Getting attestation from Indian Consulate needs Apostille.

Indian Consulated added a new requirement for the miscellaneous services like Power Of Attorney requests to them. It says,

• All documents should be apostilled / attested by the Authentication Division in the State Department before submission of attestation at the consulate.

Traditionally we get the document attested from Indian consulate if we want to sign on a power of attorney to be executed in India. Doing it with the Indian Consulate proves that you live overseas. Since we won't be present in front of the consul, we sign in front of the Notary and submit the notorized document to the Indian Consulate. Apparently someone forged the notary in the past so, they added this new requirement to get the document apostilled on top of notary.

Apostille

Secretary of State office in the state capital is the authority responsible for certifying the authenticity of the signature of the Notary who signed the document. They will give their apostille seal mentioning that the Notary is valid. Usually this procedure takes few days for them to do and it depends on the state. Some states have expedited service by paying extra. Otherwise, it just cost around $20 per apostille seal.

Catch 22

We get the Notary if we can't be present at the place to sign a document. We sign it in front of the Notary instead. But these notaries are only recognized within that country. In 1961, several countries including India and USA signed a treaty called Hague convention. This says once a notary is apostilled by the state authority, it should be treated valid by all countries participating in the Hague convention. This means we don't even have to get it from Indian Consulate but not many organizations (mainly banks) recognize this apostille procedure and are strict in getting it signed from Indian Consulate where you live. And Indian Consulates needs it apostilled before it authenticates. Who will tell them that Indian Govt has signed a treaty so follow it!