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/.
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.
