ATTESTATION OF EDUCATIONAL CERTIFICATES IN INDIA FOR SAUDI ARABIA

Getting your educational and general certificates attested from Saudi Arabia embassy can be a turbulent and difficult for most of us, particularly if one is not familiar with the procedure of Apostile. I will try my level best to guide you about the procedure of document apostile for Saudi Embassy by outlining its steps as clearly as possible.
You must be known that migration to foreign countries need Educational certificate and General Documents attestation from government offices in India. Apostile is an exhausting process that needs attestations of all your certificates from the State Home Ministry, HRD, MEA etc. and from Consulates / Embassy of Saudi Arabia.

I generally suggest you to do apostile with the help of agents wherever needed, because it conserves a lot of time, energy and money, despite you could do apostile yourself in India.

The certificates to be apostiled are clearly categorized into two classes:

• Educational Document Attestation
• Personal Document Attestation

Educational/Personal Document Attestation Process for Saudi Embassy
Some certificates have to be pre verified by the respective University/educational Institute/Department/ Educational Board/Council that issued it, before going for HRD Attestation in Chennai Tamilnadu. After 29th June, 2007 HRD Ministry relinquished the certificate attestation authority to each State’s Home Departments and Regional Certificates Authentication Centres under the State’s education department. HRD attested certificates require Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) attestation before going to Saudi Embassy/Consulate for attestation.
In order to achieve Certificate attestation process easily done, you must requires some knowledge about apostile procedure and all the stakeholders involved in this process of certificate attestation from Saudi Embassy in Delhi NCR.

There are 4 main steps involved in Apostile process in India

DOCUMENTS ATTESTATION PROCESS

There are two kinds of methods for educational certificate attestation in Delhi NCR, any of which can be pursue to apostile your educational certificates/Documents, The procedures for Apostile is explained below:

Step 1: Notary Attestation Notary is the main procedure which is to done on documents before other legalizations. This can be treated as the initial procedure of apostile. The notarization makes a document legalized to carry out attestation and legalizations. Notarization gets the educational and general documents qualify for all the attestations including Home Department of respective states, Human Resource Department (HRD) of respective states, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) New Delhi and Saudi Embassy Legalizations/MOFA New Delhi and Mumbai. This Notary is necessary for the authentication process.

Step 2: State Human Resource Department ( H.R.D) Authentication – For Educational Certificates
State education department or HRD attestation is the method of authentication and apostile of educational documents. After 2007, the procedure for HRD attestation has been altered and the most hectic procedure of Apostile, HRD attestation, has now been relinquished to the State’s General Administrative Departments (GAD) of the respective Governments from the State where you have obtained your degree / diploma or any other educational certificates. The HRD authentication centres are accessible in each State capital. The State’s GAD/HRD authenticates the document once the credentials of the certificate are verified. HRD Authentication is the correct and precise depiction of the authenticity of that specified certificate.
State’s Administrative Department for Higher Education attests all certificate issued by Govt. School, Govt. Technical Board, Medical and Paramedical Institutions, Private and Govt. Universities etc. After finishing of the verification process the certificate can carry out the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) located in New Delhi and Embassy of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SACA – Saudi Arabia Cultural office Attestation) New Delhi.

Types of Educational Certificates:- These are the educational certificates, diplomas and degrees acquired from school and college i.e. Certificates like SSLC/10th/CBSE, PDC/+2/HSC, Degrees like BA, Bsc, Bcom, BTech, BE, BBA, BSc, CA, BEd, MBBS. Post graduate degrees like MA, Msc, Mcom, MBA, MCA, M Tech, B Pharm, M Pharm, Nursing, MSc Nursing etc. and other professional Diplomas, Nursing and ITI certificates.

HRD Ministry attestation procedure:
Get your degrees and educational certificates attested from Department of Higher Education from the State in which your educational institute situated, from where you have obtained the education.

