Power Of Attorney (POA) attestation in Indian Embassy, New York

[chetanvidhate]

Friends,
Hope the information below, based on my experience will help you someway:

- It is specific to Indian Embassy at NY
- It is for Power Of Attorney (POA) attestation

What documents you need to carry:
*** In originals (along with one photocopy of each document listed below; Embassy will keep it for their records)
- Passport - Photocopy of all front and back 6 pages along with all non-blank pages in between
- Address proof in USA - E.g. US State Driving License
- Original Visa approval notice (e.g. work permits, student visas, family visas ; IMP - business visas not allowed)
- Two sets of POA, printed one side of the pplain paper (stamp paper not required), page size A4 or legal is ok
- Copy of recent bank statement, salary slips etc. (additional proofs, in case required)
- Cash money, charges for ONE POA is $23 (check Indian Embassy NY site for specifics), no restrictions on number of pages

***Some important things to remember for POA
- Do not sign against your name on POA, you will have sign before officer at embassy
- Affix Indian passport size photograph near your name on POA (where you are going to sign) (on both copies of POA)
- Check dates, names, addresses and other contents of POA for any obvious mistakes, typos etc.
- You will have to take two witness signatures on POA, witness can be residents or citizen of USA who is above 21years and has a permanent address here in USA
- Witness does NOT need to be present at Embassy at the time of attestation
- The attestation by embassy is valid for 30days only (at least in state Maharashtra, INDIA), so you will have to notarize it in India Registrar office before it becomes invalid

Some precautions:
- Carry stationary items like glue, pens, staplers etc.
- Carry extra photocopies, passport sizes photos
- Carry a USB drive which has POA draft copied in it, so that you can go to some UPS,FedEX or library nearby to edit and reprint, in case required
- E-mail POA draft to your email address, for the same purpose
- Office operation starts at 9.15, and there is token system so its first-in first serve basis
- Try to get there early before 10am or there are chances that you will have to come next day to collect your POA
- If two or more persons (residing in USA) giving POA to someone in India, all of those needs to be present at the time of attestation with all above original documents and its photocopies

How do they operate?
The Misc services are available in the basement office of embassy. When you enter there, security officer will give you a token number. Once your number displayed on sign board, you will be asked to go to a window where a person will validate your original documents, match the names, address and other essential information with POA content and ask you to sign against your printed name on POA.
Then you will be asked to go to adjacent room where at a window you will have to submit ORIGINAL passport and TWO copies of POA to a officer and pay the service charges in CASH (1 POA = $23) (Remember to collect receipt of it, which later be used to collect your passport and POA). The officer will check a few things like, photos are pasted, your signs are there on POA, both copies of POA matches and you have all required documents (photocopies) attached. officer will then ask you to come back after 12noon (in worse case next day 12noon if processed late). You cannot stay in Embassy so you will have to go out and explore a few options like visiting central park which is a walk-able distance from embassy, NY.
Come back to Embassy 15mins early on given time. Officer will call your name (expect to hear some funny sound versions of your names ) and you will be handed over your original passport and POA after verifying your receipt. Ensure no page of passport missing or torn due to rough handling and POA has embassy stamp on all the pages & photograph and a officer sign with a stamp on last page of POA. You are free to go!
With a proper preparation, visit to Indian Embassy, NY can be nice without any unwanted surprises or embarrassment! Have a nice time there!

(Refer Indian Embassy, NY site for most recent information and holidays)

[akshayindia]

salary slip and bank statement notarization

Hi Chetan,

I need to get the salary slip and bank statements notarized. Do I need to present the original Salary slip and Bank statement in the embassy? I only have the softcopies of them as I do not receive salary slip or bank statement in hard copy. Please help.

