How to get MEA attestation on personal, educational & commercial certificates

Indians travelling abroad, searching for greener pastures has become so common these days that there were over 17.5 million Indians living in foreign nations in the year 2019. Be it travel for work, studies, residence or whatever reason, this number is set to climb even higher. One process that makes this possible is MEA attestation. This is a mandatory step in the legalization of your personal, educational, or even commercial documents that are required while travelling abroad.

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What is MEA?

The MEA stands for the Ministry of External Affairs. It is the central government organization for all the foreign affairs of India. They are responsible for all of India’s international affairs including the representation at the United Nations. As a result, in order to legalize a document to be used in foreign nationals, it is necessary for it to possess an MEA stamp.

What is MEA attestation?

When you apply for a study visa, work visa, or even a resident visa, you are required to provide a number of official documents. These documents are classified as personal documents, educational documents, and commercial documents. Now, since these documents are issued by a number of different organizations, it is necessary to validate their authenticity when they have to be used abroad. This is where attestation comes to help. Since the MEA is the Indian authority that deals with India’s foreign affairs, they have the power to legalize the documents. This process is known as the Ministry of External Affairs attestation. 

By doing an MEA document attestation, that particular certificate or document is valid not just in India, but in a number of different countries as well. Apart from being required for all kinds of documents, they are also necessary if you wish to do an embassy attestation or a MOFA attestation for Saudi, UAE, etc. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) later on.  Some of the most common ones include MEA attestation of degree certificate, birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc.

MEA Attestation Procedure

The process of obtaining an MEA attestation is a long and complex process. In a nutshell, the legalization has to be done at 3 different levels, namely - 

• Regional level - In this, the certificates are authenticated regionally by a notary, university/board, or a chamber of commerce, as per the type of the document. This is the first stage in the process. 
• State attestation- After getting the necessary regional level authentication, the state-level verification is done by the State Home Department (SHD), the Human Resources Department (HRD), or the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) as per the type of the document. 
• MEA attestation - The final step of the home government legalization is done by the MEA. At the MEA, a stamp or sticker is posted on the document, thereby stating it as attested by the MEA. 

Now, based on the exact type of the document to be attested, the Ministry of External Affairs certificate attestation procedure can be explained in the following sections.

Personal Documents

For the personal documents, such as a birth certificate attestation, marriage certificate attestation, etc, the regional level authentication has to be done by a notary. Once this is done, you will then have to get it verified by the State Home Department (SHM). On completion of this, the final attestation is done by the MEA. However, instead of the home department, you can also do the state-level authentication at the Sub-Divisional Magistrate.

Educational Documents

The process of getting an MEA stamp on educational documents such as a degree certificate attestation, transcripts, etc will depend on the place of issuance of the document.

This is explained as follows -

• For documents outside Maharashtra

Here, the first level of authentication at the regional level is done by a notary. After this, the document must be verified by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM). Once this is done, it is then stamped by the MEA.

• For documents issued in Maharashtra

If the document is issued outside Maharashtra, the regional level authentication is done by a notary. At the state level, however, the State Home Department is the legalization authority. And once this is done, you can proceed to get the document attested by the MEA.

• In case an embassy demands an HRD authentication

In certain cases, the embassy of a country may require the document to be authenticated by the Human Resource Department. In this case, you will first need to get the document verified by the university or the board that issued your educational document. After this, you will have to get the attestation from the HRD, followed by the MEA attestation.

Commercial Documents

In cases of commercial documents, the first and primary step is the Chamber of Commerce Attestation. Once you receive their stamp, you can then directly get the attestation from the Ministry of External Affairs.

Where to get an MEA Attestation?

Though the final stamp or sticker is done by the MEA, there are a few other levels of authentication required for the process. As a result, it can be a painstaking effort to individually visit the different departments involved in the hierarchy. On top of that, the MEA does not accept applications made directly by the applicant. As a result, you will have to use the services of professional MEA attestation services to get your certificates attested.