MEA Apostille for Asia-Pacific: Indian Students & Professionals

A senior platform engineer at Atlassian Bengaluru with BTech CS from VIT Vellore 2014 and seven years across Atlassian and Splunk in Bengaluru is comparing three Asia-Pacific offer streams in February 2026. Atlassian internal transfer to Sydney on a Temporary Skill Shortage 482 visa. A Grab Singapore role on the Mobility platform team via Employment Pass under COMPASS scoring. A Mercari Tokyo backend engineer role on the Highly Skilled Professional visa. The three documentation routes differ but the in India stamps overlap. Each one needs MEA apostille on his VIT Vellore BTech, MEA apostille on his class-twelve Tamil Nadu State Board certificate, MEA apostille on his marriage certificate from the Bengaluru Sub-Registrar, and a fresh PCC from the Bengaluru Passport Seva Kendra Lalbagh. Singapore (Hague since 16 September 2021), Japan (Hague since 27 July 1970) and Australia (Hague since 1995) are all Hague apostille destinations for Indian documents, so MEA Patiala House handles all three without needing an embassy attestation step in the destination country. The Tamil Nadu HRD step ran through the Directorate of Technical Education Guindy. The Karnataka HRD step ran through the State Higher Education Department Multistoreyed Building Bengaluru. He went with Grab Singapore for the COMPASS-eligible role and shorter relocation path. Three weeks for the documentation. The same apostille set will be re-used at his Singapore PR application three to five years later.

That kind of three-way Asia-Pacific comparison is common for senior Indian engineers and professionals in 2026. If you are an Indian engineer, researcher, healthcare professional or student planning a move to Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand or Malaysia, the documentation work has changed since 2022. The biggest change is Singapore. The Singapore Ministry of Manpower (MOM) brought in the COMPASS framework on 1 September 2023, which scores every new Singapore Employment Pass application across six factors, with 40 points needed to qualify. SiZA Global Solutions Private Limited runs the apostille attestation work in India end to end from our Noida office at C-25, C Block, Sector 8. This page walks through what each of the six Asia-Pacific countries actually wants from your paperwork in India in 2026, starting with Singapore because that is where the most has changed.

COMPASS scores six factors: the salary on the offer letter (against a Singapore benchmark for the industry), your qualifications (graded against the Singapore graduate workforce), the diversity of nationalities already inside the hiring employer's staff, the employer's record of hiring Singaporeans, whether the role is on Singapore's Shortage Occupation list, and whether the role is in a sector Singapore wants to grow.

Three of these six factors are checked against your Indian paperwork. The Salary score reads your past Indian salary history alongside the new Singapore offer, so the experience letters from each past Indian employer must now spell out the salary range. The Qualifications score reads your Indian degree certificate itself: the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) and the leading private engineering colleges (BITS Pilani, VIT, SRM, Manipal, Thapar, IIIT Hyderabad) score better than lesser-known institutions, and the degree has to read cleanly. The Skills Bonus score depends on whether the role is on the Singapore Shortage Occupation list, and many cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data engineering and cloud architecture roles currently are.

The Singapore High Commission attestation step in Delhi has also changed in practice. Most Indian candidates used to skip it in 2022 because the Singapore employer rarely insisted. From 2023 onwards, more Singapore employers are asking for it, and any later Singapore Permanent Residence application certainly will. We prepare your documents for that step from the start, rather than redoing the work six months later. The minimum Singapore Employment Pass salary was also raised on 1 January 2025 to SGD 5,600 for general roles and SGD 6,200 for the financial sector.

Singapore is the loudest change in the Asia-Pacific region but it is not the only one. Australia replaced the Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) 482 work visa with the Skills in Demand visa in late 2024 and raised the IELTS bar in April 2024. New Zealand has been sending Indian engineers and healthcare workers to residence under a Green List since 2022. Japan added a job-seeking visa called J-Find in 2023 for graduates of selected universities. South Korea continues to hire Indian semiconductor and battery engineers in big numbers under the E-7 specialist visa. Malaysia accepts MEA apostille on Indian documents since 2019 and hires through three Employment Pass tiers.

The rest of this page goes country by country: which visa applies, what changed recently, and what we have to prepare in India before your originals can travel.

Why are Indians choosing Asia-Pacific over the US in 2026?

