what is a divorce decree/certificate? To Prove your single status or to remove your ex's name from the passport you need a divorce decree.
A Divorce Decree / Certificate is the final ruling & judgment order from the court which states or provides a legal/official decision over the termination of a marriage. It’s a legal agreement of duties & rights between two parties who are connected with divorce. Totally it’s a cancellation of a marriage.
The divorce decree will be issued by the court. It’s a court order. In some places, it’s called family court. A divorce decree can be obtained in the same court where you have applied for divorce by paying the fees/charges applied by the court. Once you receive the hard copies or true copies of the divorce decree/certificate, you can follow the procedure below for Apostille / Attestation.
What is a Divorce Decree / Certificate Apostille / Attestation:
Once you obtain/receive / get a Divorce Decree / Certificate issued from the court, to Attest / Apostille it from the Ministry of External Affairs in India you need to submit the original decree or true copies.
Apostille to a Divorce Decree / Certificate is legalization/validation of your Documents issued from any courts in India. Attestation varies from State to State and Country to Country.
Ministry of External Affairs ( MEA ) in India will check for the authenticity of these documents.
MEA will check whether the documents are legal & valid or not. Later Attest / Apostille them.
Why a Divorce Decree / Certificate needs Apostille:
A Divorce Decree / Certificate needs Apostille only when you want to use it in other countries apart from India ( Issuing Country ). A Divorce Decree needs to be legalized/validated from issuing state, country to use in other countries.
You need Apostille / Attestation for your Divorce decree for the below reasons.
1. To marry someone again in any country after divorce.
2. To prove yourself single/independent again after a divorce.
3. To remove Spouse name & other details in the Passport or any other Government data Etc.
Procedure to get a Divorce Decree / Certificate Apostille:
To get a Divorce Decree / Certificate Apostille or Attested from the Ministry of External Affairs in India, you need to have the Original Divorce Decree issued from the Court. Or true copies of the Divorce decree issued from the court.
The procedure to get a Divorce decree is given below.
There are two ways of getting a Divorce decree/certificate Attested / Apostilled.
Ministry of External Affairs Attestation ( Apostille ) can be done in 2 ways for a Divorce decree/certificate:
State Attestation for a Divorce decree is getting it attested from the home ministry of that particular state. The Divorce degree can be sent to the home department of the issuing state. So it needs at least 25 to 30 working days for Home department attestation from particular state Home Department. After State ( Home Department ) Attestation, it can be sent to the Ministry of External Affairs ( MEA ) for Apostille.
Italy & Austria are the two countries that usually ask for the State Attestation / Authentication.
Sub Divisional Magistrate ( SDM ) Attestation / Authentication can be obtained by Submitting the documents to the SDM of a particular State / Country. It usually takes 3 to 4 working days for the SDM process.
So after SDM attestation, MEA can easily Apostille the Divorce decree.
State Attestation Process takes a longer time compared to SDM attestation. It’s better to do SDM Apostille since it is cheaper & faster.
If you are traveling to Italy or Austria, then only state attestation is required / mandatory. For all the other Hague nations SDM Apostille is enough, legal, valid, and accepted.
To get Apostille / Attestation on your Divorce Decree / Certificate:
Sign in to leave a comment.