Before saying anything, I will quote the words of my friend Dileep from Iritty when he was asked by his friend about the chance of getting admission in a leading UK university if one has a good IELTS or TOEFL score. Dileep replied like this:
Having a good TOEFL score will not guaranty you a position in a UK university, However I can guaranty one thing if your birth certificate is perfect, go and apply in a Dutch university, you will surely be selected there.
Even though I took his words just with a sense of humor at first, when I talk with Shahina(now she is a graduate(PhD) student in Netherlands), just before I am writing this I understood what Dileep said is not just a joke but only a reality. Our great friend Dileep faced a worst experience arranging a birth certificate for his visa purpose.
Yes if you have an experience of getting a birth certificate legalized for issuing a visa to some countries like Netherlands you may say like this:
It is easier for a mom to give birth to a child than getting a birth certificate legalized for the child.
Since many of tiger’s friends are willing to do higher studies abroad, I hope it will be useful if I mention how to get a birth certificate legalized officially. All the following things will work only if your birth certificate issued by your Tehsildar, is correct and your place/date of birth and names of you and parents in the certificate are excetly the same as in your passport. Otherwise the procedure is cutting throat in the extreme. I will explain it later on . Now follow to see how to get it the simplest case.
You have to count at least one and a half month before you get your Birth certificate leagalized. First you go to Trivandrum(for Keralites) with the original and three xerox copy of the both sides of the original certificate. It is not necessary that you have to go in person, but you can send it with your friends or reletives along with an authorization letter signed by youself.
In the Home department of Secretariat you have to find out the attestation section. you must reach there before noon and write an application in a white paper and affix a court fee stamp of 10 rupees(Stamp may be difficult to get inside the office, so get one before you go there). Be cautious you are there NOT to get the certificate attested, that will be done in a few minutes and that is not officially valid!!! BUT for verification of the certificate. You must tell them what exactly you need, clearly while giving the application and make sure that the original is with you- dont hand it over to the office. You will be given a file number and now your file is inside the popular RED RIBBON. now you can return and after one month you inquire about your file. If it is ready you go there with the original. they will stamp a seal on the back side of your original birth certificate stating it is verified. Of course you might be very happy then, but wait a momment you are only half the way.
Be prepared for a long journey to New Delhi. there you have to go with this verified(attested by state government) certificate, to the attestation section of Ministry of External Affairs(MEA). You might be thinking if the work took 1 month to get verified by state govt. it will take atleast a month there, but luckily you will get it attestad on the same day. Your work is almost finished. The certificate with you is the attested one by the Government of India.
Now you can go to the embassy, the will certify it is Legalized one and they will consider it for issuing you the visa.
But the real problem comes if your place of birth or the names of your parents in your birth certificate has any mismatch with the entries in Passport. That is a long and complicated issue, I will explain it on request later.
Imagine, if getting attested birth certificate if everything is ok, is this much difficut, how difficult will be the procedure for getting a Death certificate attested- Thanks God!!! we will not be here to suffer that….
Thankyou Shahina for discussing the procedure of getting a Birth certificate legalized for Netherlands.
Redears are welcome with comments and suggestions.