The documents required for HRD attestation are:-

• Original and photocopy of Degree and certificates.
• Original and photocopies of 10th and 12th class Mark sheets.
• Original and photocopies of Final year degree and mark sheets
• An Application form which you can get from the HRD itself.
• Passport size photograph (1) to be pasted on the application form.
• An Affidavit acknowledging your Personal, Professional and Educational details along with the passport number and the intention why you want your degree attested in a 10 stamp.
• Attach all the photocopies of degrees, certificates and mark sheets along with the Affidavit and Application form.
• All these photocopies should be attested from a gazette officer.

Submit the above mentioned documents in the higher education department and hold the original degree and passport with you in safe custody. The degree will be attested by the Secretary, Department of Higher Education and he will ask for your passport and the reason for attestation. You will get the degree attested the same day.

Please make sure that the Vice Chancellor’s sign and seal must be clear in your degree and certificate, otherwise it may be rejected by the Ministry of HRD.

Please make sure that the Vice Chancellor’s sign and seal must be clear in your degree and certificate, otherwise it may be rejected by the Ministry of HRD.

State Home Department Attestation For Personal Documents

There is no HRD attestation is required for personal or general documents. All personal documents have to be pre authenticated first from the concerned state Home Department. Usually Home Department Authentication is carry out by the respective States governments itself. After Home Department attestation, the Saudi Embassy’s attestation is carried out in Delhi or Mumbai. These documents does not required attestation from HRD (Human Resource Development) and GAD (General Administration Department).

Step 3: Ministry of External Affairs Attestation (MEA)

After the HRD attestation and legalization, then the educational certificates and degrees have to be attested by Ministry of Eternal Affairs New Delhi. It hardly takes a few hours to complete this apostile task if one is located in Delhi NCR. Anybody on behalf of the candidate can do it, no ID proof required and no fees also. Ministry of Eternal Affairs New Delhi attestation is working under the Ministry of External Affairs of the Govt. of India. Ministry of External Affairs attests all the certificates issued in all state of India. MEA attestation is compulsory for apostile in Delhi.

Ministry of External Affairs attestation is available in 5 major cities of India, it includes Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Guwahati in north east. A addresses of the MEA Regional Authentication Centers and the appropriate authorities (as on July 8, 2013) can be taken from the MEA website

MEA apostile is needed to make the educational document or certificate valid within India and abroad. The procedure of Attestation of certificates/documents from MEA can be carried out on all the Certificates/documents, if the certificates are issued by Indian government Authorities.

Experience Certificate Attestation

Experience Certificate Attestation is the act of witnessing an Experience certificate by authorised Departments / authorities with their official seal and signature. This attestation also confirms that, the specified experiencet certificate has been issued by that mentioned department and Seal and signature on that particular Experience certificate is authentic.

Employement Certificate Attestation

Employment Certificate Attestation is the act of witnessing an Employment certificate by authorised Departments / authorities with their official seal and signature. This attestation also confirms that, the specified Employment certificate has been issued by that mentioned department and Seal and signature on that particular Employment certificate is authentic.

The procedure is as follows-

Non-Educational Documents:
The no educational documents like date of birth or death certificates, marriage certificates, affidavits, driving licenses, etc. are needed to be attested by the State Home Department of the promulgating State/Union Territory. The legalization must be done with the name and designation seal as well as the seal of the Department.

Educational Documents:
The educational documents like degrees, diplomas and certificates should be first attested by the State Education Department of the concerned State Government/Union Territory. The legalisation must be done with the name and designation seal as well as the seal of the Department.

Commercial Documents:
The commercial or business documents are to be pre-authenticated by the respective state Chambers of Commerce before these can be legalized by the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. The rubber stamp of the respective state Chamber of Commerce must be affixed on each commercial or business document along with the name and designation of authorized signatory.

(II) Legalization of documents
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) legalizes/attests or apostile the documents only after verifying the signature and affixed seal/stamp of the designated authorities of the State Government/Union Territory/Chambers of Commerce.
The MEA legalizes the educational degreed, diplomas, certificate/general and business documents on the basis of the signature of the designated authorities; hence it does not take trustworthiness of the contents of the documents and the duty of the content verification lies on the state authorities who are designated to authenticate the documents.