[PradeepC]

The NY Consulate website says for POA for Property, you need to apostille it.
Is that correct since Apostille site says if it is apostilled, then you don't need India consulate attestation (as India always follows Hague convention)

[pankajd]

The NY Consulate website says for POA for Property, you need to apostille it.
Is that correct since Apostille site says if it is apostilled, then you don't need India consulate attestation (as India always follows Hague convention)

NY site says get apostilled only if you are a US passport holder or not submitting in person. OS, if you are India passport holder (not US citizen) and submitting in person for attestation at Consulate then you do not need apostilled.

[gita9]

For US passport holders

What should I do differently if I have a US passport? I read that I have to get it apostilled. How do I do that?

Friends,
Hope the information below, based on my experience will help you someway:

- It is specific to Indian Embassy at NY
- It is for Power Of Attorney (POA) attestation

What documents you need to carry:
**** **** **** In originals (along with one photocopy of each document listed below; Embassy will keep it for their records)
- Passport - Photocopy of all front and back 6 pages along with all non-blank pages in between
- Address proof in USA - E.g. US State Driving License
- Original Visa approval notice (e.g. work permits, student visas, family visas ; IMP - business visas not allowed)
- Two sets of POA, printed one side of the pplain paper (stamp paper not required), page size A4 or legal is ok
- Copy of recent bank statement, salary slips etc. (additional proofs, in case required)
- Cash money, charges for ONE POA is $23 (check Indian Embassy NY site for specifics), no restrictions on number of pages

**** **** **** Some important things to remember for POA
- Do not sign against your name on POA, you will have sign before officer at embassy
- Affix Indian passport size photograph near your name on POA (where you are going to sign) (on both copies of POA)
- Check dates, names, addresses and other contents of POA for any obvious mistakes, typos etc.
- You will have to take two witness signatures on POA, witness can be residents or citizen of USA who is above 21years and has a permanent address here in USA
- Witness does NOT need to be present at Embassy at the time of attestation
- The attestation by embassy is valid for 30days only (at least in state Maharashtra, INDIA), so you will have to notarize it in India Registrar office before it becomes invalid

Some precautions:
- Carry stationary items like glue, pens, staplers etc.
- Carry extra photocopies, passport sizes photos
- Carry a USB drive which has POA draft copied in it, so that you can go to some UPS,FedEX or library nearby to edit and reprint, in case required
- E-mail POA draft to your email address, for the same purpose
- Office operation starts at 9.15, and there is token system so its first-in first serve basis
- Try to get there early before 10am or there are chances that you will have to come next day to collect your POA
- If two or more persons (residing in USA) giving POA to someone in India, all of those needs to be present at the time of attestation with all above original documents and its photocopies

How do they operate?
The Misc services are available in the basement office of embassy. When you enter there, security officer will give you a token number. Once your number displayed on sign board, you will be asked to go to a window where a person will validate your original documents, match the names, address and other essential information with POA content and ask you to sign against your printed name on POA.
Then you will be asked to go to adjacent room where at a window you will have to submit ORIGINAL passport and TWO copies of POA to a officer and pay the service charges in CASH (1 POA = $23) (Remember to collect receipt of it, which later be used to collect your passport and POA). The officer will check a few things like, photos are pasted, your signs are there on POA, both copies of POA matches and you have all required documents (photocopies) attached. officer will then ask you to come back after 12noon (in worse case next day 12noon if processed late). You cannot stay in Embassy so you will have to go out and explore a few options like visiting central park which is a walk-able distance from embassy, NY.
Come back to Embassy 15mins early on given time. Officer will call your name (expect to hear some funny sound versions of your names ) and you will be handed over your original passport and POA after verifying your receipt. Ensure no page of passport missing or torn due to rough handling and POA has embassy stamp on all the pages & photograph and a officer sign with a stamp on last page of POA. You are free to go!
With a proper preparation, visit to Indian Embassy, NY can be nice without any unwanted surprises or embarrassment! Have a nice time there!

(Refer Indian Embassy, NY site for most recent information and holidays)

[mady]

Two sets of POA ?

Firstly , thanks so much Chetan for posting such information to help others.

with reference to one of the points you mentioned below, what are these two sets of POA ?

