New centre for attestation of documents for Indians in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: A new centre catering to Indian residents requesting attestation of their legal documents will open in Abu Dhabi city within two weeks, a top diplomat told Gulf News yesterday.

“The outsourced company entrusted with the attestation service is planning to open the new centre by early second week of next month in Al Nahyan Camp area, off Muroor Street in Abu Dhabi city,” announced M.K Lokesh, India’s ambassador to the UAE.

The centre will function out of Office No. 201, 2nd floor, Sector E-25, Plot C-37, Al Nahyan Camp.

The new centre’s extended working hours will serve residents well, Lokesh said.

The centre will work from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm, although applicants will be required to submit their documents by 2 pm. At the moment, the attestation service at the embassy is offered from 8am to 12 noon.

With the new company effectively taking over the attestation services from January 2, the service charge of Dh8 per attestation has been reduced to a flat fee of Dh 4.50, Lokesh said. Applicants will have to pay Dh10 extra per transaction towards the Indian Community Welfare Fund, as instructed by the government of India.

Apart from abovementioned extra charges of Dh14.50, the fee for the attestation itself will be Dh40 per transaction. If the attestation relates to a document dealing to property matters, the fee will be Dh80 per transaction.

The documents that can be attested include academic certificates, marriage and birth certificates issued in India, besides power of attorney and other such documents executed by Indian citizens in India or the UAE.

As Gulf News reported on August 28, 2012, the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi selected IVS Global Services Private Limited, an Indian company, to offer the attestation services in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The Indian missions had outsourced attestation services about three years ago and, the previous company that took over the services had been functioning at the premises of the missions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. IVS was selected through a bidding process once the contract with the previous company expired.

The Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai expect about 35,000 and 85,000 documents respectively for attestation in the current year.

IVS has already opened an attestation centre in Dubai that caters to Dubai and the Northern Emirates. The centre at the Business Atrium, No. 201, 202 on the 2nd floor, opposite Al Nasr Club, Oud Metha, in Dubai offers its services from 8 am to 3.00 pm, Sunday to Thursday, except holidays. The contact number is 04-3579545.

Indian missions outsourced passport and visa services to a private company, BLS International, which functions through independent centres in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and at the premises of Indian Associations in other emirates. The embassy said it was difficult to open more attestation service centres because each would mandate the presence of a consular officer.

Currently, BLS collects the applications for passport and visa transactions that are done at the missions and delivers them once they are returned to it.