Apostille and Document Prep for Indian GV Investors

Residencies & citizenships Portugal Golden Visa
21

Hi Nadeem,
Can you please tell me where you got the requirement for ‘last 6 months valid’ from?
I know SEF requires the criminal record certificate to be less than 3-months old, but that the only time constraint as far as I know.

I am planning to have my original Marriage Cert apostilled and then it will be translated into Portuguese, but that’s it. I am not going to ‘refresh’ my original Marriage Cert with a recent date, I don’t think it’s even possible.
Or it is something that SEF specifically require for India?

22

Hey all, we just received our Marriage Certificate from the Indian Consulate and it looks less like a certificate and more like a statement that my wife and I are mentioned as spouses in each others passport. Is this in line with your experience and does this document suffice for SEF purposes?

23

Hi,

We got a similar certificate and we got our GV applications pre-approved with it. We haven’t done the biometrics yet though.

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24

Thank you for all the great details here, some questions

  1. I am submitting the Marriage certificate request to SF consulate, should I add supporting documents (notarized copies) for both husband & wife or just the applicant who is requesting it? I am assuming it is latter but want to confirm.

  2. Once I get the MC from SF consulate, I need to ship it to India using 3rd parties to get it apostilled? I see some good service providers already mentioned.

  3. For background check, we can do wither FBI or PCC, any reason to prefer one over another? Is one faster or easy to get & apostilled?

25

Gratuitous doc prep is a small price to pay for smooth execution. If I had to make a decision between two countries, I would be proactive and supply background checks from both countries, with the apostilles and translations. Well before they expired, I’d get fresh background checks and apostilles of everything again, so that I always had current documents in hand.

According to my lawyer, the SEF clerk was very pleased that I had provided a new, current background check and apostille, and the associated translations, since the original had expired subsequent to my application submission. It wasn’t “necessary”, but it was “appreciated”, and administrators have great discretionary power to delay or accelerate your case.

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26

We did both Indian and US Criminal Records check for application. We may only do US criminal check for biometrics for refresh. Getting

Indian PCC is not as smooth as US checks including police visits at your home address. On top of that apostille and courier back and forth really adds to the cost.

You can use Pec attestation for apostille. Or google India apostille and many options will pop up.

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27

Great info here, thanks for all the conv. Does the Apostille have to be done in India for a MC issued by a consulate in the US? Cant it be done in US?

28

Has to be done in India. Consulates don’t offer this service. Many agents can do it for you in India and ship it back.

29

Thanks Naderm, yes I u derstand consulates dont do the hague apostille. But, registered law firms can, i live in Singapore and have had my police clearance certificate issued by the Indian high commission Apostilled in Singapore. Have you explored this for MC?

30

I would check if SEF would accept that. Honestly, I didn’t explore as it was pretty easy to get it done by an agent in India and sent it back to me in US.

31

Thanks Nadeem, I checked with the Portuguese embassy and they said as long as there is a Hague Apostille, its fine. Location doesnt matter. Thanks again for sharing your experiences

32

Portuguese embassy ? They do not know the rules of SEF.
Generally documents should be apostilled by the issuing state or central agency. In india, to simplify the process all documents are apostilled by MEA.

I am not sure how a Singapore agency can apostille an Indian document. They probably apostilled a notarized signature.

33

They can apostille a document issued in Singapore, even if it is a high commission of another country based in Singapore

34

I lived in Singapore myself and I had to go through this process for my wife who is an Indian citizen. I have actually done this process in both manners prescribed here.

1st time - I got it done in High Commission of India in Singapore + Apostille from Ministry of Foreign Affairs (now it’s done by Singapore Law Society) + Portuguese Stamp.

2nd time (this year) - Seemingly, the Indian government has gotten much stricter with PCC, and the process is more rigorous so they verified things in India (with home visits) + MEA authentication + Portuguese embassy stamp.

My only observation is that I would go through a verified channeler and assume things will take a bit longer than expected.

