personal, Educational and commercial documents, depending on the purpose of travel to avoid any kind of visa or travel-related issues. The documents need to be attested (Signed and Stamped) by different government bodies so that they can be accepted in foreign countries.

The document attestation process depends on the below criteria:

• The country you are travelling
• Purpose of your travel
• Type of document you want to attest
• Document issued from which state

To understand document attestation in a better manner, we should know the types of document attestation services:

HRD ATTESTATION SERVICE:

This type of attestation service is meant to verify Educational Documents. HRD attestation is done by the state HRD department. Applicant/s cannot submit their document in any state to attest their educational documents like Degree, Diploma, or Mark sheets etc., It should be submitted in the document issuing state only.

HOME DEPARTMENT/ GAD ATTESTATION:

This type of attestation service is meant to verify Personal Documents like marriage certificates, Divorce decrees, police clearance certificates (PCC), birth certificates etc. Home department attestation is done by the state Home department. All the personal documents need to be pre-authenticated by the Home Department / GAD before submitting for MEA attestation (Ministry of External Affairs).

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ATTESTATION:

All the commercial documents like certificates of origin, power of attorney, invoices etc., need to be pre-authenticated by the chamber of commerce before submitting in MEA. It is very important to attest to commercial documents for Exporting/Importing or doing business in a foreign country.

MEA ATTESTATION:

After completing the pre-authentication which is HRD Attestation Home Department Attestation or Chamber of Commerce Attestation document will submit for the Ministry of External Affairs attestation service.

EMBASSY ATTESTATION SERVICE:

Once your document is attested by MEA then you need to submit your document for Embassy Attestation in the embassy where you are travelling. Some embassies will attest the document and for some countries till MEA attestation is sufficient.

After Completing the above-mentioned steps your document is verified by Indian authorities and it will be accepted in foreign countries as well.