Two sets of POA, printed one side of the pplain paper (stamp paper not required), page size A4 or legal is ok


let me give you a background on what i need, my bank has sent me a specific POA format and asked me to attest that from the Consulate on a 200 rupees stamp paper, my brother sent me the stamp paper (with the format bank provided), i am little confused with the two sets of POA you mentioned :

a) do you mean i should carry two original copies of Stamp paper (which my bank asked for) ?
b) does consulate provide their specific POA ?
c) are u referring to the POA form present on the embassy website ?

My second question to you is , do the witness need to be physically present in consulate/embassy for any verification ?

[QUOTE=chetanvidhate;329758]Friends,
Hope the information below, based on my experience will help you someway:

- It is specific to Indian Embassy at NY
- It is for Power Of Attorney (POA) attestation

What documents you need to carry:
*** In originals (along with one photocopy of each document listed below; Embassy will keep it for their records)
- Passport - Photocopy of all front and back 6 pages along with all non-blank pages in between
- Address proof in USA - E.g. US State Driving License
- Original Visa approval notice (e.g. work permits, student visas, family visas ; IMP - business visas not allowed)
- Two sets of POA, printed one side of the pplain paper (stamp paper not required), page size A4 or legal is ok
- Copy of recent bank statement, salary slips etc. (additional proofs, in case required)
- Cash money, charges for ONE POA is $23 (check Indian Embassy NY site for specifics), no restrictions on number of pages

[AP_OCI]

For US Passport holders - Attesting a Power of Attorney at New York Embassy

This process is for US passport holders assuming you already have a OCI.

Step 1: Sign your POA in front a Notary, who should then notarize it using the wordings needed for an Apostille.
---- Make Sure the Notary uses the form/wording required by your Secretary of States office
------ You can search on google with: (your state name) + Secreatary of State + Apostille
------ Example of the wording: On this ____________ day of ____________ , 20xx ______ , before me, the undersigned Notary Public, personally appeared _______________ (name of document signer), proved to me through satisfactory evidence of identification, which were _________________ , to be the person whose name is signed on the preceding or attached document in my presence.
__________________
(official signature and seal of Notary)

---- The Notary can use the wording directly on the POA document or can attach a form/document with those wording to your POA
---- If you are the one transferring the power to an atorney in India, make sure to paste a picture of you on the POA below your signature (mandatory for NY embassy)

Step 2: Take the signed and notarized POA to a Secretary of States office and ask for an Apostille for a document that will be executed in India
---- State Secretaries office does this process all the time and they should know.
---- Usually this Apostille requies payment of a fee. In my case it was $6.00.
---- The POA, Notary document and Apostille certificate will be stapled in a special way with ribbons running through all pages and Apostille sticker on top of the ribbon.
-------- This makes it a document that is untampered and original which can be submitted at Embassy for attestation

Step 3: VERY IMPORTANT: Make a photocopies of the Apostilled document including signed POA and Notary document
----- This is tough to do with the way the document is stapled, but give it your best shot as this is necessary.

Step 4: Carry following documents to NY embassy
---- Originals: US Passport, OCI, State driving license, POA with Apostille certificate & Application form for attestation with picture on top.
---- Photocopies: 2 copies of US passport (all pages), OCI (all pages), State driving license, POA with Apostille Certificate

Doors open at 8:45 AM and you can go in and collect a token number and be seated. No of Applicants increases after 9:30 so better to be there when doors open early.

Rest of the process is simple and is as documented below in this thread excellently by "chetanvidhate".

[[email protected]]

Please help! GPA for India with US passport and no OCI yet

What should I do differently if I have a US passport? I read that I have to get it apostilled. How do I do that?

Hello Everyone,
Thank you for the detailed information. The only question I have is I dont have a OCI card yet and I'm a US citizen. As I understand Apostilled process is the way to go. Do I even need an OCI card for giving the GPA or an I do it without it? Also, is this notarization performed in Indian embassy at NY or should I be going to the American Embassy in NY?

Appreciate your help in this process.

