How To Get MEA Attestation?

MEA Attestation

MEA is the Ministry of External Affairs of India, this ministry is established for maintaining foreign affairs, looking after all the external matters of India. This Ministry provides an attestation stamp on documents and certificates after the verification is completed at the local and state level. The Ministry of External Affairs of India providing an attestation stamp is the final step for verification of documents and certificates on a national level. MEA attestation, once completed, the documents become completely authentic, just a last step of embassy attestation remains to be completed.

What is attestation?

Attestation, basically, means the verification of documentation. Documents like certificates, degrees and annual marksheets. Mostly, attestation on documentation is necessary for getting a job overseas or seeking employment opportunities on foreign lands. Countries that made attestation on documents compulsory are the Gulf countries, to prevent foreign nationals from working on their lands with fake or forged degrees/certificates. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE are some of the countries in that region which have necessitated the requirements of documents like degrees and certificates to be attested.

How attestation is done?

Certificate Attestation is done on various levels, stage by stage; the process commences on the local level and later transcends onto the state level, then on a national level (MEA attestation) and finally by the country where the job will be taken.

Here are the stages of attestation;

Notary attestation - Verification of documents/certificates is done on a local level, a local notary officer provides the person with a stamp on its documents/certificates, this is the first stage of attestation.

State attestation - It is the process that is performed on the state level by the HRD ministry to verify various documents, including educational certificates and degrees.

MEA attestation - This is the one we are discussing, the Ministry of External Affairs attestation is the final attestation on national grounds, after notary, HRD/SDM, Ministry of External Affairs attestation is performed. After this, the document becomes deemed to be certified.

Embassy attestation - This verification is conducted by the authorities of the country where a person is trying to get education/employment in, These officials perform the final check after the attestation is completed on a local, state and national level, after MEA stamp the document becomes valid for them to perform a final certification on.

Why attestation is necessary?

Some nations, mostly located in the Gulf region have faced this problem during the stages of industrialization, the problem is people reigning from foreign lands, basically, foreign nationals getting employed in their nations with fake/forged degrees/certificates. This led to the introduction of a necessary procedure called attestation. MEA attestation or Ministry of foreign affairs attestation is the final level of verification on the national level. After the home country’s government gives a verification stamp on the documents, it becomes easy for the officials of the home country to verify and enable a person to commencing its job.