Indian Drivers Licence Verification - Affidavit or Certificate?

If you are an Indian citizen and have an Indian Passport, you have an Indian Drivers Licence, and you want to 'convert' your licence to an Australian Drivers Licence but your name on your Indian Passport and Indian Drivers Licence are different. We see that there are two options when it comes to satisfying the requirements of the Indian Drivers Licence Verification process.

Affidavit

The application requires you to submit an affidavit signed in front of a notary public to verify that you are the 'one and the same person' featured in your Indian Drivers Licence and your Indian Passport. An 'affidavit' is a document which you swear/declare to be true and correct. This is an important document which must be witnessed by a person who is qualified and authorised to witness and take declarations and oaths (ie, Justice of the Peace, Solicitor, or Notary Public). In the case of the affidavit that must be submitted to VFS for the purposes of the Indian Drivers Licence Verification, then the witness must be a notary public - you cannot have your documents witnessed by any solicitor or lawyer or by a justice of the peace. The reason that your affidavit must be witnessed by a notary public is that your affidavit must also be stamped with an apostille by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Before stamping documents with an apostille, DFAT must verify that those documents have been properly notarised (ie, signed and sealed by a notary public). DFAT will not recognise or issue an apostille on documents that have been signed by a justice of the peace or any other solicitor or lawyer.

Many people do not know how to prepare an affidavit or they do not know what to write in their affidavit. Unfortunately, we do not provide assistance in preparing or writing an affidavit, however we can provide a certificate instead - and our certificate has been accepted by VFS for the purposes of approving the Indian Drivers Licence Verification.

Certificate

If you need help in applying for your Indian Drivers Licence Verification from VFS, and you do not know how to prepare or write an affidavit, we can assist you by preparing a certificate which basically satisfies the exact same purpose as the affidavit. Our certificate - being a certificate that we have used for many years with proven results - will certify that you are the one and the same person featured in your Indian Drivers Licence and your Indian Passport. The main difference between the affidavit and the certificate is generally the affidavit is your own declaration that you are the one and the same person, while the certificate is our certification that you are the one and the same person.

The important aspect of the certificate is that you must be able to satisfy us that you are the one and the same person before we can issue it. This means your photograph on both documents must look like you, your name must have some similarities (or you have some other proof of the connection) and your birthdate must be the same. Some clients ask us to refer to their father's name, which is stated on the back page of the Indian Passport and often appears on the drivers licence, however this has little relevance for us as we do not consider this to be proof of the their father's name.

Please be aware that we may not be able to provide a certificate in situations where your photograph is not clear (often due to age or condition of the licence) or there has been significant change to your appearance, where your birth dates are inconsistent (for whatever reason - it happens), or where there is an unexplainable disconnect between the names appearing on your passport and the name appearing on your drivers licence. Generally, the connection between the names relate to initials, abbreviations, missing middle names or family names - which in our experience has been explained by the fact that the licences are issued according to Year 10 mark sheets, but that passports are issued on full legal names. Further since we are only comparing you with your Indian Drivers Licence and your Indian Passport, we are also unable to provide any certification regarding your father's name in cases where your father's name may be spelt differently on each document. In the past, VFS have raised an issue where there has been a discrepancy and our only suggestion in this situation is that you would need your father (or whoever's name has been spelt differently) to provide evidence that they are the one and the same person - however this is not something that you can do on their behalf.

Apostille

Whether you elect to prepare and write your own affidavit or you need our assistance with issuing a certificate, the affidavit or certificate must be stamped with an apostille by DFAT. You can either do this yourself, or we can arrange it for you - entirely up to you. We allow the option simply because we understand the value of our services is primarily in notarising the document but not necessarily obtaining the apostille from DFAT, which you can do yourself. This means we only provide what you want and allow you to save if it is a most cost effective option for you to do parts of the process yourself. Entirely up to you.

To obtain a quote on our notary public services for India, please visit https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/notary-fees/.

