Apostille Services in India

An apostille is a single computer-printed sticker the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi affixes on the back of your original Indian document. It carries a unique apostille number, ten bilingual fields in English and French, and a date of issue. That sticker is the legalisation 120-plus Hague Convention countries accept on an India-issued document. You need an apostille when you are submitting an Indian degree, birth certificate, marriage certificate, PCC, single status certificate, power of attorney, or commercial document to a Hague-member destination: Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia (since December 2022), mainland China (since November 2023), and many others. For non-Hague destinations like the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Libya, the route is different and uses embassy or consulate attestation instead.

MEA apostille itself can often be completed in 2 to 3 working days after the document is ready for MEA submission. If the file first needs HRD, Home Department, SDM, Chamber of Commerce, university verification, courier movement, or correction, the total timeline becomes longer. SiZA reviews your document first and then commits a practical schedule.

Hague Apostille Convention countries accept apostille for public documents from other contracting parties. Common destination countries include Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, and many others. Some Gulf countries are also Hague members, so do not rely on a generic GCC rule. SiZA checks the current country requirement before advising apostille or embassy attestation.

The MEA can apostille educational, personal, and commercial documents when the destination country or receiving authority requires apostille. Educational documents include degree certificates, marksheets, transcripts, diplomas, and provisional certificates. Personal documents include birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce certificates, death certificates, PCC, single status certificates, and affidavits. Commercial documents include power of attorney, board resolutions, company certificates, and export documents. The prior attestation may be HRD, Home Department, SDM, or Chamber of Commerce depending on document type and destination.

It depends on the destination country, document type, and receiving authority. Some educational documents require State HRD before MEA apostille, especially where the receiving authority insists on state-level verification. Other cases may use SDM before MEA. SiZA reviews the destination and purpose first so the document is not sent through the wrong process.

There is no single number that would be honest for every case. Apostille cost in India depends on the document type, the issuing state (each State HRD has its own fee), the destination country, urgency, courier, and whether certified translation is involved. The MEA government fee itself is nominal; the rest of the quote covers prior attestation (SDM or State HRD), courier movement, translation if needed, and SiZA service. We send a written quote separating official government fees from our service charge after a free document scan review on WhatsApp +91-9220161774. See the Apostille Cost in India guide at /apostille-cost-india for the eight cost factors explained.

For an Italian student visa, you typically need apostille on your degree certificate, marksheets/transcripts, birth certificate, and sometimes your PCC. All apostilled educational documents must also be certified-translated into Italian by a qualified translator. SiZA Global provides an end-to-end service: apostille plus certified Italian translation, so you receive a complete, embassy-ready document package.

A laminated certificate is one of the most common reasons MEA refuses to apostille a document. The lamination blocks the stamp, the sticker, and any prior attestation marks. Do not try to peel the lamination yourself, since paper damage and ink loss are likely. The practical fix is to obtain a fresh original from the issuing university, board, or municipal office before starting the apostille steps. If a fresh original is not possible, share a scan on WhatsApp; in some states a certified true copy from the issuing authority can be used in place of the laminated original, depending on document type.

MEA itself does not adjudicate name mismatches, but the receiving authority abroad will. A small variation like initials-expanded vs initials-only, father name on certificate but not on passport, or maiden-name vs married-name is the single most common cause of rejection after the apostille is done. The accepted fix is a One-and-Same Certificate from a competent Tehsildar (preferred for Italy DoV files) or, in some cases, a notarised affidavit. A plain affidavit alone is often not enough; the New Delhi Italian Embassy DoV page explicitly mentions this. Send your passport scan along with the certificate scan on WhatsApp so the right correction route can be advised before originals move.

Yes, almost always. Apostille only verifies the signature and seal on the document. It does not correct or override what is printed. If the spelling, date, father name, or any other field is wrong on the source document, the apostilled document will carry the same error and may be rejected by the visa, university, or licensing authority abroad. The correction must be done at the issuing authority first: university registrar for educational documents, municipal corporation for civil records, or the relevant board for school certificates. SiZA reviews the scan first and flags such issues before the file moves into the authentication steps.