[Punasan]

For USA Passport Holder, OCI card is not a must

Hello Everyone,
Thank you for the detailed information. The only question I have is I dont have a OCI card yet and I'm a US citizen. As I understand Apostilled process is the way to go. Do I even need an OCI card for giving the GPA or an I do it without it? Also, is this notarization performed in Indian embassy at NY or should I be going to the American Embassy in NY?

Appreciate your help in this process.

For USA Passport Holder, OCI card is not a must.

Indian Embassy does not require OCI card copy.

Recently for POA prepared and drafted in India, I followed following steps to get attested by mail at INDIA CGNY
1. Notarized POA
2. Norarized POA got Apostilled at Harrisburg, PA by mail
3. Apostilled POA got attested at India CGNY by mail as PA falls under CGNY. Sent along with original Apostilled POA, the following: (a) filled form of Attesting request (b) $23 Cashiers check (c) Notarized copy of Apostilled POA (d) Notarized copy of USA Passport (e) as proof residence in USA, notarized copy of drivers licence and (f) prepaid tracking USPS envelope
(g) I was informed OCI card copy is not necessary, hence, I conclude OCI card may not be necessary, but ofcourse, this is for POA drafted in India and to be used in India.

The complete process took 3 weeks, one week for Apostille and 2 weeks for Attesting. The steps in the thread mentioned by other posters were useful as I did receive "boiler plate" email responses from Embassy's helpline. No voicemail were returned promptly until one day I begged in my Vmail that please help out a country fellow and someone was kind enough to call promptly and gave me the list of above items to include and explained the process for Attesting.

Hope the next person may benefit from this clarification.

Yes, it is true for USA citizen POA to be used in India you do not need Attesting and Apositlle is enough. However, still some lawyers do associate more credibility to Attested POA vs Apostille.

You do not need Apostille, if you are doing Attesting in person at the Embassy. The Apostille process verifies the Notary and because Embassy uses the Notary on site, it is not necessary. Apostille is necessary when Attesting process is done by mail.

[Pavithra Venkatesh]

Got my POA done in December 2015

Thanks to the person who posted this, it was very helpful.

For Indian passport holders, ensure the below:

1. Driver license (for ID and address proof). Original and photocopy
2. Passport - Original and photocopy
3. GC or other visas proof - original and photocopy
4. Passport sized photo - 1 is required ... paste it on the page where you will be signing in front of the consular office
5. 2 copies of the POA - one for you and one for the consulate
6. No witness signatures are required (I didn't have any for my POA).

Please ensure you take sufficient photocopies (4-5 to be on safer side) of all above documents - consulate will send you back, if you don't have a photocopy to give them.

Also, ensure you carry EXACT CHANGE - carry sufficient 1s, 5s and 10s. No coins are accepted. I paid $23 in cash. NO CREDIT CARDS, NO CHECKS. If you do not have exact change, u either will forego the change you have to get in return or the consular office may not accept your application...

Plan to be in consular office by 9am, so you get your number soon enough and you can collect your notarized POA in the 12.30 to 1pm window or else you need to wait for 4pm-5pm window.

PLEASE SIGN YOUR POA ONLY IN FRONT OF THE CONSULAR OFFICE (ACROSS THE PHOTO AND BELOW THE PHOTO).

Hope this is helpful.

[ANDANK]

Spacre required for Indian Embassy to Attest..

Guys,

Can you please let me know, how much of space needs to be there at the end of the document for Indian Embassy officer to Sign and provide seal? Will 1/4th or 1/5th of the sheet is sufficient enough?

Do we need to leave space on every page?

Thanks
Anand

Thanks to the person who posted this, it was very helpful.

For Indian passport holders, ensure the below:

1. Driver license (for ID and address proof). Original and photocopy
2. Passport - Original and photocopy
3. GC or other visas proof - original and photocopy
4. Passport sized photo - 1 is required ... paste it on the page where you will be signing in front of the consular office
5. 2 copies of the POA - one for you and one for the consulate
6. No witness signatures are required (I didn't have any for my POA).

