What’s Educational Certificate Attestation Procedure in India?

When the dreams are big, country does not matter. Many Indians pack their bags and move to the foreign countries in search of excellent education and job opportunities.

It’s the ground reality that 2,50,000+ people applied for  H1B visa in 2015 as per reports. It’s meant for employment abroad. And the counts of such applicants are expected to appreciate this year.

But flying to other nations is easy to say but difficult to execute. The person has to leap over many barriers. Getting passport & visa and arranging funds are mandatory formalities. And obtaining these documents is an ordeal. Collecting documents, their verifications, and attestation/notarization works can piss anyone.

But advance knowledge can reduce that tension. It educates how to cope up with the upcoming requirements of passport, and visa-making. Imagine what if one needs student visa for attaining higher studies in the US but has zero information? And the worse situation will arise when he will return many-a-times empty-handed due to incomplete documents. Obviously, he will feel pissed off.  

These certificates can be required for deploying at any designation abroad. Let’s catch the vital information regarding educational certificate attestation below. It will be a great advisory to premeditate what details and documents a student should have for document verification in India.

Why to attest educational certificate?

Attestation is a seal of authentication. Duplicity of documents gives defaulters a chance to prevail illicit activities. Determining the duplicity is a hard nut to crack.

Presenting fake docs is a crime. To overcome this crime, the government of foreign countries has mandated presenting genuine documents only for emigrants.

But how one can differentiate fake document from the genuine one? It’s the stamp of authenticity that a concerned legal authority marks. This stamp identifies the validity of the certificate. Pan globe has accepted attestation as a mandatory formality.

It passes through many levels of legalities. In India, state government/union territory government, central government and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) are the hierarchical authorities set up for validating educational certificates.

What types of educational certificates require notarization?

Call it validity or notarizing, both terms are synonymous to attesting. Indian government has prepared a list of certificates. A student requires them for getting approval of immigration and admission to foreign education institution. These are:

• Original School certificates of 10th & 12th
• Original mark sheet of 10th & 12th
• Original school leaving certificate
• Original & photocopies of passport
• Original student visa
• Original job offer letter (if, any)

It’s noteworthy that original certificates are verified by various competent authorities at different levels. The concerned authorities follow instructions and guidelines of the government. Under these guidelines, the applicant must attest the reverse side of the original school, university or degree certificates.

If, anyhow, the document is torn or disfigured, the applicant must draw it from the same from his/her educational institutions. Otherwise, the foreign university or organization will reject appointment or admission.

How to get the lost certificates?

Generally, people conserve their school certificates, degrees and diplomas through lamination. The validating authority attests them only after removing their lamination. Meanwhile, the certificates may get damaged. 

And there is another situation of misplaced document due to which the applicant misses chance for studying and doing job abroad.

The above told both situations can be tackled by getting that document re-issued.

• First, lodge an FIR with the police and report for lost certificate.
• Take out the duplicate copy of the FIR.
• Get the IPC no. and signature of the duty officer on it.
• He/she has to visit the same educational institution/school/college.
• Show it to the school/university/ educational institution.
• Fill & submit an application of the lost certificate.
• The school authority will issue it later.

What are the levels of these attestations?

After collecting all educational documents, the applicant must get them verified from the competent authorities.

In India, legal verification of documents is conducted by a hierarchical system. It consists of: 

• HRD of the concerned state: HRD stands for Human Resource Department. It completes the first stage of attestation process. Every state/ union territory government had constituted an HRD. It conducts intensive verification and legalization of the documents required for getting education & employment visa.
• Education department of central government: After getting attested from the state/union territory government, the documents are forwarded to the education department of the central government. It does not bear any responsibility of intensive verification on its end since the primary level attestation has been conducted intensively.
• The MEA: Afterwards, the documents reach at the ministry of external affairs for final stage of attestation. Finally, they are delivered to the applicant.

How much time does attestation takes?

It’s a hectic process which requires intensive verification. Thus, it consumes at least 15 to 20 days in authentication.