What is the Difference between Apostille and attestation? What does Apostille look like?

Apostille of documents and attestation of documents/certificates has become necessary for people travelling abroad. For students going abroad for studies, they will need to get their mark sheets, transcript certificates, and other educational documents attested. Similarly, for all purposes various kinds of documents require attestation. An Apostille or Certificate attestation ensures the documents being presented are genuine and legal. But many a time people get confused about whether they need to get Apostille documents or attested documents. Here we will see what the differences between Apostille India and certificate attestation are. We will also see what an Apostille looks like.

What is certificate attestation?

Many people confuse certificate attestation and Apostille to be the same. They both are in the process of checking and verifying the document but there is a slight difference. Certificate attestation is a process of certifying a document as genuine and authentic that can be used in other countries of the world. Having your certificate attested by MEA or Embassy ensures you do not get into any problem when presenting the documents where they are needed. They will be considered legal all over the world. But how do they differ from Apostille? What is the difference between an attested document and an Apostille documents?

What is Apostille?

Apostille is also a process similar to certificate attestation. While an attested document is considered legal and authentic in all parts of the world, an Apostille document is deemed legalized only in a few specific countries. Under the Hague Convention, the 91 member countries are under an agreement that certificate attestation is not mandatory for the citizens travelling within these member countries. Instead, they will need to get Apostille of their documents.

Though Apostille is considered legalized in a few countries, it eliminates the effort of getting documents again and again while travelling to different countries. A document after getting an Apostille sticker once in any country will be considered legal and valid in other member countries. Therefore you need to process your Apostille India application once and travel to 91 countries without any worry of doing certificate attestations.

What does Apostille look like?

An apostilled document consists of an Apostille sticker on the reverse side of the document. The sticker consists of the name of the candidate, the name of the document, the name of the official person who issued the sticker and the date of issuance. Unlike certificate attestation that has the seal of the embassy or MEA, the Apostille document only consists of a sticker stick to the document.

Who does Apostille and Certificate attestation?

The Apostille India applications are now regionalized and there are around 15 RPO centres in India in cities like Raipur, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, etc. The government authorized Apostille Services to help citizens get their Apostille documents. So if you want to get your Apostille document, you cannot directly approach the MEA or the RACs. You have to get your Apostille through these government authorized Apostille services providers.

Conclusion

Hope with this article you must have understood what the difference between an Apostille document and an attested document is. So if you are confused about whether to get Apostille or attestation of document, simply refer to the list of countries that are members of the Hague convention. If your destination country is on the list, you need to get an Apostille, otherwise, you will need certificate attestation. Also, since you directly cannot apply for Apostille India or certificate attestation on your own, you have to seek the help of authorized Apostille services. When you contact them, they will also be able to guide you on whether you need an Apostille or attestation. Contacting Apostille service providers has other advantages as well. It reduces your time, effort, money and energy in getting your documents attested. These authorized attestation agencies are in collaboration with the RPOs and get your application processed on time.

So now that you know what Apostille is and what it looks like, do you need an Apostille document for your travel abroad? If yes, then Worldwide transcripts is an authorized Apostille service provider that can help you get your documents apostilled in time. So contact Worldwide transcripts now.

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