Also, as someone mentioned, I would do ‘extra’ paperwork meaning both native country PCC and PCC for country one is residing in. My thought is if you are paying at a minimum of 280,000EUR for golden visa, why not be extra careful and spend a bit more

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35

My understanding from the discussion above -

  1. Get Marriage Certificate and PCC from the Indian Embassy in US
  2. Use apostille service for ease of apostille. Apostille can only be done by MEA
  3. Might make sense to do FBI background check for comprehensive doc prep. This can be apostilled by the US state?

Do I also need Birth Certificate?

36

How do I get an Indian PCC as a non-Indian national? I was born in India, but left at age 3. I’m a U.S. citizen, and live in the U.S. I tried reaching out to Consulate General of India in New York and to VFS Global, but I get zero replies. Portugal annoyingly require a PCC from my place of birth, even though I’ve never lived there :frowning:

37

My lawyer said that if you can prove you never lived there after turning 16 you don’t need the PCC, but if that’s hard to prove it’s better to just get the PCC.

Are you the primary applicant? If so for the GV application you can just do your US PCC. Dependents need to provide both though.

38

I’m the primary applicant, but I’m applying for Naturalization not GV. I already have my GV, and only needed to submit my U.S. fbi report for that. But Naturalization is much stricter, and requires it from place of birth as well.

39

Are you making your naturalization application yourself, or via a lawyer?
If via a lawyer, then the lawyer of @anonymoous69 is following instructions from the IRN Manual which specifies what the lawyer should fill out and attach in the application: see page 14 of Early Applications for Citizenship - #97 by PTbound.
A PCC is required for each country you reside and resided in after completing 16 years of age --“por cada país em que reside e residiu depois de completar 16 anos de idade”.

40

I’m filing the application via my lawyer. Yes, the law only requires a PCC for each country I reside in after completing 16 years of age. But IRN doesn’t always follow the law and they require it for the country of birth as well. My lawyer says we can fight it, but it may take months or years, or just give IRN what they want, which is easier.

I was able to get the Police Clearance Certificate from the Consulate General of India in New York. It says:

Consulate General of India
New York
USANCxxxxxxx
Date: [dd-mmm-yyyy]

POLICE CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that there is no adverse information in respect of [my name] holder of Passport of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA No. [xxxxxxxxx] on [dd-mm-yyyy], which would render him ineligible for the grant of travel facilities including visa for PORTUGAL.

3 East 64th Street . New York, N.Y. 10065 ’ Tel: (347) 721-9243

And it is stamped by the Consulate General of New York, and also stamped and signed by the Consul. This is apparently the “standard” workflow and reply for non-Indian nationals applying for a PCC from India, according to ChatGPT. I am a US Citizen not an Indian citizen, but born in India, so this is what I get. I don’t get a Seva-style PCC from an Indian police station, which is what Indian citizens get. Those Seva-style PCC are issued in India and hence can be apostilled by India. But I have a Consular-style PCC issued in New York by the Consulate General of India in New York.

Now this is where I’m stuck. How on earth do I get this document apostilled? When I contact firms in the US, they tell me it’s a document issued by India so it needs to be apostilled by India. When I contact firms in India, they tell me it’s a document signed/stamped outside India, in New York, so it needs to be apostilled by USA. So nobody wants to take the document for apostille. And I’m stuck.

When I ask ChatGPT, it says consular documents like my Consular PCC must be apostilled by the country they’re signed in, not the country the consulate belongs to, so it should be apostilled by the USA since it was stamped and signed in New York, USA.

I’m really stuck, so I’d love any advice on this, please!

Any other non-Indian nationals born in India and applying for naturalization with IRN? (Very niche!)

EDIT: I found this link from the U.S. Department of State which makes it clear that the U.S. will apostille Federal documents, which includes by definition, documents signed by a “Foreign consul registered with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Protocol”. So ChatGPT and Indian firms were correct. The U.S. firms were wrong! And I called 6 different U.S. firms and they ALL got it wrong!

department of state apostille rules
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