US & Canada Apostille from India: Documents for Students & Founders

A IIT Bombay BTech 2012 senior product engineer at Google Bengaluru is comparing two parallel offer streams in February 2026. Google internal transfer to Mountain View on H-1B and L-1B (with a six-month wait for an H-1B October cap window). Or a Canadian Provincial Nominee Programme Express Entry filing for a senior software engineer role at Shopify Toronto (with Canadian PR in eighteen months on his CRS score). His wife (an architect at a Bengaluru firm) prefers Toronto. The children are nine and six. The decision turns on multiple factors but the documentation discipline is shared across both. Both files need MEA apostille on his IIT Bombay BTech, MEA apostille on his Maharashtra State Board class-twelve certificate, MEA apostille on the marriage certificate from the Bengaluru Sub-Registrar, MEA apostille on his children's birth certificates from the BBMP, and a fresh PCC from the Bengaluru Passport Seva Kendra Lalbagh. The US has been a Hague apostille destination for Indian documents since 1981. Canada became one on 11 January 2024. So the same MEA Patiala House apostille set works for either destination. Karnataka HRD step through the State Higher Education Department Multistoreyed Building Bengaluru. He went with Toronto. Five weeks for the documents. Eighteen months for the IRCC PR.

That parallel-track decision is common for senior Indian professional families weighing North American destinations in 2026. If you are an Indian family planning a move to the United States or Canada, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) apostille in Delhi is now the standard stamp on your Indian degree, marksheets, university transcript, marriage certificate, children's birth certificates and police clearance certificate. The United States has accepted MEA apostille on Indian documents since 1981. Canada accepted it from 11 January 2024, after joining the Hague Apostille Convention. The older Canadian High Commission attestation in New Delhi is no longer valid or needed for personal and academic documents. Because both countries are now Hague members, the work is a single MEA apostille in India, not embassy attestation. SiZA Global Solutions Private Limited handles this apostille attestation end to end from our Noida office at C-25, C Block, Sector 8. The same set of apostilled documents will be used many times across the years: for your F-1 student visa, your H-1B and L-1A or L-1B intracompany transfers, your EB-1A, EB-2 NIW or EB-3 green card applications five or ten years later, the H-4 dependent visa for your spouse, the school registrations of your children, and any later citizenship work. Getting it right once, and keeping the originals safe, is a saving that adds up.

This page walks through your US and Canadian visa options in 2026, the degree attestation and educational certificate attestation each one expects, and what we do for you in India. Read it like advice from someone who has run hundreds of these files.

Why do so many Indians still choose the US and Canada in 2026?

The United States still hires the largest number of Indian engineers, doctors and researchers of any single country. The pay is higher than most other destinations, the Indian community is large and established in cities like the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Boston, New York, New Jersey, Dallas, Austin and Atlanta, the universities are the global leaders for graduate study, and the long-term path to permanent residence and citizenship is well understood by Indian families.

Canada has been gaining ground since 2018, with a real spike between 2021 and 2023. The post-study work options after a Canadian degree are reliable, the family-reunification paths are predictable, and Canadian acceptance of MEA apostille from 11 January 2024 means the paperwork is now lighter than it was three years ago. Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and Waterloo carry most of the Indian intake.

Taken together, the United States and Canada carry more Indian planning conversations than any other region. For a young family with one parent already on an H-1B, the question is usually whether to extend in the US or move the family to Canada and start an Express Entry profile in parallel. For a graduating engineer, the question is usually whether to apply to a US master's, a Canadian master's, or both.

Which US visas can Indians apply for in 2026?

The H-1B specialty-occupation visa is the most-watched US visa from India. The FY2026 lottery had 85,000 slots: 65,000 regular and a 20,000 advanced-degree master's cap. From March 2024 the lottery is run on a beneficiary-by-beneficiary count by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Each named candidate has one entry, regardless of how many employers register them. The odds are still low, but a strong master's from a US university and a real offer from a serious employer give you a fair chance.

Senior staff inside multinational tech firms often move on L-1A and L-1B intracompany transfers. These move people between an Indian office of a group and a US office of the same group. L-1A is for managers and executives. L-1B is for specialised-knowledge staff.

The O-1A extraordinary-ability visa is now a real option for senior engineers, researchers and founders who have a record of published work, patents, awards or press coverage.

For permanent residence, EB-1A (extraordinary ability) is the fastest when it works. EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) is the next tier. EB-3 (skilled worker, usually through the PERM labour certification process) is the slowest but most common. The Indian-born EB-2 and EB-3 backlogs are long, so a family planning ten years ahead is being realistic, not pessimistic.