Every MEA apostille carries a unique apostille number printed on the sticker or stamp. The Government of India operates the eSanad portal at esanad.nic.in where the apostille number, document type, applicant name, and date of issue can be verified online for free. Genuine apostille service providers will give you the apostille number and a copy of the apostille certificate so you can verify independently. If a provider refuses to share the apostille number, refuses to issue a receipt, or asks for cash-only without a written quote, treat that as a red flag. SiZA shares the MEA apostille number, the sticker scan, and the tracked return courier consignment number for every file.

No. Indian apostille is issued by the MEA in India only. Indian embassies and consulates abroad cannot apostille Indian-issued documents. But you do not have to travel back yourself. The full process can be run remotely: WhatsApp clear scans of the document, ID, and any covering authorisation, courier the original from your family member or local custodian in India to our Noida office (or arrange pickup from your home city through SiZA), and the apostilled original is returned by tracked courier to any address in India. Many of our nurses, students, and family-reunion clients run end-to-end from abroad without setting foot in India.

The apostille itself does not have an expiry date. The destination authority decides whether a previously apostilled document is acceptable. For most educational and civil documents, an older apostille is accepted as long as the underlying document is still valid. However, several receiving authorities (Italian consulates for student visa intake, some Schengen visa centres, and certain employers for PCC files) insist that the apostille (or the document itself, such as PCC) be no older than three to six months. Confirm the freshness rule on the current visa or admission checklist before re-using an older apostilled certificate.

MEA may place a disclaimer along with the apostille when the document carries an unfamiliar seal, a non-standard pre-attestation, a private notary signature MEA cannot verify, or a format MEA cannot independently confirm. Technically the apostille is still valid, but the disclaimer can cause the receiving authority abroad to ask follow-up questions and can lead to rejection in strict regimes like Italy DoV and certain Saudi files. The cleanest way to avoid the disclaimer is to ensure the pre-MEA step is the correct authority for the document (State HRD for educational documents from a recognised university, Home Department or SDM for civil documents, and Chamber of Commerce for commercial documents), and not a private notary alone.

For a degree, the document typically apostilled is the final degree or provisional certificate: one sheet, one MEA sticker. Individual semester marksheets are usually apostilled separately if the destination authority asks for the consolidated transcript or year-wise marksheets. For Italy DoV and university credential evaluation routes (WES, CIMEA, etc.), the transcript and the degree together are often required, and each is apostilled separately. Before sending originals, confirm with the receiving authority whether they want only the degree, the degree plus consolidated transcript, or every individual marksheet apostilled.

MEA does not usually issue a formal rejection letter. The file is returned with the original document and an indication of which step was incorrect. The most common reasons are: missing or incorrect pre-attestation (SDM instead of State HRD, or vice versa), poor document condition (stained, torn, faded, laminated, or photocopied where original was required), unverifiable signature or seal, and supporting-document gaps such as missing passport copy or authorisation. Do not resubmit the same file unchanged. The correct order is: verify which step failed, fix it at the relevant authority (issuing institution, State HRD, Home Department, SDM, or Chamber of Commerce), and only then resubmit to MEA. SiZA reviews returned files and identifies the actual cause before any re-submission.

No. A PCC issued by a Passport Seva Kendra is treated by MEA as one of its own documents because the Passport Office sits under the Ministry of External Affairs. A PSK-issued PCC goes directly to MEA for apostille (or for MEA attestation, depending on the destination path) without any state-level SDM, Home Department, or notary step in between. By contrast, a PCC issued by the local SSP (Senior Superintendent of Police) office or the relevant Commissionerate is not a Passport Office document. It follows the standard civil-document workflow of Notary plus SDM or Home Department at the state level, then MEA. The single biggest practical mistake on PCC files is routing a PSK PCC through SDM (which is not needed and adds delay) or skipping SDM on an SSP-issued PCC (which means MEA returns the file). Send the scan on WhatsApp before any state-level handling so the required process is confirmed first.

