Can e-Sanad Apostille Single Status Certificate In India

Yes, e-Sanad is an apostille project of the Indian government. It does attest in India. This has been started to online submit and verify documents, which promotes contact less, cashless, faceless and paperless Apostille attestation of certificates.

This project is to authenticate public documents like certificate of birth, marriage, death, a judgment or a notarial single status certificate attestation. This attestation is valid for the NRIs moving to the countries enlisted the Hague Convention-an international agreement.  Around 63 countries, including India have been registered to it.

List of Countries of Hague Convention

Afghanistan, Jamaica, Sudan, Algeria, Jordan, Syria, Angola, Kenya, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Tanzania, Benin, Laos, Togo, Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Libya, Turkmenistan, Cambodia, Macedonia, UAE (United Arab Emirates), Cameroon, Madagascar, Uganda, Canada, Malaysia, Vietnam, Chile, Mali, Yemen, China, Mauritania, Zambia, Congo Republic, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Congo Democratic, Niger, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cuba, Pakistan, Egypt, Palestine, Eritrea, Philippines, Ethiopia, Qatar, Ghana, Rwanda, Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Senegal, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Iran, Singapore, Iraq and Sri Lanka

Conditions When You Need to Apply for Apostille

These are the conditions that make it mandatory to get documents attested within Apostille Convention:

·         If you live in the country which is abided by the Apostille Convention

·         If you are going to live in the country that follows the Apostille Convention

·         If the law of the country where you live considers your documents -a public certificate/ document

·         If you are going to the country wherein the document is to be apostilled for recognizing a foreign pubic document

In the nutshell, this service is not meant to recognise the document in that country. Rather, it is strictly reserved for the use of public documents in the foreign. If the laws, regulations or practices in the country state that the public document is not required, you won’t need apostilling there. Simply put, the legalization of documents won’t be necessary if the country’s legislation does not mandate anything like that. If you have a proof of single status certificate with apostille stamp, you don’t need to undergo further attestation. This practice simplifies immigration documentation, as the treaty or agreement has a clear mention of exemptions, such as Hague Conventions exempt documents from legalization or any analogous formality as Apostille.   

Which documents does e-Sanad Apostille?

It attests any type of documents, which are personal, educational or commercial. There is a condition with this service that the applicant should have their public document like CENOMAR or no record of marriage certificate in the digital repository. If it is there, you can get it attestation/apostille through e-Sanad easily.

In short, this service is administered in the cases of documents of an administrative nature, including birth, marriage and death certificates; documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with a court, tribunal or commission; extracts from commercial registers and other registers; patents; notarial acts and notarial attestations (acknowledgments) of signatures; school, university and other academic diplomas issued by public institutions.

Once you get it, you don’t need further execution by a diplomatic or consular agent. Besides, you cannot get it for commercial or customs operations related documents.

Where can you access e-sanad attestation service from?

This service is currently available in five passport offices, including the Attestation Section, CPV Division, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. Very soon, this service will be extended to other locations for its country-wide spread.

How much does it cost?

·         MEA Charges: 

It charges a fee of Rs. 50/- for Apostille of each document. Postal orders won’t be a mode of payment. If you need a normal Attestation, it is done free of cost.

·         Outsourced agencies: 

Since the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) does not accept documents directly from the applicant/individual, all documents for the purpose of Attestation/ Apostille by MEA need to be submitted and collected from the four official outsourced agencies.

The chargeable amount by the outsourced agencies per document for courier delivery upon  Apostille/normal attestation by MEA will be Rs.22/- (Personal document), Rs.18/- (Educational document) and Rs.16/- (Commercial document).