All educational documents of foreign origin go through a long process of attestation, whereby Kuwait is not even a signatory to the Hague Apostille Convention. The idea is to protect employers and educational institutions from any possible fraudulent qualifications. The absence of attestation on your degree will disallow you from getting work permits, professional licenses, or admission to various Kuwaiti institutions.

The degree attestation process requires a few primary documents, and if not, such an attestation cannot see the light of day. Your original degree certificate should remain pristine, unsigned, undamaged, unblemished, and not laminated. All concerning mark sheets and transcripts submitted must be for every semester or year of study. A valid passport copy must remain with at least 6 months' validity along with your Kuwait visa copy. Other requirements might include recent passport-sized photographs, copies of a government-associated ID like Aadhaar or PAN card, and an employment offer letter from Kuwait.

Degree attestation involves a systematic three-step verification chain. First, your degree is sent for HRD (Human Resource Development) or HED (Higher Education Department) attestation in the state from where it was provided to you. This first step establishes the bona-fide of the educational institution and certifies the authenticity of your degree.

Attestation of the degree is conducted at the Ministry of External Affairs at the national level, which is the central government's recognition of the attestation conducted at the state level. This is an extremely important step for granting the document international validity and preparing it for embassy processing.

In India, attestation is done at the Kuwait Embassy, where the Kuwaiti diplomatic officials will verify and legalize your document for use within Kuwait. This is the attestation that sends your documents for ultimate legal acceptance in Kuwait.

Once you touch down within Kuwait, the last verification step MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) attestation needs to be carried out on your degree. This in-country process certifies that the embassy attestation is in order and that the degree meets all the local standards for official usage. MOFA attestation is very important to obtain work permits, residency permits, and professional licenses.

Since degree attestation is very time-consuming and complicated, a large number of people take recourse to professional attestation services. Such agencies manage the whole process starting from the HRD to the embassy attestation stage associated with your document so as to ensure proper documentation against the odds of any delays. They offer a tracking system, speedy processing, and professional advice throughout the verification chain.

The full process of degree attestation takes approximately 15-25 working days, depending on the state of issuance and current processing volume. HRD usually takes about 7-10 days, MEA attestation of 3-5 days, and embassy attestation of 5-7 days. Planning well ahead and making use of professional services will help to ensure timely completion.