Acknowledgements

This blog is supported and maintained by Phang Legal. Phang Legal is a leading provider of notary public services in Sydney. With offices conveniently located in Parramatta, Phang Legal supports and services the Indian community across Sydney with readily available and easily accessible notary public services at highly competitive rates.

For more information regarding notary public services for documents going to India, view our notary publications at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/jurisdiction/india-notary/.

Frequently asked questions regarding our notary public services can also be found at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/faqs/.

For Hindi to English translation services by NAATI accredited translators, see https://hindi-naati-translation.blogspot.com.au/.

Ern Phang
Notary Public

Ern Phang is the solicitor director of Phang Legal and a notary public. Ern regularly writes about his experiences as a notary public, including the kinds of problems and solutions that his clients face when sending documents to India.

IMPORTANT: the information in this article is correct at the time of publication, however the law constantly changes. This means you should always refer to the most recent articles because we try to update this blog on a regular basis with the most current information.

Affidavit for a Passport in lieu of Lost/Damaged Passport

How annoying and frustrating is it to lose your passport or have your passport damaged so that it's no longer valid? If you're an Indian national in Australia, then the process to have your passport replaced is fairly straight forward if you know what to do, and if not, at least you know where to look to find the relevant information.

If you're an Indian national, then applying for a replacement passport when you've lost or damaged your current passport is done through VFS Global - like many other consular services. A quick review of their website will explain the process and the checklist will help you compile the documents necessary to have a 'hopefully' easy/simple application experience. As you work through the process and the checklist, you'll find that a variety of documents and forms need to be attested by a justice of the peace, however once you get to Form V, you'll find that this form must be signed in front of a notary public and notarised. That's where we come in.

Form V is the Affidavit for a Passport in lieu of Lost/Damaged Passport. Our many notary clients who require assistance with this form simply complete the form (but not sign it), make an appointment with our office (between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday) by calling 02 9687 8885, and then at the time of their appointment sign it in front of our notary public. As a leading provider of notary public services to clients across Sydney, we're experienced with notarising this form and are able to quickly and easily witness and notarise the form in such a way that it's accepted by VFS as part of your application. For most clients, they're in and out of our office in less than 15 minutes - it's that simple and hassle free.

We pride ourselves on being readily available especially on short notice, so if you've got any questions as to what's needed for you to have your Form V notarised, then you need to call our office and speak to our notary public.

To obtain a quote on our notary public services for India, please visit https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/notary-fees/.

Acknowledgements

This blog is supported and maintained by Phang Legal. Phang Legal is a leading provider of notary public services in Sydney. With offices conveniently located in Parramatta, Phang Legal supports and services the Indian community across Sydney with readily available and easily accessible notary public services at highly competitive rates.

For more information regarding notary public services for documents going to India, view our notary publications at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/jurisdiction/india-notary/.

Frequently asked questions regarding our notary public services can also be found at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/faqs/.

For Hindi to English translation services by NAATI accredited translators, see https://hindi-naati-translation.blogspot.com.au/.

Ern Phang
Notary Public

Ern Phang is the solicitor director of Phang Legal and a notary public. Ern regularly writes about his experiences as a notary public, including the kinds of problems and solutions that his clients face when sending documents to India.

IMPORTANT: the information in this article is correct at the time of publication, however the law constantly changes. This means you should always refer to the most recent articles because we try to update this blog on a regular basis with the most current information.

Indian Drivers Licence Verification Flow Chart

To help you better understand what we do and the general process around our notary public services for Indian Drivers Licence Verification, we have prepared a simple flow chart. While it starts with various questions that we ask (or you could ask yourself), our involvement starts when we prepare the notary certificate verifying that you are the one and the same person. Those parts of the process in the flow chart are in RED.

If you need assistance with your Indian Drivers Licence verification. Please look through the flowchart, check that you satisfy all the requirements and call us on 02 9687 8885 to make an appointment.

