The act of witnessing the signing of a formal document and then also signing it to verify that it was properly signed by those bound by its contents these whole process called as Attestation. Attestation is a legal acknowledgment of the genuineness of a document and a verification that proper processes were followed. The attestation process requires the submission of original documents to the respective authorities for verifying and required sign or stamp on guided area of documents.
To move or settle in foreign country on work permit, study permit or resident permit the authentication is required for all the necessary documents from the embassy of targeting country. For Example, if anyone is planning to move to UAE for work, then for getting the work visa he/she need to attest his/her Educational and Personal documents from UAE Embassy in India. Without attestation the visa will not be processed and the documents also not be considered genuine or authentic. So attestation is required to avoid all these hassle.
Regional Level Attestation is a preparatory stage of document or certificate attestation procedure. This Kind of attestations are bounded to your city or local areas. This type of legalization can be done by Notary and Collector’s Office or by School and University in case of educational documents or by Chamber of Commerce’s office in case of commercial documents.
The legalization process carried out by the different authorities of states according to the nature of document. These different authorities or departments are known as Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Human Resource Development (HRD), and Chamber of Commerce. Thus, the attestation carried out by these departments are considered on State Level.
Attestation at the level Country includes the last and final stamp or sticker which is done by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and also respective Embassy of targeting country. MEA is government agency responsible for maintaining the foreign relation of India. The process of Apostille is carried out by MEA and its valid for all the member countries of Hague Convention. The Countries who are not the part of Hague Convention need a step ahead verification from their embassy of host country and that process called Embassy Attestation. It’s the final stage of validation for most countries after the MEA Stamp.