Please ensure you take sufficient photocopies (4-5 to be on safer side) of all above documents - consulate will send you back, if you don't have a photocopy to give them.

Also, ensure you carry EXACT CHANGE - carry sufficient 1s, 5s and 10s. No coins are accepted. I paid $23 in cash. NO CREDIT CARDS, NO CHECKS. If you do not have exact change, u either will forego the change you have to get in return or the consular office may not accept your application...

Plan to be in consular office by 9am, so you get your number soon enough and you can collect your notarized POA in the 12.30 to 1pm window or else you need to wait for 4pm-5pm window.

PLEASE SIGN YOUR POA ONLY IN FRONT OF THE CONSULAR OFFICE (ACROSS THE PHOTO AND BELOW THE PHOTO).

Hope this is helpful.

[Punasan]

blank space on POA

Guys,

Can you please let me know, how much of space needs to be there at the end of the document for Indian Embassy officer to Sign and provide seal? Will 1/4th or 1/5th of the sheet is sufficient enough?

Do we need to leave space on every page?

Thanks
Anand

In my case (USA passport), the Embassy stamped and signed on the Apostille page stapled to POA. Only one stamp. Not every page was stamped. I will suggest to leave 1/4th space on first page and on last page. Hope this helps.

[v_vigneshin]

Thanks for the inputs

Thanks to the person who posted this, it was very helpful.

For Indian passport holders, ensure the below:

1. Driver license (for ID and address proof). Original and photocopy
2. Passport - Original and photocopy
3. GC or other visas proof - original and photocopy
4. Passport sized photo - 1 is required ... paste it on the page where you will be signing in front of the consular office
5. 2 copies of the POA - one for you and one for the consulate
6. No witness signatures are required (I didn't have any for my POA).

Please ensure you take sufficient photocopies (4-5 to be on safer side) of all above documents - consulate will send you back, if you don't have a photocopy to give them.

Also, ensure you carry EXACT CHANGE - carry sufficient 1s, 5s and 10s. No coins are accepted. I paid $23 in cash. NO CREDIT CARDS, NO CHECKS. If you do not have exact change, u either will forego the change you have to get in return or the consular office may not accept your application...

Plan to be in consular office by 9am, so you get your number soon enough and you can collect your notarized POA in the 12.30 to 1pm window or else you need to wait for 4pm-5pm window.

PLEASE SIGN YOUR POA ONLY IN FRONT OF THE CONSULAR OFFICE (ACROSS THE PHOTO AND BELOW THE PHOTO).

Hope this is helpful.

I am checking for a template and it has 4 pages of writing and it has no option for witness signatures. Is witness signature mandatory in the POA ?

[puneet1135]

FOR WALK IN ATTESTATION, DO I NEED TO HAVE THE DOCUMENTS NOTARIZED?

I'm reading in this thread that I should not sign the POA, since I'll have to sign in front of the officer. However, if I need to have the POA notarized before going to the embassy, I will need to sign it in front of the notary. Should I or should I not get the POA notarized before going to the embassy?

Thanks to the person who posted this, it was very helpful.

For Indian passport holders, ensure the below:

1. Driver license (for ID and address proof). Original and photocopy
2. Passport - Original and photocopy
3. GC or other visas proof - original and photocopy
4. Passport sized photo - 1 is required ... paste it on the page where you will be signing in front of the consular office
5. 2 copies of the POA - one for you and one for the consulate
6. No witness signatures are required (I didn't have any for my POA).

Please ensure you take sufficient photocopies (4-5 to be on safer side) of all above documents - consulate will send you back, if you don't have a photocopy to give them.

Also, ensure you carry EXACT CHANGE - carry sufficient 1s, 5s and 10s. No coins are accepted. I paid $23 in cash. NO CREDIT CARDS, NO CHECKS. If you do not have exact change, u either will forego the change you have to get in return or the consular office may not accept your application...

