You are getting worried for nothing.

Yes probably I am overcautious about this computer printed seal/signature of public health department on the certificate

I have one more query:

Usually, Tamil Names follow the below pattern:

Initial (Father's name), Given Name
Example: B Suresh Kumar, where B stands for Babu (father’s name), and Suresh Kumar is the given name of the person.

Any certificate issued by State Government of Tamil Nadu will have the name printed in the way mentioned above. For example in Birth Certificate:

Name of Child: B Suresh Kumar
Name of Father: L Babu
So, the initial B can be easily matched here with father’s name Babu

However on the passport, which is issued by the Central Government of India, always the initial is expanded and written in full as Surname (Example: Suresh Kumar Babu)

Swiss authorities won't know this but can be explained to them easily and they should understand. Still do you think any authorization letter will be required?

Hello All,

As a new member of the forum and a new father, I wanted to detail my experience with immigration and procuring my son's birth certificate.

1) My marriage was registered in Bengaluru and the marriage certificate had to be attested by the MEA when my wife wanted to move to Zurich on a dependent visa. All civil documents (marriage certificates, birth certificates, notarized affidavits) *have* to be apostilled by the MEA. This is due to India and Switzerland both being signatories of the Hague convention of 1961. Over and above this, the Swiss immigration authorities (actually the Migration Office of respective Kanton) retain the power to authorize the Swiss Embassy in India to re-verify the apostilled document. This cost me around 900 CHF and took 2 months to complete. I contacted the Indian Embassy in Berne about this, but they bluntly told me that this is not a matter of their concern. The Swiss consulate in Mumbai hired a private firm to visit my house and my wife's house to verify the authenticity of the marriage. This was all in Oct-Dec 2012.

2) For the birth certificate, I contacted the Zivilstandsamt in Zurich roughly 5 months before the baby was born. The parents' birth certificate (the birth extract from the actual registry of birth from the local municipality, to be precise) and the marriage certificate, all apostilled by the MEA is a *must*. If you do not have a birth certificate, you need to get it done one way or another. Both of us had our birth certificate issued at the time of birth itself, so getting he extract and the apostille was only a matter of time and money. I used the service from www.yourmaninindia.com for this. They were very professional and quick on the task. The service charges are rather high for document procurement from smaller towns, but they get the job done. For the apostilled birth certificates, *no* further verification was done by the Swiss Embassy. We received a Familienausweis within 2 weeks of submitting our apostilled birth certificates. At the time of my son's birth, we submitted this ausweis in original to the hospital alongwith the other hospital documentation. The birth certificate and the updated Familienausweis arrived in my mailbox less than a week after the birth.

My 2 cents: the verification by the Swiss Embassy will happen atleast once, if not at the time of immigration, then at the time of obtaining the birth certificate. I do not think it happens twice, because the investigation is not only to establish the validity of marriage/birth and related documents, but also of your identity. The requirements seem to be especially stringent in Zurich. Planning in advance (3-4 months) for both immigration and for the birth certificate is highly recommended.

I do not think this is true. There was no verification for my wife when she decided to join me in 2012. Maybe it was because she directly went and applied to Switz embassy. Also there was no verification when my child was born in 2015. I heard recently the verification part has been removed for Indian born individuals.

I agree that things have changed since 2012, but I would say 25-30% of the cases still have to go through the extra verification. My guess is this is due to minor inconsistencies. Eg: The address for my wife on the marriage certificate was in Chennai, but by the time she applied for the visa her parents had moved to Gujarat and she put this as her permanent address on the visa application. I know a couple of other guys who moved addresses across states and ended up with the CHF 900 bill as late as April 2014. All their other documentation appeared solid.

Hello Amrita,

I think the computer issued document should be fine. As long as the TN state secretariat is aware of the Chennai corporation issuing such documents, there should be no problem. Just ensure that there is a date of issue on it to prove that it is not older than 6 months at the time of submission in Switzerland.

On the initial/full name problem:
My wife's birth certificate is issued from Dindukkal and the certificate has only the first names of my wife and her parents. Swiss authorities will *not* match the initials with any other documents, because the name of the parents as on your passport has no legal standing here. Taking the example you gave, if on the passport the first name of the person is written as Suresh Kumar and last name as Babu, then there *should not* be any problem. It was certainly not a problem for my wife. I had tried to explain the naming practice, but all they said was they will look at the documents submitted and let me know. But everything worked out fine in the end.

When we got the Familienausweis, the columns of the first names of my wife's parents were left blank. Their names as mentioned on my wife's birth certificate were taken as the *last name* and a note in German/French/Italian at the end said that this certificate is not valid to prove succession. This note did not cause any problems and we got a full birth certificate when our son was born in Zurich. the note only meant that, if the need arose, then there is no legal method in Switzerland to prove the identity of my son's maternal grandparents.