Apostille and Document Prep for Indian GV Investors

I’m prepping my documentation for GV. I’m Indian Citizen based out of San Francisco. We are trying to get our marriage certificate and criminal background check done.

Questions:

  1. Did anyone have success getting Marriage Certificate Apostilled? How did they retrieve the latest Marriage Certificate (since SEF looks for last 6 months valid)?

  2. For Indians living in US, did you get criminal background check done through Indian Consulate (Police Clearance Certificate) or FBI Background Check or both?

Thanks,
NK

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For criminal background checks, you need to get your background check from the country of residence. It’s been asked a few times in other threads.

I’m not Indian, but I’m a dual citizen, so our lawyer recommended that we get police clearance from both countries. They say it’s normal in their experience for the SEF to ask for both.

I’m also trying to get the information around that. They put a sticker at the back of original document stating the document is valid. My worry is that I will have to part away with the only original document I have. Can we submit a apostilled copy of original document ?

I think you have to part away with the original. Except I don’t think they need the one you have, they need a certified copy which is valid within a certain time (like 6 months) of application submission. I talked to a service that does apostille in India and they said that you will have to go to the marriage registrate office and retrieve a certified copy.

Yes, they are right. Need to apply for duplicate copy.

At each stage, will we need to get a certificate reissued and apostilled ? Aren’t documents like marriage and birth valid for lifetime; while apostille service, has a validity of 6 months. A document can be apostilled as many times one needs it.

Unf you need to get your marraige certificate with a more recent date - they would like to see that you are STILL married. An apostille merely states that the person who signed off on your certificate is an authorised personnel, but does nothing to say you are still married.

If you are from India, this would mean someone (also could be an agent in India) who can get your marraige certificate re-stamped with a more recent date (less than 6 months).

Hope its helpful.

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Has anyone of you appointed any agency yet to avail of their apostille services in India ? I read that PEC attestation does it at reasonable cost compared to others.

Also, any recommendations on PT attorney with whom I can collaborate for GV application process.

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Neel, I’ve talked to both pec attestation and another service and they both mentioned they can get apostille done in 8-10 days. Prices starting from 2000 inr per document and they go up if you want it done sooner. Will need to mail originals to them or someone you know in India and they can pickup and drop off.

I have a phone call with one of the agents from these services and they mentioned they can apostille PCC from Indian Consulates and Marriage certificate.

For marriage certificate they mentioned, someone will have to go to the marriage registrar office to get a latest certified copy (to meet the 6 month validity requirement for SEF).

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Yes, I found out that it takes about 10-12 working days to retrieve latest certified copy of the marriage certificate. Of course, it depends a lot on the issuing authority and how old/new the record is.

Let me know how it goes for you.

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Good to know! Did you know if there are agents/intermediaries who can retrieve the marriage certificate copy for you on your behalf? We are based in the US and it might be a little challenging for our relatives who are on the older side to work on this.

I had tried to find… But it’s a straightforward and small procedure so I doubt you will find any agent who ld be willing to do that.
Good luck

Thank you for the info.

Btw. I checked and Indian Consulates also issue Marriage Certificates. I might try this:

https://www.cgisf.gov.in/page/marriage-certificate/

Hi Nadeem,

Did you get your marriage certificate and background check done from consulate? Please let me know what the process is

Thanks,

Hi Ravi,

I got my marriage certificate from the consulate. Process is here:
https://www.cgisf.gov.in/page/marriage-certificate/

Total turnaround was < 2 weeks.

Police clearance certificate process is here:
https://www.cgisf.gov.in/page/pcc-police-clearance-certificate/

For PCC, there will be a physical verification by police at the Indian address.

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@nadeemk

Hi Nadeem,

I also got my marriage certificate and PCC from the Indian consulate in New York. Were you able to get the apostille for them through PEC Attestation or anyone else? Any further info on this will be very helpful.

I have sent it to them. Just waiting for it to get done.

I got it done from https://www.apostilleservice.co.in/ they are similar in pricing to PEC. But they are based out of Delhi close to the ministry and they got my documents apostille in 3 business days. Great service, immediately sent me a scan back on WhatsApp which I could use for submission. They also do direct courier back and forth to US. PEC only does pickup and drop off from India.

Thanks for the update Nadeem. I’ve also applied through them last week. Great service and quick communication on WhatsApp.