With every country, there's a formal process that should be followed in order for documents signed or certified in Australia to be valid in that country. Generally, this means documents must be stamped with an apostille or authenticated and then legalised by the foreign office of that country in Australia. For India, the requirement is apostille.
If the document that you're sending is NOT an original Australian government-issued document, then that document would generally need to be notarised - and that's what we do. For example, if you're appointing someone in India to act on your behalf, then you would normally need to sign a general power of attorney or a special power of attorney (depending on the circumstances). If you are signing these documents in Australia, then they'll need to be signed, witnessed and notarised. If you're not sure of the specific requirements in India for what you're doing, then you need to ask your lawyer.
The majority of our clients sending documents to India will just have their documents notarised without going to the further step of having them stamped with an apostille or by the Indian Consulate/VFS - and that's because they've either been told that their documents only need to be notarised (and nothing else) or when they send their documents to their lawyers or counterparts in India, they're told that the red notary stamp is sufficient. In other words, it looks official enough and that's all.
Of course, you shouldn't just send your documents to India (especially not the original hardcopy document) without checking with your lawyer, and these days it's quite simple/easy to scan or even take a photo of your document.
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.