(if you have trouble viewing the flowchart because of the size of your screen, you can use the enlarge and reduce buttons on the left corner to adjust the size to fit).

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To obtain a quote on our notary public services for India, please visit https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/notary-fees/.

Acknowledgements

This blog is supported and maintained by Phang Legal. Phang Legal is a leading provider of notary public services in Sydney. With offices conveniently located in Parramatta, Phang Legal supports and services the Indian community across Sydney with readily available and easily accessible notary public services at highly competitive rates.

For more information regarding notary public services for documents going to India, view our notary publications at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/jurisdiction/india-notary/.

Frequently asked questions regarding our notary public services can also be found at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/faqs/.

For Hindi to English translation services by NAATI accredited translators, see https://hindi-naati-translation.blogspot.com.au/.

Ern Phang
Notary Public

Ern Phang is the solicitor director of Phang Legal and a notary public. Ern regularly writes about his experiences as a notary public, including the kinds of problems and solutions that his clients face when sending documents to India.

IMPORTANT: the information in this article is correct at the time of publication, however the law constantly changes. This means you should always refer to the most recent articles because we try to update this blog on a regular basis with the most current information.

Will you prepare my General Power of Attorney or my Special Power of Attorney for me?

The General Power of Attorney and the Special Power of Attorney are some of the most common documents that we are asked to notarised for use in India. In addition to the relatively large percentage of people of Indian origin living in Western Sydney, the reality is that a large proportion of the hardworking migrant population send money 'back home' to invest in property for themselves or their parents. Respect! (Being from a migrant family having migrated to Australia young in the late 1970s, I can relate to this.)

Our goal is to help our clients do what they need to do and in most cases, they wish to appoint someone in India to handle their property transaction or related banking and lending activities on their behalf. The most appropriate document to achieve this goal is called a 'power of attorney'.

The power of attorney is a formal legal document that appoints someone else to do things on your behalf. The nature and scope of their authority is entirely up to you. You can appoint and authorise them to represent you on all things, or you could limit that appointment and authorisation to a few things - obviously depending on the nature of what you want them to do and your relationship and level of trust with the person that you appoint as your attorney (the person receiving the power). There are general legal principles around the rights and obligations of donor (the person giving the power) and the attorney, however this largely relies on the content of the document - the power of attorney.

Knowing what is included in the power of attorney is important because it determines the attorney's powers and responsibilities. The main types of power of attorney documents that we notarise for clients sending them to India are the General Power of Attorney and the Special Power of Attorney. Each type of power of attorney would be used for a different purpose and appropriate for different situations. In most cases, you will need to obtain advice from whoever requires the authority to be given to determine which power of attorney is appropriate.

Sometimes clients will ask whether we can prepare a power of attorney for use in India. The simple answer is 'no'. The power of attorney should be prepared according to the laws of India and in a way that is appropriate to the purpose of the power of attorney. As we are not qualifies lawyers for India or practice in Indian law, we are unable to assist with this - however, we have provided on this and various other websites a copy of the power of attorney templates that many of our clients have used in the past. While we cannot guarantee that these templates are appropriate to your situation or assist you with completing any blank spaces with the relevant information regarding your situation, our experience has been that sometimes the legal requirements in India can be unclear, depending on who you are dealing with - but sometimes they can be extremely strict and pedantic.

The best advice that we can provide is be clear on what documents will need to be signed, if and how they need to be notarised by a notary public, whether they need to be countersigned by the Indian Consulate/VFS (which may also mean they need to be stamped with an apostille from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) and whether you must follow any other formal requirement before returning the document to India. If the person receiving the power of attorney is strict in their requirements, be aware that sometimes they may even require the document to be printed on 'foolscap green paper' or stamped paper or bonded paper - all of which are various legal requirements that exist in India as part of their normal protocol in preparing legal documents, however these requirements or the materials do not generally exist in Australia and are difficult if not impossible to source.