Yes, in most cases. When the issuing institution has merged, shut down, or been absorbed into another body, the correct first step is a verification letter from the successor authority (the state university that absorbed the original college, the state higher-education department, or the relevant board). With that successor verification, the document can move through State HRD (for educational documents) or the appropriate pre-MEA step and then to MEA for apostille. Documents from defunct or genuinely closed institutions are difficult and sometimes impossible to apostille; the practical path is identified on a case-by-case basis after the scan and the institutional history are reviewed.

The MEA apostille is a square computer-generated sticker, roughly 9 cm by 9 cm, with bilingual English and French text and ten numbered fields. Those fields include a unique apostille number, the date of issue, the name of the signing officer, and the issuing authority (Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India). MEA places the sticker on the reverse side of the original document. Not on a photocopy. Not on a separate sheet stapled to the certificate. Not on the front face of the certificate. If your apostille looks different in any of these ways, for example a rubber stamp instead of a sticker, or no unique number, or a separate paper attached with a staple, verify the apostille number on the eSanad portal at esanad.nic.in before accepting the file as final. With every completed file, we share a clear scan of the apostille sticker and the apostille number so the customer can verify independently.

The MEA apostille itself is issued only at MEA Delhi. There is no apostille-issuing office in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, or anywhere else in India. What you can do from any Indian city is hand the document to a verified service provider who collects it locally, ships the file to MEA Delhi through a tracked courier, gets the apostille, and ships it back to your address. SiZA Global runs exactly this pan-India pickup and return service from Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, and hundreds of smaller towns. The original leaves your address, moves through any required State HRD or SDM step on the way, reaches MEA Delhi for apostille, and returns to the same address. WhatsApp updates go out at every handover. You never visit MEA. You never visit Delhi.

No. This is one of the most expensive misconceptions our NRI customers come to us with. Apostille on an Indian-issued document is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Ministry of External Affairs in India. Indian Embassies and Consulates abroad have no power to apostille India-origin documents. What they can do is attest a foreign-issued document (a US birth certificate, a UK marriage certificate) for use in India. They cannot put a Hague apostille on your Indian degree or your Indian marriage certificate. For your Indian document to carry a valid apostille, the original has to travel back to India, complete any required State HRD, Home Department, or SDM step, and then go to MEA Delhi. We run the entire process remotely on your behalf for NRI customers. The original is couriered from your family member in India (or we arrange pickup from their city), apostilled at MEA Delhi, and returned to any Indian address by tracked courier. You do not need to come back to India yourself for apostille.

No. Apostille follows the country of issue, not the country of use. A document issued by a foreign authority (a US birth certificate, a UK marriage certificate, a Canadian degree, a German PCC) must be apostilled by the competent authority of that country. India's MEA cannot apostille a document it did not issue. The correct authority abroad is the equivalent of MEA in the issuing country. In the US, that is the State Authentication office of the state that issued the document for state-issued records, or the US Department of State for federal documents. In the UK, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). In Canada, Global Affairs Canada under the recent Hague accession. In Germany, the Bundesverwaltungsamt or the relevant state office. Once apostilled abroad, the foreign document is then accepted in India without any further MEA step.

Both. The two are not interchangeable. APS (Akademische Prüfstelle) is run by the German Embassy in partnership with the University of Bonn and verifies the authenticity of your academic record for German universities before you apply. APS issues an APS certificate. It does not put a sticker on your degree. MEA apostille, by contrast, is a sticker on the reverse of your original degree and transcripts, authenticating those documents for general international use including the German student-visa file. Most German university applicants need APS first (for the university application itself) and then MEA apostille on the degree, transcripts, and any other documents the visa file requires. Sworn German translation is often a third step on top of these. Send your German university admission letter and the visa checklist on WhatsApp so we can confirm whether your specific case needs APS, apostille, sworn translation, and in what order, before originals move.