For senior engineers, the salaries in Singapore and the demand in South Korea now make Asia-Pacific compete with the United States for many Indian candidates. Singapore is the densest tech and finance hub in the region, with the regulated banks (DBS, OCBC, UOB), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) licensed fintech firms, the sovereign-wealth offices (GIC, Temasek) and the big tech employers all running senior teams. South Korea has been pulling Indian semiconductor and battery engineers into Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and SK Hynix at rising rates since 2022. Japan's Highly Skilled Professional (HSP) visa gives a faster permanent residence path than most US green-card options once 80 points is in reach. Australia and New Zealand offer settled-family futures that Indian doctors, nurses and engineers have been choosing for two decades. Malaysia is a quieter but real option, especially through the multinational shared services centres in Kuala Lumpur and the pharma and medical-device makers in Penang.

For Indian students, the costs are usually lower than the United States, and the post-study work allowances are real. Australia's Subclass 485 Post-Study Work visa runs two to four years after a degree. New Zealand's Skilled Migrant Category can turn a master's degree into residence within a few years. Japan and Singapore admit Indian undergraduates and master's students through their own universities, with English-medium programmes at most of the major institutions including the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

For Indian families, Asia-Pacific is closer to home than the United States or Canada. Flights are shorter. Time zones are friendlier. Parents can visit easily. For many Indian families, this matters more than the salary on paper.

What documents do Indians need for the Singapore Employment Pass?

Here is what the Singapore paperwork looks like in practice. The Singapore Ministry of Manpower runs the Employment Pass, but the document work happens in India first.

The Singapore document steps, in order

1. Your educational documents (Indian degree certificate, marksheets and university transcript) are first notarised by a notary in India.
2. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in Delhi then attests them.
3. The Singapore High Commission in New Delhi attests after MEA, where the Singapore employer's HR team or the Singapore Ministry of Manpower asks for it.
4. Your marriage certificate and your children's birth certificates run through the same steps, for the Singapore Dependant Pass and the Long-Term Visit Pass that come after the Employment Pass is granted.
5. The police clearance certificate (PCC) is added on top once the Regional Passport Office (RPO) issues it.

For educational documents, the State HRD attestation comes before MEA. If you want the detail on that step, the HRD attestation page explains which state directorate handles it and how long it takes.

Your experience letters need extra care. Each past Indian employer should write a letter that gives the role, the start and end dates, the reporting manager's name and contact, the actual work done (the technical or business detail), and the salary range. The salary range is what gets read against the Singapore benchmark when the Singapore Ministry of Manpower scores your COMPASS Salary factor.

There are also two faster Singapore options for the most senior candidates. The Tech.Pass is for senior tech leaders with a track record at well-known companies. The Overseas Networks and Expertise (ONE) Pass is for candidates on SGD 30,000 a month or above. The paperwork is the same, but these candidates rarely have any salary or qualification score issue under COMPASS.

Japan: HSP visa, E-7 visa and J-Find for Indians

The two main Japanese work visas are the Highly Skilled Professional (HSP) visa (a points system; 70 points qualifies, 80 points opens an accelerated permanent residence option after one year) and the general E-7 (Engineer, Specialist in Humanities, International Services category) which covers most engineer and manager roles outside HSP. The J-Find visa, introduced in 2023, lets graduates of selected universities enter Japan for up to two years to look for an employer.

Japan has been a Hague apostille country since 1970, so the steps are State HRD attestation on your Indian degree and marksheets, then MEA apostille in Delhi. The two work visas are run by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan.

Japanese translation after the apostille

After the apostille, a certified Japanese translation is needed. Your civil documents (marriage certificate and the children's birth certificates) are translated by a recognised translator. Your academic records (degree, marksheets, transcript) are also translated where the Japanese employer asks. The Embassy of Japan in New Delhi may put its own attestation on top if the Japanese employer or the receiving Japanese city office asks for it.

South Korea: E-7 specialist visa and D-10 job-seeking visa for Indians

The E-7 specialist visa runs across 89 designated occupations, covering engineers, ICT specialists, scientific researchers, designers and healthcare specialists. The D-10 job-seeking visa is the entry visa for candidates who want to look for an employer inside South Korea, and needs a degree from a recognised university and proof of funds.

South Korea has accepted MEA apostille on Indian documents since 2007. The steps on academic and civil papers are state-level attestation in the state where the certificate was issued, then MEA apostille in Delhi. Korean translation by a recognised translator is added where the South Korean employer or Korean Immigration asks. Once MEA apostille is in place, Embassy of the Republic of Korea attestation in Delhi is rarely asked for.