Edit 2017 (see updated video)


To obtain a quote on our notary public services for India, please visit https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/notary-fees/.

Acknowledgements

This blog is supported and maintained by Phang Legal. Phang Legal is a leading provider of notary public services in Sydney. With offices conveniently located in Parramatta, Phang Legal supports and services the Indian community across Sydney with readily available and easily accessible notary public services at highly competitive rates.

For more information regarding notary public services for documents going to India, view our notary publications at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/jurisdiction/india-notary/.

Frequently asked questions regarding our notary public services can also be found at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/faqs/.

For Hindi to English translation services by NAATI accredited translators, see https://hindi-naati-translation.blogspot.com.au/.

Ern Phang
Notary Public

Ern Phang is the solicitor director of Phang Legal and a notary public. Ern regularly writes about his experiences as a notary public, including the kinds of problems and solutions that his clients face when sending documents to India.

IMPORTANT: the information in this article is correct at the time of publication, however the law constantly changes. This means you should always refer to the most recent articles because we try to update this blog on a regular basis with the most current information.

Do I always need to have my document stamped by the Indian Consulate or VFS?

Legalisation with the Indian Consulate or VFS - is it required?

Documents that are created or signed in Australia but sent to India generally need to be notarised. This is a widely accepted and recognised process. Whether those documents then need to be counter-signed by the Indian Consulate or VFS is not so clear. This article discusses some issues that you may need to consider before sending your documents to India.

What documents need to be notarised?

Generally, documents that are signed in Australia but sent to India need to be notarised involving the notary public witnessing your signature. Also if you are sending copies of original documents, those copies may need to be certified as being true copies of the original documents.

Common documents that we are asked to witness and notarise include:

• the general power of attorney or special power of attorney
• affidavits and declarations used in legal proceedings (such as divorces under the Hindu Marriage Act or court cases regarding estates and property)
• education sponsorship letters and undertakings
• immigration sponsorships and letters of invitation
• contract or other agreements used for personal and business purposes.

Common documents that we are asked to certify and notarise include:

• education documents (ie, degrees, qualifications and transcripts)
• employment confirmation and payslips
• birth certificates, marriage certificates and death certificates
• forms of identification including passports, drivers licence or utility and rates notices.

Why notarise documents for India?

The notarial acts of a notary public are widely accepted around the world. Unlike a justice of the peace, whose appointment is generally only recognised in Australia, a notary public will be accepted in other countries - including India.

Accordingly, if you are in Australia but you are intending to do something in India, then it is likely that you would need the services of a notary public to assist you with witnessing your signature or certify your documents in a way that it will be accepted in India. Sometimes this may also require an authentication or apostille from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

If you do not follow this process, your documents may not be accepted in India.

What is the role of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade?

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) website:

The department’s role is to advance Australia’s national interest. This involves working to strengthen Australia’s security and enhance Australia’s prosperity. The department provides foreign, trade and development policy advice to the government. We work with other government agencies to ensure that Australia’s pursuit of its global, regional and bilateral interests is coordinated effectively.

With respect to notary public services, DFAT will confirm on behalf of the Australian Government whether a document has been notarised by a person who is a notary public according to their records. This endorsement by the Australian Government is what gives an Australian notary public 'formal' recognition by foreign governments in other countries. DFAT provides this endorsement in 2 ways - authentication or an apostille.

What is authentication or an apostille?

At its most formal level, in order for Australian documents (ie, government document) or documents that have been notarised by a notary public in Australia to be recognised in other countries, you must either have your document authenticated or stamped with an apostille.

Authentication involves DFAT confirming that the document is either an original Australian Government document or that it has been notarised by a notary public in Australia (this also requires the notary public who has notarised your document to be registered with DFAT). Once the document has been authenticated by DFAT you can take it to the foreign consulate or embassy of the intended destination country for legalisation, which involves that foreign office confirming that the document has been authenticated by DFAT on behalf of the Australian Government. With authentication and legalisation, once your document arrives in the intended destination country and has been stamped by their own government (ie, legalisation) it is basically as though that document had been signed in that country or will be legally recognised by that country.

