APOSTILLE

The Hague Convention of October 1961 abolished the requirement of legalizing foreign public documents. The Apostille Treaty is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Any document apostilled in one member country is acceptable in all other member countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention. Apostille is affixed by competent authorities designated by the government of a country that is party to the convention. Apostille is done for personal documents like birth, marriage, death certificates, affidavits, and educational documents like degrees, diplomas, secondary level certificates, etc.

An apostille stamp is a square-shaped computer-generated sticker pasted on the reverse of the original documents by the MEA, India. The MEA Apostille Stamp is a unique sticker with a unique identification number, through which any member country of The Hague Convention can check its authenticity online. Under normal circumstances, once the document has been apostilled by the MEA, it does not need to be attested any more by the concerned foreign embassy.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, has outsourced its attestation and certificate apostille work with effect from March 1, 2012. MEA is the sole authorized body having the authority to issue apostilles and authenticate documents originated in India for use in foreign countries. We, as travel agents, collect and deliver documents on behalf of MEA to carry out the further procedure of apostille attestation. As a result of outsourcing, collection and delivery of documents are not accepted from individual applicants by the CPV Division of the Ministry of External Affairs at Patiala House, New Delhi. All applicants are required to submit and collect their documents through the outsourced companies.