Australia: Subclass 482, 189, 190 and 491, and skill assessment

The Subclass 482 (renamed the Skills in Demand visa in late 2024) is the temporary employer-sponsored Australian visa. Subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) and Subclass 190 (State Nominated) are the permanent residence visas through SkillSelect. Subclass 491 is the regional skilled visa.

But before any Australian visa application can move, you have to clear a skill assessment with the relevant assessing authority:

• The Australian Computer Society (ACS) for ICT roles.
• Engineers Australia for engineering.
• The Vocational Education and Training Assessment Services (VETASSESS) for most other professional roles. The assessor reads your Indian degree, marksheets and detailed experience letters, and maps your work onto an Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) code. An experience letter that says "Senior Software Engineer, ABC Tech, 2019 to 2024" without further detail is not enough. The letter has to spell out the technical work, the projects, the team size, the technologies used and the supervising manager.

From April 2024 the IELTS requirement for the Subclass 500 student visa was raised to 6.0 overall, and for the Subclass 485 Post-Study Work visa to 6.5. The financial proof on the student visa is AUD 24,505 plus tuition.

Australia has accepted MEA apostille on Indian documents since 1995, and the visas themselves are run by the Department of Home Affairs. The steps are State HRD attestation in the state where the certificate was issued, then MEA apostille in Delhi.

New Zealand: Skilled Migrant Category and Accredited Employer Work Visa

The Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) gives permanent residence through a six-claim points system run by Immigration New Zealand. The Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) is the main temporary work visa; the New Zealand employer has to be accredited first (this was the big change in 2022 and remains the gate).

The New Zealand Green List has been the headline policy since 2022 and 2023. Indian engineers in software, civil and electrical, ICT specialists, doctors and registered nurses are the groups that come up on this list most often. Tier 1 occupations go straight to residence. Tier 2 occupations get work-to-residence after twenty-four months.

The skill assessment uses the Australian Computer Society (ACS) for ICT and Engineering New Zealand for engineering.

New Zealand has accepted MEA apostille on Indian documents since 2001, and the visas are run by Immigration New Zealand. The steps are State HRD attestation, then MEA apostille in Delhi.

Malaysia: Employment Pass tiers and Residence Pass-Talent

The Malaysian Employment Pass (EP) runs in three salary bands. Category I covers offer letters showing a basic monthly salary of MYR 10,000 or above (broadest privileges, longest stay). Category II covers MYR 5,000 to MYR 9,999 (narrower terms). Category III sits below MYR 5,000 (restrictions and tighter quotas).

Senior staff who have worked steadily in Malaysia for several years can later apply for the Residence Pass-Talent (RP-T), a ten-year residence option.

Malaysia has accepted MEA apostille on Indian documents since 2019. Translation is rarely needed because Malaysian authorities accept English on Indian academic and civil documents. The steps are state-level attestation, then MEA apostille in Delhi.

Which Asia-Pacific companies actually hire Indians from India?

Singapore. The regulated banks (DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, United Overseas Bank UOB) run major IT teams. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) licensed fintech and payments firms (Stripe Singapore, Wise, Revolut Singapore, Adyen, Crypto.com Singapore) hire Indian platform engineers and risk teams. The sovereign-wealth tech offices (GIC, Temasek, Vertex Ventures) take in Indian researchers and quants. The big tech employers (Grab, Shopee, SEA Group, ByteDance Singapore, AWS APAC HQ, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Salesforce Singapore) all run senior teams. Indian-headquartered firms (Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra) run regional offices in Singapore, and the newer Indian firms (Razorpay, PhonePe, Flipkart) carry regional offices too.

Japan. Rakuten, Mercari, LINE Yahoo, SoftBank, Sony, Hitachi, NEC, Fujitsu, NTT Data, Toshiba and Panasonic on the technology and electronics side. The Japanese trading houses (Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Sumitomo Corporation) on the commercial side. Google Japan, Amazon Japan, Microsoft Japan and Salesforce Japan in Tokyo.

South Korea. Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, SK Hynix, Hyundai Motor Group, Kia Corporation and POSCO on the engineering side. Naver, Kakao and Coupang on the software side, mostly in Pangyo Techno Valley and Seoul.

Australia. Atlassian, Canva, Block (formerly Afterpay), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac, ANZ Bank, Telstra, Optus, IBM Australia, Microsoft Australia and Amazon Web Services Australia. The mining and energy majors (BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue, Woodside Energy). The Group of Eight universities (University of Melbourne, Australian National University ANU, University of Sydney, University of Queensland, University of New South Wales UNSW, Monash University, University of Adelaide, University of Western Australia) take in most of the Indian master's and PhD intake.

