Hello Paulo,
My responses are quoted below.
Yes, the apostille certifies the signature of officer issuing the
Apostille. However there is no reply from the CRC-Lisboa as to the
acceptance of documents bearing apostille from india which only
implies their denial, but simply do not want to give in writing as it
may lead them in to trouble. (Breach of Article 3 Of Apostille
Convention)
Also, i came to know from one of the lawyer in lisboa who had
approached to CRC, that the documents meant for filing portuguese
nationality from india bearing Hague apostille will not be accepted.
However no Written statement had been issued from CRC.
Let me mention clearly and we are all aware that one can obtain
portuguese nationality by either filing the concerned papers at
Portuguese consulate or getting the same papers attested from
portuguese consulate- GOA and submit at CRC-Lisboa under POA in favour
of a professsional lawyer.
Now for both the cases, an appointment to portuguese consulate has to
be made which takes several months (As evident from the website).
Therefore if one can afford to hire a lawyer then why not get hague
apostille on all the documents and send it to CRC and initiate the
process. Why should one be a victim of any such lethargious practices
& delays for obtaining appointments being adopted by portuguese
consulate and which is completely ridiculous.
As far as follow-up service with local authorities for geniuneness and
verification goes, let me make it clear that the portuguese consulate
is definitley going to follow their own procedure for checking the
accuracy of documents irrespective of the fact whether those being
either received from CRC or submitted directly to them.
Hence it makes no sense whether the documents are attested by
portuguese consulate and submitted at CRC or documents bearing hague
apostille are submiited to CRC or documents submiited directly at
Portuguese consulate. The Verification and checking is all same in all
the 3 cases.
According to me the only benefit from Hague apostille is that one do
not have to make any appointments for nationality or attestations from
portuguese consulate and can directly submit to CRC by the consent of
professional lawyer and get his/her process started.
However the CRC-Lisboa has been not been confirming from their side
for acceptance of documents bearing hague apostille from india.
Regards;
Shashikant.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 11
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:32:22 +0100
From: "Paulo Colaco Dias" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Goanet] Hague Apostille {IMPORTANT}.
To: "'Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!'"
<[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Shashikant,
If both Portugal and India are signatories to the Convention of 5 October
1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public
Documents, I see no reason why Portugal would not accept a document from
India containing the Apostille.
But I think people fail to understand what the Apostille actually certifies.
The Apostille certifies the signature of the officer that issued the
document, not the content of the document.
If there are doubts about the content of the document, the fact that it
contains the Apostille is not going to make anything easier or faster. It
might be a bit cheaper though.
The work of the Portuguese consulates in India is not only of recognition of
signatures from Indian authorities but also the follow up service with the
local authorities to verify if those documents were really issued by them.
This is what takes long. The certification of documents does not take long.
As you must know, the docs submitted through the Portuguese consulate in Goa
are sent via diplomatic mail to the CRC in Lisbon in order to start the
process and then sent back to the Portuguese consulate in Goa so that the
Portuguese consulate can check with the local Indian authorities (office of
births, deaths, marriages, etc) if those documents were really issued by
them. This is to avoid fraud, which unfortunately is common in India.
And that is where the documents then get stuck and the delays occur. They
get stuck in the local Indian Registries. Many times the local Indian
authorities do not bother to respond (because they do not have the time and
also because they do not think they should spend on post to reply and other
times also because they are jealous of the applicants...). Applicants then
have to follow up with the local authorities and many times pay them to
actually process the requests of confirmation from the Portuguese consulate.
This is the reality that not many people know about!
Best regards
Paulo Colaco Dias
