Attestation for visa made easy

Come September 1 and applicants seeking visas for higher education or employment abroad need not necessarily travel to Bangalore for attestation of documents. They can get their papers authenticated at the offices of the jurisdictional regional commissioners and additional commissioners.

The State Government will decentralise the process of authentication of original documents by delegating powers to additional commissioners (administration and development), regional commissioners, and additional commissioners (land and maintenance projects) of Bangalore, Belgaum, Mysore, and Gulbarga. Currently, the attestation of documents is done only at the Home Department, Secretariat, Vidhana Soudha, Bangalore. Based on the attestation by the State Government, the Ministry of External Affairs and the consulates concerned take up the documents for further processing. One of the pre-requisites for obtaining visas is that the applicants have to submit attested original documents, such as education certificates and birth, marriage and experience certificates. “Those residing in Bidar, Gulbarga and other districts, had to come to Bangalore to get their documents attested. Besides, over the years, there has been an increase in the number of such applications. The decentralisation will help in streamlining the process,” sources in the Home Department said. The decentralisation will also help companies and private organisations proposing to set up commercial establishments abroad or sign MoUs with foreign companies, as attestation of documents of establishment and registration as per company norms is mandatory. The State Government has obtained approval from the Human Resources Development Ministry for the delegation of powers. A government order delegating powers was issued on August 12. The order will come into effect from September 1. *Government order to be effective Sept 1 *Regional commissioners to attest papers *People of Bidar, Gulbarga to benefit *Decentralisation to help private companies