Indian Drivers Licence Verification - Affidavit or Certificate?

By Ern Phang, Solicitor & Notary Public
Director of Phang Legal. Solicitor since 1998 and notary public since 2005.

Example: the situation

Deepika's Indian passport and drivers licence show her name differently, and the IDLV application asks for an affidavit. Her neighbour, a justice of the peace, offers to witness it for her.

For the IDLV, who witnesses your affidavit matters as much as what it says. Let's discuss your two options.

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.

Example: the solution

Deepika signed her affidavit in front of our notary public instead, because DFAT can only apostille a document a notary public has notarised. We arranged the apostille, and she lodged it with VFS for her IDLV.

To obtain a quote on our notary public services for India, please visit Request a notary quote.

About Us

This blog is maintained by Phang Legal, a boutique law firm with offices in Parramatta and Rouse Hill. We help clients from across Sydney and beyond with personal, professional and timely Legal Services, Notary Services and Apostille Services.

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Phang Legal — Parramatta
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Parramatta NSW 2150

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214/80 Main Street
Rouse Hill NSW 2155

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About the author

Ern Phang — Solicitor & Notary Public

This article was written by Ern Phang, a director of Phang Legal, a solicitor since 1998 and a notary public since 2005.

Ern has been a member of the Society of Notaries of NSW since 2005, a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Notaries since 2013, and a member of the Law Society of New South Wales since 1998.

Ern regularly writes about his experiences as a notary public and the practical issues his clients face when sending documents from Australia to India and other countries all over the world.

Using information in this article
This article provides general information. Requirements, forms, fees and service arrangements may have changed since its original publication. Check the receiving organisation’s current requirements and obtain advice relevant to your circumstances.