RPO sounds alert against fraudsters as MEA boosts apostille services in T’gana

Hyderabad: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has made available the apostille or authentication of documents through five authorised outsourced service providers, as advised by regional passport officer of Telangana, J Snehaja, to applicants from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.Speaking to the media at the RPO office in Secunderabad on Friday, she cautioned applicants against falling prey to touts and unauthorised agents who deceive applicants by charging exorbitant fees for this process.

“The apostille or authentication facility will be carried out by the MEA Branch Secretariat, situated on the premises of the RPO in Secunderabad,” the RPO said. Responding to numerous complaints about applicants being swindled by unauthorised agents, Snehaja, who is also the head of the Branch Secretariat urged applicants to visit the MEA portal to locate addresses of the five MEA authorised outsourced service providers operating in various locations in the city.Elaborating on the procedure, Snehaja said, “It is crucial that in the first step, applicants must book slots through MeeSeva centers (in Telangana) and online (in Andhra Pradesh) with the prescribed fee and submit their documents at ‘attestation counters’ located at the respective state Secretariats. Subsequently, the concerned state govt departments will verify the authenticity of the documents, attest them as proof, and hand them over to the applicants.”In the second step, applicants directly submit their documents to the five outsourced agencies, which then forward them to the MEA, Branch Secretariat (RPO, Secunderabad) for apostille. An apostille sticker is affixed on the backside of the document, certifying the authenticity of the origin of a public document, thus making it a legalised document for all purposes by all member countries of the Hague Convention, which India has been a member since 2005.Once the apostille stickers are affixed and returned to the outsourced agencies, the documents are delivered to the concerned applicants, added the official.

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