Students apply on the F-1 student visa, which follows the I-20 issued by the admitting US university. Every one of these petitions is filed with USCIS, not with us; our job is the apostille in India that the supporting documents need.

Which Canada visas can Indians apply for in 2026?

Express Entry, run by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), is the main work and residence option. It draws from three streams: Federal Skilled Worker, Canadian Experience Class, and Federal Skilled Trades. IRCC issues invitations every two to four weeks, sometimes through general draws, sometimes through category-based draws for healthcare, STEM, trades or French-speaking candidates.

The Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) are the second option for permanent residence. Each Canadian province (Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces) runs its own occupation list. A candidate nominated through a provincial stream gets back into the federal Express Entry pool with the nomination adding points.

The Canada Start-Up Visa needs a letter of support from a designated Canadian incubator, angel network or venture capital fund. Without that letter, the application does not move. The Self-Employed Persons Program is narrower, used mostly by athletes, artists and farm professionals.

Students apply for the study permit, which follows a Letter of Acceptance from a Designated Learning Institution (DLI).

What changed for Canada immigration documents in 2024?

A few things shifted in 2024 that matter to anyone planning a Canadian move.

The Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL) became mandatory from January 2024 for most undergraduate and college diploma study permits. Master's and PhD applicants are usually exempt. Candidates who started preparing in 2023 for a diploma course have been caught by this rule. Check the current PAL position for your destination Canadian province before any document moves.

IRCC put a cap on the total number of study permits it issues each year. This has tightened admission at some Canadian colleges.

The Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP), which is what lets a student work in Canada after the course, was made narrower. It now only follows programs that match Canada's federal skilled-occupation list. A diploma course outside this list no longer carries a PGWP.

The Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC), which is the proof-of-funds the Canadian study permit application asks for, was raised to CAD 20,635.

The biggest change for our work: Canada started accepting MEA apostille on Indian documents from 11 January 2024. Documents that used to go through the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi for attestation now go through MEA apostille instead.

What changed for the US H-1B and EB green card in 2024?

The H-1B lottery moved in March 2024 to a beneficiary-by-beneficiary count run by USCIS. Until then, employers had been registering the same candidate through several arms of the same group to improve lottery odds. The new rule gives each named candidate one entry in the lottery, no matter how many employers register them. The USCIS fees for H-1B, L-1, EB-1A, EB-2 NIW, EB-3 and other petitions were raised at the same time.

Which US and Canadian companies actually hire Indians?

US technology hires Indians at scale through Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Nvidia, Salesforce, Oracle, Adobe, Cisco, Intel and IBM. Indian-founded firms have grown into US employers in their own right: Freshworks US, Postman, Druva, Zoho US and Razorpay US between them carry a real share of senior Indian engineers. US finance and consulting hires through Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, BlackRock, Citi, McKinsey, BCG and Bain.

US graduate schools we see most often include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California Berkeley, Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, Purdue University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Southern California, Columbia University and New York University, plus the Texas, California, North Carolina and Massachusetts state systems.

Canada has built its own corridor. Shopify in Ottawa. OpenText and BlackBerry in Waterloo. CGI in Montreal. The Toronto-Waterloo strip employs a heavy share of Indian software talent. Montreal's AI labs (Mila, ServiceNow Research, Borealis AI at the Royal Bank of Canada) hire Indian researchers. The big Canadian banks (TD Bank Group, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) and the insurance majors (Manulife, Sun Life) take in Indian quants and platform engineers.

Canadian graduate schools we see most often include the University of Toronto, McGill University, University of British Columbia, University of Waterloo, Western University, McMaster University, Queen's University, University of Alberta, University of Calgary, Concordia University, University of Ottawa, Simon Fraser University and Dalhousie University.

Which documents need apostille attestation for the US or Canada?

Both countries accept MEA apostille on Indian documents, so the apostille in India is the same set whether you land in Mountain View or Toronto. The order of work is always the same: get the document authenticated at the source in your state, then carry it to MEA apostille in Delhi.

Educational documents: HRD attestation first

Your degree certificate, marksheets and university transcript need HRD attestation in the state where the institution sits, before MEA will apostille them. This is the educational certificate attestation step, and it is where most of the waiting happens. State HRD attestation runs roughly 7 to 45 working days depending on the state and the university.

A handful of states still ask you to come in person for Human Resource Development (HRD) department attestation:

• Rajasthan
• Jammu and Kashmir
• Himachal Pradesh
• Meghalaya

The other states allow representation by a provider like SiZA Global, so you do not have to fly back for a counter signature.