An apostille stamp simplifies the authentication and legalisation process for certain countries that are signatories to an international convention known as Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. Under this convention, also known as the Apostille Convention, member countries will recognise the apostille stamp from other member countries without needing to go through the authentication and legalisation process. In Australia, DFAT will issue the apostille on original Australian Government documents or documents that have been notarised by a notary public in Australia - in the same way that they do with documents that need to be authenticated, except with an apostille, those documents do not need to be legalised by the foreign office of the intended destination country if that intended destination country is a member of (ie, signatory to) the Apostille Convention.

Is India a signatory to the Apostille Convention?

Yes, India is a signatory to the Apostille Convention. It became a member in 2004 and documents stamped with an apostille came into full legal effect in 2005. Technically, this means that if you need to send a document that you sign in Australia, like a general power of attorney, to India it must first be witnessed by a notary public and notarised, and then stamped with an apostille by DFAT - all of these services are available through our office if you need assistance.

In practice? Well, it seems the process is a little different from the technical normality followed by other member countries of the Apostille Convention. In those countries, once your document has been stamped with an apostille you can send it to those countries and it would be accepted without a problem. On the other hand, with India it seems from our experience that many people who request documents to be sent to them from Australia still want to have the documents countersigned by the Indian Consulate, which is performed through the outsource agent, VFS, and VFS still require those documents to be stamped with an apostille.

So even though the purpose of the apostille, and the reason why countries like India become members of the Apostille Convention, is to avoid the relative complexities of authentication and legalisation in favour of a more simple process, the demand in India for documents to be stamped by the local foreign office (ie, the Indian Consulate) means there really is no benefit - especially for you, the person who needs to manage the process for whatever document you are sending to India. The processing office's requirement (ie, VFS requirement) for documents to be stamped with an apostille really is no different to the authentication and legalisation process except that obtaining an apostille stamp from DFAT is more expensive than the authentication. So in fact, not only is there no benefit, but now it is more expensive. For those of you familiar with the bureaucracy and red tape especially through the government and legal system in India, then this will be of no surprise to you.

What should I do now?

Still not clear? We appreciate that this process can be both confusing and overwhelming regardless of whether you have done it before or you are going through it for the first time. You will probably also find that people working in this area (ie, lawyers, VFS officers, Consulate officials and even public notaries) may not know what is required - and that presents itself as a real problem. Unfortunately, uncertainty and inconsistency can mean unnecessary delays and additional cost.

Our experience is that as long as your document will be accepted for its intended purposes then that's the 'right' process. To this end, you will need to see direction from whoever has asked you to have your document notarised and they should be able to provide you with advice as to what 'they require' and at the end of the day, the majority of our clients simply require some read stamps and a red seal to satisfy their recipient.

Whatever the case may be, the first step in your journey will generally be having your document notarised and that is our service to you.

To obtain a quote on our notary public services for India, please visit https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/notary-fees/.

Acknowledgements

This blog is supported and maintained by Phang Legal. Phang Legal is a leading provider of notary public services in Sydney. With offices conveniently located in Parramatta, Phang Legal supports and services the Indian community across Sydney with readily available and easily accessible notary public services at highly competitive rates.

For more information regarding notary public services for documents going to India, view our notary publications at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/jurisdiction/india-notary/.

Frequently asked questions regarding our notary public services can also be found at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/faqs/.

For Hindi to English translation services by NAATI accredited translators, see https://hindi-naati-translation.blogspot.com.au/.

Ern Phang
Notary Public

Ern Phang is the solicitor director of Phang Legal and a notary public. Ern regularly writes about his experiences as a notary public, including the kinds of problems and solutions that his clients face when sending documents to India.