New Zealand. Xero, Datacom, and the big banks (ANZ New Zealand, ASB Bank, Westpac New Zealand, Bank of New Zealand BNZ), plus the Auckland and Wellington tech start-ups. The New Zealand public health system has been a heavy recruiter of Indian nurses and doctors since 2022.

Malaysia. The multinational shared services centres in Kuala Lumpur (Standard Chartered GBS, HSBC GBS, AIG, Allianz). The local banks (Maybank, CIMB, Public Bank). The petroleum firms (Petronas, Shell Malaysia). The technology employers (Grab Malaysia, MoneyLion, Mr DIY, Sea Group Malaysia). The medical-device and pharma makers in Penang.

What does SiZA handle in India, and what do you handle directly?

The work SiZA runs from Noida

We run the paperwork that gets done in India. You send your scans on WhatsApp to +91 9220161774. We read them and tell you, in writing, which steps apply, how long they will take and what they will cost, before any payment is due. Your originals come to our Noida office at C-25, C Block, Sector 8. From there we run the work:

• State HRD attestation in the state where the certificate was issued, or SDM attestation for personal documents.
• MEA apostille in Delhi for the countries that accept it directly (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia), or notarisation and MEA attestation and Singapore High Commission attestation in Delhi for Singapore.
• Certified translation into Japanese or Korean through a recognised translator where Japan or South Korea is the destination.
• Embassy of Japan attestation in Delhi on top, where the Japanese employer asks for it.
• Chamber of Commerce attestation and then MEA apostille on your Indian company's commercial papers, for founder applications.
• MEA apostille on the police clearance certificate, run separately.

We send every original back to you safely by tracked courier.

You handle the visa application directly. The Singapore Employment Pass goes through the Singapore Ministry of Manpower. The Japan HSP, E-7 and J-Find visas go through the Japanese Immigration Services Agency. The Korean E-7 and D-10 go through the Korean Immigration Service. The Australian Subclass 482, 189, 190 and 491 go through the Australian Department of Home Affairs. The New Zealand Skilled Migrant Category and Accredited Employer Work Visa go through Immigration New Zealand. The Malaysian Employment Pass goes through the Malaysian Employment Pass online system run by the Expatriate Services Division (ESD). The skill assessment outcome (Australian Computer Society, Engineers Australia, VETASSESS, Engineering New Zealand) is the assessor's call. The university admission is the university's call. The English-language or local-language test (IELTS, OET, PTE, JLPT, TOPIK) is done at the test centre.

Which documents need apostille for an Asia-Pacific move, and how long does each take?

Five of these six countries take MEA apostille on your Indian documents directly. Singapore is the one that usually runs through Singapore High Commission attestation instead. Here is the at-a-glance picture for a typical engineer or professional file.

Document	Step in India	Singapore route
Degree, marksheets, transcript	State HRD attestation, then MEA apostille	Notarisation, MEA attestation, Singapore High Commission attestation
Marriage certificate	SDM, then MEA apostille	Notarisation, MEA attestation, Singapore High Commission attestation
Birth certificate (each child)	SDM, then MEA apostille	Notarisation, MEA attestation, Singapore High Commission attestation
Police clearance certificate	MEA apostille after RPO issues it	MEA attestation after RPO issues it
Commercial papers (founders)	Chamber of Commerce attestation, then MEA apostille	Chamber of Commerce, MEA, Singapore High Commission

Country	Document treaty status	Authentication you need
Singapore	Hague since 16 Sep 2021	Notarisation, MEA, Singapore High Commission attestation in Delhi
Japan	Hague since 1970	MEA apostille, then certified Japanese translation
South Korea	Hague since 2007	MEA apostille, then certified Korean translation
Australia	Hague since 1995	MEA apostille after the skill assessment
New Zealand	Hague since 2001	MEA apostille after the skill assessment
Malaysia	Hague since 2019	MEA apostille, English usually accepted

State HRD attestation runs roughly 7 to 45 working days depending on the state and the university, MEA apostille adds a few working days on top, and tracked return courier is another few days inside India. We sequence these so nothing waits on the wrong step.

The apostille services page on this site explains the MEA apostille stamp in more detail. The HRD attestation page covers the State HRD step on your degree. The certified translation page covers Japanese and Korean translation. To talk to us before sending any original, WhatsApp +91 9220161774. Country guides: Australia, Singapore and Japan.