Affidavit of Support for Visa — Stamp Paper Format, Notarisation & Sample

Three things, and missing the third is the usual failure. It has to be executed on non-judicial stamp paper of the value your state prescribes. The deponent has to sign it in the physical presence of a notary — not sign at home and carry it in. And the notary has to stamp it, sign it, and enter it in their register, which produces the number that makes the document traceable afterwards. A page on stamp paper with a signature but no notary entry is a letter that happens to be on stamp paper. Officers who ask for an affidavit are asking for the register entry as much as the words.

Read the checklist for the specific mission and route, because this genuinely differs. Student routes and some dependent applications commonly ask for a sworn affidavit; most visitor routes — the UK's included — ask only for a letter with financial evidence. The practical rule is that you should not upgrade unasked. Swearing an affidavit where a letter was requested costs money and adds nothing, and it occasionally raises the question of why the applicant felt the need. Where the checklist is ambiguous, an affidavit satisfies a request for a letter, but a letter does not satisfy a request for an affidavit.

It is set by state stamp rules rather than by the visa mission, and it varies — commonly a low denomination for an affidavit of this kind. The safest approach is to ask the notary or the stamp vendor in your own state what value they use for a general affidavit, because they do this every day. What matters far more than the denomination is that the paper is issued in the deponent's name, that it is not obviously old, and that the affidavit is executed and notarised on it. A mission is not auditing your state's stamp duty; it is checking that the document is properly sworn.

Whoever is genuinely funding the applicant, and whose income can be shown to support the undertaking. Usually that is a parent, but a sibling, uncle or grandparent is perfectly acceptable where they are the real source of funds. The mistake is choosing a deponent for their relationship rather than their finances — a father with modest declared income swearing to fund a £30,000 course, when the money is actually coming from an uncle who is not mentioned anywhere, produces a file where the sworn statement and the bank statements describe two different families.

The deponent's income tax returns, ideally for two or three years, and their bank statements covering at least six months. Where the funds are from a business, add the business's returns and, if relevant, its registration. Where there are assets being relied on — property, fixed deposits — attach the valuation or the deposit certificates. The affidavit asserts capacity; the annexures prove it. An affidavit that swears to an annual income with nothing attached to show it is the commonest way this document fails, because it converts a sworn statement into an unverifiable one.

Yes, wherever the cost is knowable. “All expenses” is the phrase to avoid: it sounds generous and means nothing, because neither the officer nor the deponent can say what has been undertaken. For a student route, state the tuition figure and an annual living-cost figure, and say for how many years. For a visit, state the trip's approximate cost and the dates. A specific undertaking that matches the annexed income is far stronger than an unlimited one that does not.

There is no fixed expiry, but treat it as tied to the application it was made for. Missions expect an affidavit sworn recently — within a few months of submission — because it asserts a present financial position, and a two-year-old affidavit describes circumstances that may have changed entirely. Reusing an old one for a fresh application is a false economy: the annexed statements will be stale even if the wording still reads correctly, and stale financial evidence is the part an officer notices.

For a visa application, generally no. An apostille legalises a public document for use abroad, and a notarised affidavit submitted as part of a visa file is normally accepted as it stands. Some specific processes — certain university admissions, some immigration routes, occasionally a bank abroad — do ask for legalisation, and where they do, they will say so explicitly. The rule is the same as everywhere else in a visa file: do what the checklist asks and nothing more. Apostilling a document nobody asked to be apostilled buys you a stamp and a fortnight's delay.

They can make an equivalent sworn statement, but not usually on Indian stamp paper, because they are not in India to execute it. In practice a sponsor abroad either swears an affidavit before a notary public in the country where they live, or executes one at the Indian mission there, or — where the checklist allows it — simply provides a signed sponsorship letter with their financial evidence. Check what the receiving mission accepts before arranging anything, because the routes differ and the wrong one means doing it twice.

It is the worst single problem this document can have, because an affidavit is sworn. An officer reading a declared income of one figure against statements showing something materially different is not looking at a paperwork slip — they are looking at a sworn statement that is not supported. Fix the affidavit rather than hoping the difference goes unnoticed. Where the income is genuinely irregular, say so in the affidavit and explain it: variable business income that is disclosed reads very differently from a fixed figure that the statements contradict.

Usually yes, and on student routes the maintenance requirement is often specific about whose account the money must sit in and for how long. An affidavit establishes that somebody has undertaken to fund you; it does not always satisfy a rule that requires funds held in a particular way. Read the maintenance requirement for your route before deciding the affidavit has covered it. Applicants who assume a sworn undertaking replaces the balance requirement are the ones who find out at the decision stage that it does not.

Yes. Send us the draft before it goes to the notary, because errors are far cheaper to fix at that stage than after the stamp paper has been executed. A consultant at our licensed firm will check the particulars against the passport, whether the scope and figures match the annexed income, and — the question worth asking first — whether your route actually needs an affidavit at all, or whether a letter would have done. It is free, and if you do not need one we will tell you that. No consultant can guarantee a visa; the officer always decides.