IMPORTANT: the information in this article is correct at the time of publication, however the law constantly changes. This means you should always refer to the most recent articles because we try to update this blog on a regular basis with the most current information.

Sad and Shocking News - Our Condolences to Prabha Kumar's Family

Murdered in Parramatta Park

Ms Prabha Arun Kumar, a 41-year-old IT worker from India, was found stabbed to death at Parramatta Park about 9.30pm on Saturday night (7 March 2015). News report indicate that her husband was in India and on the phone with her at the time of the attack. He heard her scream. Mr Kumar has since returned to Sydney to identify his wife's body. Police are still investigating.

Any news of violent crime, especially murder, will always raise concerns about personal safety. It's traumatic. With my office in Parramatta (although in a different part of Parramatta) this incident is particularly relevant to me, my staff and to many of my clients who live around this local area - many of them naturally part of the Indian community. While this isn't being reported as being a racially motivated attack, I imagine that this is no comfort to the Indian residents of Parramatta, Westmead, Harris Park or surrounding suburbs.

The killer has not been identified or caught. I urge anyone who may know anything (even if they think nothing of it) about the attack on Ms Kumar or notices any suspicious or criminal behaviour to report it to the police immediately. Be vigilant and stay safe.

On behalf of myself and all the staff at Phang Legal, our condolences go out to Ms Kumar's family and friends - especially her husband and their young daughter.

Ern Phang
Notary Public

Ern Phang is the solicitor director of Phang Legal and a notary public. Ern regularly writes about his experiences as a notary public, including the kinds of problems and solutions that his clients face when sending documents to India.

Important Changes to the Indian Drivers Licence Verification process (IDLV)

www.notary-parramatta.com.au

From January 2015, the requirements of the Indian Drivers Licence Verification has changed.

VFS will no longer accept notarised documents that have been authenticated by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Instead, documents must now be stamped with an apostille from DFAT.

Unfortunately, these changes were made in silence - only appearing in an updated checklist on the VFS website sometime in January 2015. There was no warning, notification or announcement of the change. VFS is not offering any sort of transition period for documents that have already been authenticated meaning that documents that had already been authenticated will now be rejected.

Of course for many of our clients, who have previously authenticated their documents but not lodged them with VFS for whatever reason (ie, they are waiting on other documents) this change becomes another inconvenience in the long list of other inconveniences and hurdles put in front of them by the bureaucratic red tape and government processes.

(if you have trouble viewing the flowchart because of the size of your screen, you can use the enlarge and reduce buttons on the left corner to adjust the size to fit).

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Special Offers and Current Pricing

So what can we do to help? If you find that you have been caught out by this change, and depending on when your documents were notarised or authenticated, we are offering discount specials to help clients like you 'fix' their documents with an apostille in order for VFS to accept them.

For everyone else, we are pleased to announce that even though the cost of the apostille is higher than authentication, for a limited time we are keeping our existing pricing and absorbing the price difference ourselves - which means savings for you!

To obtain a quote on our notary public services for India, please visit https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/notary-fees/.

Acknowledgements

This blog is supported and maintained by Phang Legal. Phang Legal is a leading provider of notary public services in Sydney. With offices conveniently located in Parramatta, Phang Legal supports and services the Indian community across Sydney with readily available and easily accessible notary public services at highly competitive rates.

For more information regarding notary public services for documents going to India, view our notary publications at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/jurisdiction/india-notary/.

Frequently asked questions regarding our notary public services can also be found at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/faqs/.

For Hindi to English translation services by NAATI accredited translators, see https://hindi-naati-translation.blogspot.com.au/.

Ern Phang
Notary Public

Ern Phang is the solicitor director of Phang Legal and a notary public. Ern regularly writes about his experiences as a notary public, including the kinds of problems and solutions that his clients face when sending documents to India.

IMPORTANT: the information in this article is correct at the time of publication, however the law constantly changes. This means you should always refer to the most recent articles because we try to update this blog on a regular basis with the most current information.