Domicile Certificate
Apostille in India
A domicile certificate proves where you are ordinarily resident, and it is issued by the revenue administration of your state — a Tehsildar, an SDM or a District Magistrate depending on where you are. Because the issuing officer is often the SDM, this is one of the few documents where the pre-authentication and the issuance can sit in the same office, though they remain separate acts.
All-in price
₹2,100per document
Processing
3–7 working days
plus courier transit
Check this first
An apostille only works for Hague Convention countries.
There are 130 Contracting Parties as of 30 June 2026. If your domicile certificate is going to the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Malaysia, Iraq or Iran, an apostille is not valid — you need embassy attestation instead, which is a different process. Check your destination before you order.
Check your destination countryWho Issues an Indian Domicile Certificate
Issuing Authority
Tehsildar, Sub-Divisional Magistrate or District Magistrate of the applicant's district, under state revenue rules
A domicile certificate issued by this authority is a public document, which means it goes straight to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate for pre-authentication — no notary step.
How the SDM Route Works for a Domicile Certificate
Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM)
3–7 working daysThe SDM verifies the signature and seal of the revenue officer who issued the certificate and attests it. Where the SDM issued it, the attestation is still a separate act.
Ministry of External Affairs
1–2 working days after depositThe MEA verifies the SDM signature against its records and affixes the apostille sticker with its QR code. The MEA accepts no document directly from an individual, so we deposit through an MEA-authorised collection channel.
Does a Domicile Certificate need notarisation first?
No. A domicile certificate issued by Tehsildar is a public document, so the SDM attests it directly and no Notary Public is involved. Notarisation applies to privately-made documents — affidavits, powers of attorney, employer letters and certified copies — where there is no government signature for the SDM to verify. If an agency tells you your domicile certificate must be notarised first, ask them why.
SDM or State Home Department?
Personal documents can be pre-authenticated by either the SDM or the State Home Department. We default to the SDM because it is materially faster, and because the slower route rarely buys the customer anything. The exception matters though: some destination countries and some receiving institutions specifically require Home Department attestation, and getting that wrong means running the whole process again.
| Pre-authentication authority | Typical time | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| SDM Our default | 3–7 days | The standard route for personal documents |
| State Home Department | 10–20+ days | Where a destination or institution specifically requires it |
Tell us the destination country and the receiving institution when you order and we will confirm which route yours needs before anything is submitted. If it needs the Home Department, we will say so — quoted on request.
Domicile Certificate Apostille by State
The SDM is a district-level officer, so the office that pre-authenticates your domicile certificate follows the district where it was issued — not where you live now. The Home Department alternative is state-level. Both routes end at the same MEA counter, and our price is the same from every state.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Telangana
- Issued by
- GHMC or the relevant municipality / gram panchayat
- Home Department route
- General Administration Department, Government of Telangana (Hyderabad)
Hyderabad births are registered by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. A hospital-issued discharge slip is not a birth certificate and cannot be apostilled — the GHMC-issued certificate is the one that can.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Andhra Pradesh
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation, municipality or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- General Administration Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh (Amaravati)
Records for births before the 2014 bifurcation may sit with the authority in the district as it then stood. Tell us the district and year and we will confirm which office holds it.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Maharashtra
- Issued by
- BMC in Mumbai; the relevant municipal corporation or gram panchayat elsewhere
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Maharashtra (Mumbai)
Mumbai civil records are issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Documents registered in Pune, Nagpur or Nashik follow their own corporations, not BMC.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Karnataka
- Issued by
- BBMP in Bengaluru; the relevant municipal body elsewhere
- Home Department route
- Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Government of Karnataka (Bengaluru)
Bengaluru records come from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. Degrees from Karnataka universities take the HRD route rather than the SDM route — that is a different service, quoted on request.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Tamil Nadu
- Issued by
- Greater Chennai Corporation, or the municipality / panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Public (Political) Department, Government of Tamil Nadu (Chennai)
Tamil Nadu civil records are commonly issued in Tamil. Where the receiving authority abroad requires English, a certified translation is needed — the apostille does not translate anything.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Kerala
- Issued by
- The local self-government body — corporation, municipality or panchayat
- Home Department route
- General Administration (Political) Department, Government of Kerala (Thiruvananthapuram)
Kerala has among the highest volumes of documents going abroad, much of it to Gulf states. Several of those — the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait — are not Hague parties, so an apostille has no effect there and embassy attestation is required instead.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Gujarat
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Gujarat (Gandhinagar)
Documents issued in Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara each come from their own municipal corporation. Confirm which body issued yours before ordering a fresh copy.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Punjab
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation, council or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Department of Home Affairs and Justice, Government of Punjab (Chandigarh)
Chandigarh is a Union Territory administered separately from Punjab and Haryana. If your document was issued in Chandigarh itself, the UT administration holds it, not the Punjab department.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Haryana
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Haryana (Chandigarh)
Gurugram and Faridabad records come from their own municipal corporations. As with Punjab, documents issued in Chandigarh itself follow the UT administration.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Uttar Pradesh
- Issued by
- The Nagar Nigam, Nagar Palika or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow)
Late-registered births are common in UP and the certificate will say so. That does not prevent an apostille, but some receiving authorities ask for supporting evidence alongside it — tell us if yours is late-registered.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Rajasthan
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation, council or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Rajasthan (Jaipur)
Rajasthan issues many civil records in Hindi. Where the destination requires English, budget for a certified translation in addition to the apostille.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in Madhya Pradesh
- Issued by
- The Nagar Nigam, Nagar Palika or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal)
Indore and Bhopal records come from their own municipal corporations. Documents from smaller districts follow the local body that registered them.
