Passport & ID Copy
Apostille in India
The single most important thing to know here: your passport itself is not apostilled. It stays with you. What gets apostilled is a notarised photocopy — the notary certifies the copy is a true likeness of the original, and the apostille then authenticates the notary. The same applies to a driving licence, a Voter ID or an Aadhaar copy. Anyone offering to apostille the passport itself has misunderstood the process.
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 passport or ID copy 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 Passport & ID Copy
Issuing Authority
The copy is certified by a Notary Public. The underlying document is issued by the Passport Office, the state transport authority or the relevant issuing body.
A passport or ID copy is a privately-made document, not a government record. That is why it must be attested by a Notary Public before the SDM will pre-authenticate it. Skipping that step is the most common reason a first attempt fails.
How the SDM Route Works for a Passport & ID Copy
Notary Public
Same dayA Notary Public compares the photocopy against your original document and certifies it as a true copy. The original stays with you throughout.
Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM)
3–7 working daysThe SDM verifies the notary's signature and register entry and attests the certified copy.
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.
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.
Passport & ID Copy Apostille by State
The SDM is a district-level officer, so the office that pre-authenticates your passport or ID copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport & ID Copy 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?
A notarised copy has no onboarded issuing authority behind it, so e-Sanad does not apply to this route.
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 Passport & ID Copy 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 |
Notarisation Required for this document before the SDM stage | Quoted at order |
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 Passport & ID Copy
Opening a bank account abroad
Foreign banks conducting KYC on a non-resident applicant commonly require an apostilled certified copy of the passport.
Company incorporation overseas
Registering a company or being appointed a director abroad usually requires authenticated identity documents for each individual.
Property and legal transactions
Foreign notaries and registries acting for an absent party need certified identity documents in authenticated form.
Visa and residence filings
Some routes require a certified copy of the identity page rather than the original document.
Which Passport & ID Copy 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.
Passport copy
Photo and address pages as standard. Some banks and registries ask for additional pages — visas, observations, the signature page. Confirm which pages before notarisation, because adding pages later means running the whole route again.
Driving licence copy
Same route as a passport copy — notarised true copy, SDM, MEA. Frequently needed for exchanging an Indian licence abroad.
Aadhaar or Voter ID copyOften rejected
Apostillable as a notarised copy. Note that some foreign authorities do not recognise Aadhaar as an identity document for their purposes, so confirm it is what they actually asked for.
The original passport itselfOften rejected
Cannot and should not be apostilled — an apostille sticker is affixed to the document it authenticates, and your passport is the property of the Government of India. Only a notarised copy goes through this route.
Laminated documentsOften rejected
Lamination interferes with notarial and government stamping, and laminated originals are often refused outright. A clean photocopy of a laminated document is usually the way through.
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
A clear photocopy of the document — for a passport, the photo and address pages at minimum
The original available for the notary to compare against
Confirmation from the receiving authority of which pages they need certified
Passport & ID Copy Apostille — Common Questions
Can a passport be apostilled in India?
How do I apostille a passport copy in India?
Which passport pages should be certified?
Can a driving licence be apostilled in India?
Hague Convention figures verified against theHCCH status tableon 30 June 2026. Government fees from mea.gov.in, same date.
Ready to Apostille Your
Passport & ID Copy?
₹2,100 per document, 3–7 working days processing. We check your document for free before you courier anything.
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