Ministry of External Affairs is the nodal Ministry for consular legalization i.e. attestation/apostille of documents for use in India and abroad.

 

India is a member of the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, abolishing the requirement of legalization of foreign public documents. Apostille is acceptable in 98 member-countries of the Convention (also visit HCCH website). Apostille is done for personal documents like birth/death/marriage certificates, Affidavits, Power of Attorney, etc. and educational documents like degree, diploma, matriculation and secondary level certificates etc.

 

Normal Attestation is done for all the countries who are not the member of Hague Convention and where apostille is not accepted. 
 

Original documents (i.e. degree, diploma, school certificate etc.) are required attestation by the designated authorities of the State/Union Territory from where the document has been issued before submitting for apostillation by the Ministry of External Affairs.   Documents issued by the Polish/Lithuanian authorities must be apostilled by the concerned Polish/Lithuanian authorities and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.