Types of Documents needed required for Apostile:
The MEA does not imposes any fees for apostile of documents. Only original documents pre-authenticated by the designated authorities of the State Governments are attested by the Ministry of External Affairs New Delhi. Apostile Attestation is done on the back side of the original document. The applicants require to submit the following documents:
(a) Original document to be attested;
(b) One clear photocopy of the document;
(c) One clear photocopy of the passport;

Step 4: Saudi Embassy Attestation (MOFA/Saudi Embassy)

Once the HRD and MEA Attestations are done, the certificates are then submitted to Saudi Cultural Attaché Office, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, New Delhi. Saudi Embassy Attestation is time consuming and full of doubts. Saudi embassy attestation can be done within a day and sometimes it can take weeks.

Saudi Embassy will attest all educational, non educational and commercial document if the certificates are already attested by HRD/MEA or both. All papers must be submitted through authorized travel agencies after getting apostile by the MEA. For Saudi embassy attestation, HRD from the origin State are compulsory for all candidates regardless of degrees and universities.

Formalities Required for Degree Attestation from Saudi Arabia Embassy New Delhi
Here you should take offer letters from your company requesting Saudi Cultural Office and Saudi Embassy to attest your qualification certificates. Documents are welcomed only by any approved agency only by Cultural Attaché Office, so find for an approved agent either on web or reach the Culture Attaché Office around 08:30 in the morning. Make certain that the agent must have an ID card with a rubber stamp provided by Saudi Embassy New Delhi. The documents for embassy attestation can be submitted only from Monday to Wednesday. Saudi Embassy attestation may take from 10 to 45 days.

The degree holder must have a job offer letter from government of Saudi or from private sectors or he requires admission in any Saudi Arabian University to pursue higher studies. The job contract / offer letter from private sectors companies must be attested by Chamber of Commerce in Saudi Arabia and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia. If you are working in a Saudi Arabian Government, there is no requirement of the offer letter to be attested by Saudi Chamber of Commerce. Just a copy of the job offer letter with official stamp affixed by the office of govt authority will be considered sufficient. This applies to all MOH staffs.

• The Job seeker must have a valid passport
• Before submission to Cultural Office, his / her degree must be attested by:
• Department of Higher Education of the state,
• Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. Of India,
• Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. Of India.
• The appointed agency must present a letter from the university from where the degree originated stating that his/her degree is genuine.
• Attestation is done on Original Degrees only

On completion of the above mentioned formalities, the Saudi Cultural Attaché Office takes the following steps:

• All the entries connected to the degree for embassy attestation is entered to the official Data base of Saudi Embassy and a photo copy of all document is preserved in the record file to be inspected any time in future.
• The college degree is attested by the authorized signatory of Saudi Embassy.
• All the attested universities degrees are forwarded to the Consular Section in Saudi Embassy for attestation on their part.
• TSaudi Embassy cultural Attaché will send a photocopy of your degrees and certificates to the University which issued it. This university verification will take a week to reach your University’s examination department. To accelerate the university verification process, go to the examination department of the university and try to expedite the process. Otherwise, the University of degree originated will take its own time course.
• After the university verification, documents will send it back to Saudi Cultural Attaché Office.
• After the verification from the university is completed, the Attaché Office will call you/your agent to bring your original certificates and degrees for Saudi Embassy attestation along with the following documents:
• Original Degree Certificate
• Offer Letter (Original + Chamber of Commerce + MOFA Seal with Particular date)
• Passport Copy (Clear and clean)
• Iqama Copy in Color (If already working in Saudi Arabia)
• Visa Copy Issued
• Authorization Letter (Affidavit) * (Affidavit on 10 Rs stamped paper)
• Finally, the Saudi embassy attested degrees and certificates are returned back to the concerned agency by the embassy as per their norms.