Domicile Certificate Apostille in West Bengal
- Issued by
- Kolkata Municipal Corporation, or the municipality / panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home and Hill Affairs Department, Government of West Bengal (Kolkata)
Kolkata civil records are issued by the KMC. Bengali-language certificates need a certified translation where the destination requires English.
We do not publish state office addresses here because they change and a stale address is worse than none — check the current one on your state portal, or just send the document to us and we will route it. Stamp-paper values and notary charges are set by the state and vary; we confirm those at order.
What about e-Sanad?
Some state revenue departments issue domicile certificates digitally and are onboarded to e-Sanad; many are not. Check esanad.nic.in for your issuing district.
e-Sanad is the government's own free platform for digitally verifying documents from onboarded issuing authorities. Where it covers your document and your destination accepts it, it is genuinely the better option and we will tell you so. It is not a replacement for a physical apostille sticker in most cases.
What a Domicile Certificate Apostille Costs
Government feesAt cost MEA apostille ₹50 + authorised-channel collection ₹84 + scanning ₹3/page | ₹143 |
Veritas service fee SDM pre-authentication, authorised-channel deposit, handling and tracking | ₹1,957 |
| Total per document | ₹2,100 |
Courier Quoted before payment, charged at what it actually costs | At cost |
The same ₹2,100 applies to every personal document we handle, whatever its page count. Most sites in this market either publish no figure at all or put their calculator behind an email form — on searches where the whole intent is to find out what it costs. Government fees are reproduced from mea.gov.in and passed through at cost. See the full charges breakdown.
Why People Apostille a Domicile Certificate
Study abroad and scholarships
Some foreign universities and scholarship bodies require proof of state domicile as part of eligibility or fee assessment.
Immigration and residence filings
Used to evidence long-term residence in a particular Indian state where a destination authority asks for it.
Employment verification
Occasionally required by foreign employers or background-check providers as supporting residence evidence.
Which Domicile Certificate Do You Actually Have?
This is where applications fail, and it is almost never the apostille itself. Find your case below before you courier anything — a rejected document costs a full second run, not a correction.
Residence certificate
Some states issue a "residence certificate" rather than a "domicile certificate". They serve the same purpose for apostille and route identically — send us whichever your state issues.
Digitally-signed certificateOften rejected
Several states now issue domicile certificates as digitally-signed PDFs. Some SDM offices want a printed copy carrying a verifiable QR code; others require a physically signed and sealed original. Tell us which you have and we will confirm before you courier anything.
Certificate in a regional language
Valid for apostille. A certified translation is usually needed for the destination.
Not sure which you have? Send photos on WhatsApp — we check before you courier anything, and we will tell you if the answer is that we cannot help.
What to Send Us
The original domicile or residence certificate issued by the revenue authority
A photocopy of your passport (photo and address pages)
Proof of address matching the certificate, where the SDM asks for it
Domicile Certificate Apostille — Common Questions
Who issues a domicile certificate in India?
Can a digitally-signed domicile certificate be apostilled?
How much does a domicile certificate apostille cost?
Hague Convention figures verified against theHCCH status tableon 30 June 2026. Government fees from mea.gov.in, same date.
Ready to Apostille Your
Domicile Certificate?
₹2,100 per document, 3–7 working days processing. We check your document for free before you courier anything.
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