Apostille is right since 7 December 2022. Saudi Arabia deposited its instrument of accession to the Hague Apostille Convention on 8 April 2022, and the Convention entered into force for India-Saudi document flow on 7 December 2022 per the HCCH status table. For Indian documents going to Saudi, MEA apostille is now the recognised legalisation; the older Saudi Embassy attestation route is no longer required for most use cases. There are two practical caveats. First, the prior step depends on the document type: educational documents still need State HRD before MEA apostille (this is the founder rule for Saudi), while personal documents can use the SDM route with certified Arabic translation. Second, the visa-stamping side has its own layer: degree holders going for white-collar jobs may still need QVP (Takamol), Mosaddaqa, or Saudi Cultural Attestation depending on job code; these are Saudi-side verification programs that sit on top of the apostille, not in place of it. Send the document type and the visa context, and we will tell you the full process before any originals move.

A rule change. From 30 December 2024, the Indian Mission to the US (and the CKGS centres that process OCI applications) started requiring apostille on US-issued birth or marriage certificates submitted with OCI files. This catches a lot of applicants mid-process because the rule changed quietly, and many discovered it only after their application was placed on hold. The apostille has to come from the country that issued the document. A US-issued birth certificate has to be apostilled by the Secretary of State of the issuing US state (a county-clerk certified copy then state-apostilled); a federal US document has to be apostilled by the US Department of State. The Indian Mission cannot apostille a US-issued document, and MEA Delhi cannot apostille a US-issued document either, because apostille follows the country of issue. India-issued certificates submitted with the OCI file do not need a US-side apostille; they only need MEA apostille from India where applicable. Confusion happens when applicants assume one apostille covers both directions; it does not.

This is a fair concern. Document-loss complaints are one of the most common reasons people hesitate before sending originals. SiZA Global has handled 100,000+ documents for 20,000+ customers without a single misplaced or mishandled file. Two practical safeguards before you send originals to any provider: insist on a written acknowledgement on receipt (we issue this with the document type, condition, and receiving location), and insist on a tracked return courier with a written consignment number (we use established courier services and share the AWB number). Avoid providers who collect originals in cash without paperwork, take documents to their personal address, or refuse to share the MEA apostille number after completion.

Saudi Arabia document requirements depend on the visa type, job category, document type, and employer instruction. Educational documents usually need State HRD before MEA apostille or a Saudi qualification verification process. Personal documents may need SDM plus MEA apostille, and certified Arabic translation is often needed for personal documents. Work visa files may also involve GAMCA, Wakala, QVP, Mosaddaqa, Saudi Culture Attestation, or SVP depending on the case.

We provide doorstep document pickup and delivery across all major cities and towns in India. You do not need to visit any government office. We handle the complete process: collection, processing, attestation/apostille, and return delivery. You can also drop documents at our office if preferred. Contact us via WhatsApp to arrange a convenient pickup.

Yes. Document safety is one of SiZA Global's highest priorities. Original documents are handled with careful custody, acknowledgement on receipt, WhatsApp or email updates, completion proof where appropriate, careful packing, and tracked return delivery. The team treats original personal and company documents as sensitive documents, not ordinary courier papers.

No. SiZA Global Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is strictly a documentation and facilitation service provider. We do not offer recruitment, job placement, manpower supply, candidate sourcing, or overseas employment services of any kind. If anyone contacts you claiming to offer jobs on behalf of SiZA Global, this is a scam. Please report it to us immediately and to the relevant authorities. See our Anti-Scam Notice page for more information.

Yes. SiZA Global provides document pickup, processing, and delivery services across all of India, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, and hundreds of smaller cities and towns. No matter where you are in India, we can arrange secure document pickup and delivery.