Plan to be in consular office by 9am, so you get your number soon enough and you can collect your notarized POA in the 12.30 to 1pm window or else you need to wait for 4pm-5pm window.

PLEASE SIGN YOUR POA ONLY IN FRONT OF THE CONSULAR OFFICE (ACROSS THE PHOTO AND BELOW THE PHOTO).

Hope this is helpful.

[iunknown]

Recent Experience on POA Attested at Indian Consulate - With all details

Hi all:

First of all thanks for this thread as I learned a lot about getting the Power of Attorney attested at Indian Consulate, New York. I would like to share my experience and it would be beneficial for everyone.

We (both me and my wife) have US Passports and also we have PIO cards. We are also in the process of converting our PIO to OCI. We bought a property in India last year and for some revenue related works, we had to give a Power of Attorney to our family friend. Here are the details:

1) Get the Power of Attorney written with all details. The specific purpose for which you are giving the Power of Attorney, the property details etc. Be very specific. Include your passport info, your PIO or OCI info, your father's name, etc.

2) Print the POA in plain paper. We chose legal sized paper because of the following reasons:

i) Our POA has more than 2 pages.
ii) Printing it in legal sized papers will give you some space for affixing your photographs, witness names, address and signatures and notary signatures

3) Since the POA is from both of us (me and my wife). We affixed passport sized photographs at the first page (top right and left).

4) At the bottom of every page (except the last page), we have put our signatures

5) At the last page we specify our name and also two witnesses. List the witness names and addresses.

6) Sign it in front of the notary (also the witnesses). NOTARIZE ALL SIGNATURES. In our case, we had four signatures at last page (including two witness signatures) and two signatures at first and second page. So, there are total 8 . NOTARIZE ALL signatures with notary seal.

7) Sign on top of the photograph (towards the bottom). No need to notarize the signature on the photographs


Once this is done, take this for Apostille. Since we have PIO (or OCI) cards, the POA needs to be apostilled. It is a very easy process. I drove to Trenton (capital of NJ) and the DORES (Division Of Revenue and Enterprise Services) office is in State Street. There are paid parking available one block from this building for $8-$10 for the whole day. Please carry a self addressed pre-paid envelop with you (I took FedEx next day shipping). The receptionist will ask you to go to the 4th floor and you can give the documents at the counter of the 4th floor. You need to sign a small application form (with your name, address and the country in which this document will be used) and a copy of this application will be given to you as evidence. Depending on the type of service you take, please provide a check (personal checks are fine). In NJ there is a service with 8.5 hours turnaround time and it costs $40. There are other ones available (like 2 hours, 1 hour etc., but they are very expensive). The whole process at Trenton took less than 10 minutes.

Since I reached Trenton in the early morning (before 9:00am ), they sent the document the same day itself and I received it on the next day(FedEx).

You can also send it to Trenton and in that case, you can fill out the application form which is available in the State of NJ web site.

The Apostille is an additional page printed and stapled as the first page. Please do not remove the staple. Take two copies of the entire POA without removing the staple

Now take this to the Indian Consulate. Please carry the following items with you:

1) Original passports of both the parties. Only one person needs to be there, but please make sure to carry both the passports.

2) Take copies of passports and other ID proofs of both the parties (driver's license is fine).

3) Though I took address proof of witnesses, I was told that the consulate doesn't care about the witness info.

At the consulate, they will ask you to provide the original POA, copy of POA, original passports, copies of passports and ID proofs (Drivers licence). Pay $23 in cash (they DO NOT accept personal checks, credit cards etc.). If you are able to reach the Consulate early in the morning (around 9:00am) and able to provide the documents before 11:00am, you will get the documents back by 12:30pm. Otherwise, you will have to wait until 4:30pm.

At consulate, they put the seals on the page where the Apostille (in my case the first page), on each photographs and then on every page. They DO NOT put seals on your signature in last page because they told me that they are doing on the Apostille section. Seals are also visible on the last page and the staple is not removed. So, that should be fine.

Overall, the process is not much complicated. But please make sure that you are prepared and everything is with you.