Report by Humayun Kabir from Lisbon Portugal. Foreign Minister Dr.Hasan Mahmood, MP formally handed over the ‘Instrument of Accession’ on behalf of the country at the Apostille Convention accession ceremony in the Netherlands on July 29, 2024.
Through this ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Bangladesh became a party to the ‘Convention on Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization of Foreign Public Documents’ or Apostille Convention-1961.
As a result, the documents attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the country will not need to be re-attested in other countries and the Bangladeshis going abroad will save approximately Tk 500-600 crore every year.
At the beginning of the program, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands welcomed Mr,Hasan. The Foreign Minister in his speech on the occasion explained the necessity and immediate benefits of this agreement for millions of citizens of Bangladesh. He said, as a result of this, students, professionals, and immigration aspirants going abroad will be able to do it faster, easier and easier to get all the public documents that had to be authenticated in the traditional way in the case of getting admission and employment abroad.
Joining this convention is a landmark step for Bangladesh and the country’s students will benefit the most, Dr. Hasan said, because as a result, an electronic Apostille certificate will be issued by verifying the e-APP or electronic Apostille program system, whose authenticity and correctness can be verified from anywhere in the world with the existing QR code on the certificate. This will completely reduce the various types of harassment and suffering of students and professionals going abroad.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs also said that if you use the Apostille certificate issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your country, you will not have to go to foreign embassies or foreign ministries or any other foreign authorities for verification by spending labor and money. This will save approximately 500-600 crores of Bangladeshis going abroad every year.
At present, various documents (such as academic certificates, birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc.) of citizens going abroad and staying abroad for various reasons including taking higher education in foreign universities, applying for jobs, settling abroad, and marrying foreign citizens need to be authenticated by multiple authorities. After the verification of various ministries of the country including the verification of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the service candidates have to appear again at the foreign embassies, foreign ministries of the respective countries, and various foreign authorities for verification, which is very time-consuming, laborious and expensive