Personal and civil documents: SDM or Home Department

Your marriage certificate and each child's long-form birth certificate take a different path. They go through State Home Department attestation or Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) attestation, and then MEA apostille in Delhi. The police clearance certificate (PCC) is apostilled on its own once the Regional Passport Office (RPO) has issued it.

Here is the same picture as a table.

Document	Authentication in India	Final stamp
Degree, marksheets, transcript	State HRD attestation (7 to 45 working days)	MEA apostille in Delhi
Marriage certificate	SDM or State Home Department	MEA apostille in Delhi
Child's birth certificate (long-form)	SDM or State Home Department	MEA apostille in Delhi
Police clearance certificate (PCC)	Issued by the RPO	MEA apostille in Delhi
Company papers (founders)	Chamber of Commerce attestation	MEA apostille in Delhi

Canada Express Entry: the WES evaluation

For Canada Express Entry, an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) is mandatory. The recognised assessors are World Education Services (WES), the International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS), the International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS) and the International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES). WES is the most common choice for Indian degrees. The assessment takes four to twelve weeks after WES has received your documents, either originals from you, or certified copies sent directly from your Indian university. This is separate from the apostille; you usually need both.

For US graduate study, the admitting US university will tell you which credential evaluator it accepts. World Education Services (WES), Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE), SpanTran and Josef Silny are the names that come up most often. The same evaluation can be reused later for your EB application.

Founders: company papers go through the Chamber of Commerce

For founder applications (Canada Start-Up Visa, US E-2 Treaty Investor, US L-1A Executive Transfer, US EB-1C Multinational Manager), the commercial papers of your Indian company go through a different process. These documents need Chamber of Commerce attestation before MEA will apostille them:

• Certificate of incorporation
• Memorandum and Articles of Association (MOA and AOA)
• GST registration
• Audited financial statements
• Board resolutions
• KYC papers of every director

The Chamber of Commerce attestation is done first (the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry FICCI, the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry PHDCCI, or the chamber in the Indian state where the company is registered), and then MEA apostille goes on top.

When a certified translation is needed

Translation is rarely needed. Most Indian academic and civil records are in English. The exception is a regional-language certificate, a Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati or Punjabi document, which needs certified English translation alongside the attestation work before WES or the visa office will read it.

We send all your originals back to you safely by tracked courier, or directly to a US or Canadian address once you have moved.

What does SiZA handle, and what do you handle yourself?

The work SiZA runs in India

We run the paperwork that gets done in India. You send your scans on WhatsApp to +91 9220161774. We read them carefully and tell you, in writing, what it will cost and how long it will take. Your originals then come to our Noida office, and we run the work:

• HRD attestation on your degree, marksheets and transcript
• MEA apostille in Delhi on every educational and civil document
• Chamber of Commerce attestation on your commercial papers for founder applications
• Preparing and sending your documents to WES (or whichever credential evaluator your application uses)
• Certified translation into English where a regional-language certificate is involved
• MEA apostille on your police clearance certificate
• Tracked courier back to you with every original

You handle the US or Canadian visa application yourself, with your US or Canadian employer or university. The H-1B, L-1A, L-1B, O-1A, EB-1A, EB-2 NIW, EB-3 and F-1 petitions go through USCIS, with the petitioning US employer or the admitting US university filing them. The Canada Express Entry profile, the Provincial Nominee nomination, the Start-Up Visa, the Self-Employed Persons Program application and the study permit go through IRCC.

You also handle the US or Canadian university admission yourself; the admission decision is between you and the university. IELTS, PTE, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT and the USMLE Step exams have their own testing centres.

If you want us to read your documents before sending any original to us, send a WhatsApp message to +91 9220161774 with photos of your Indian degree, marksheets and any experience letters, and a short note on the country (United States or Canada) and the visa you are looking at. We will come back with what is involved and what it will cost, before any payment is due.

A rough timeline for the whole file

Most families want one number: how long. It depends on which state issued the degree, but here is a realistic shape.

Step	Typical time
Document review on WhatsApp and quote	same day to 2 days
State HRD attestation on educational documents	7 to 45 working days (state-dependent)
SDM or Home Department on marriage and birth certificates	3 to 10 working days
MEA apostille in Delhi	3 to 5 working days
Certified translation, if a regional-language certificate is involved	2 to 4 working days
WES credential evaluation (Canada Express Entry, US study)	4 to 12 weeks
Tracked courier back to you	2 to 5 days

If you want to read more on this site: the USA country page and the Canada country page carry country-specific notes, and the apostille services page explains the MEA apostille stamp in more detail.