A Comprehensive Guide on How to Get Your Documents Attested Through HEC

Update (26th December 2019): The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is reportedly going to introduce an online verification and attestation service for educational documents. The new service aims to end forgery and make the process easier for the applicants.

According to a leading English daily, a task force on Civil Service Reforms and Austerity and Restructuring has advised the HEC to supervise academic institutes to launch the e-verification services on an immediate basis. As per the report, the online system will allow degree-awarding institutions to submit educational documents for verification as soon as they are awarded.

Are you struggling to understand the process of HEC degree attestation or simply don’t know how and where to begin? If that’s the case, this step-by-step guide on how to get your documents attested through HEC will definitely help you out.

Whether you are applying to study at a foreign university, seeking to obtain an international scholarship, looking for a job opportunity outside the country or simply planning to move abroad, you will need an educational assessment report. Basically, it serves as proof that you’ve completed the minimum level of education required by an institute, employer or visa processing authorities.

However, you cannot send your higher education documents for an assessment until they have been verified and attested by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.

While it may seem like a daunting and time-consuming task, it’s actually not that difficult. All you need to do is create an account on the HEC eportal and fill an online application. The portal will also ask for the scanned copies of your educational documents. Once the officials at the Higher Education Commission have scrutinized your degree, mark sheet and other relevant information, you will be asked to schedule an appointment. You can then visit your nearest HEC centre for attestation.

Of course, there are a few things you need to keep in mind while requesting the HEC online degree attestation service. Also, it’s important to remember that the Higher Education Commission only attests and verifies graduate and postgraduate degrees.

Here’s a further breakdown of the entire process to help you better understand the HEC documents attestation procedure.

Creating an Account

The first step is obviously to register on the HEC portal. Once you open the webpage on your browser, click on ‘Register’ and enter the required information. This includes your nationality, National Identity Card number and your contact details. You’ll soon receive a verification code via text message or an email.

You can use your NIC number and desired password to log in at any time.

Completing Your Profile

Here comes the (relatively) most time-consuming part of the entire process. However, if you have all your documents by your side, it won’t take you long to fill out the required details.

In this section, you’ll have to add your personal information. This includes educational details from matriculation/O-levels to the highest degree obtained, entire work history and such. Moreover, you’ll have to upload a passport-size photo and scanned copy of identity card along with other relevant transcripts and documents to complete the profile. Just make sure the copies are perfectly readable and all the files are under the size of 500 kb. 

Double-check to ensure all the dates and spellings you’ve entered are accurate. This is perhaps the most important step in the entire HEC degree attestation procedure. 

Once this is done, the HEC degree attestation online portal will mark your profile as complete. You can now move on to the next step.

Degree Attestation Service

Take a look at the navigation column on the left and click on the ‘Degree Attestation’ tab. Then select ‘Application Form’ from the dropdown menu. It will redirect you to another webpage that’ll show you three options:

Attest New Degree

This option is for the people who have either never gone through the HEC degree attestation process or had their documents attested between March 2009 and May 2017, as the HEC online degree verification system back then was not integrated with the Pakistan Qualification Register (PQR). If you are among the latter, you need to get your documents attested again.

When you select this option, you will be asked to choose a degree from your profile for verification. Meanwhile, the fresh graduates who have not yet received their degrees can select their transcripts.

However, make sure to call the Higher Education Commission beforehand to make sure your transcripts don’t require a prior university verification. In case they do, you will have to contact the Controller of Examination at your university first.

Duplicate Attestation

You should choose this option only if you have lost or misplaced your previously attested documents and want to get the duplicate degree or transcript attested. However, if you select this option, you will be required to bring along the police FIR as well as the newspaper advertisement for the lost document. HEC will only accept the ad if you bring in the complete newspaper, not just a cutout.

Update an Attested Degree

As the name suggests, this option is meant for those who had their documents attested through HEC but have now updated them for some reason, such as a change in their surname etc.

However, if you are unsure about which option to choose or face any technical difficulties while requesting HEC degree verification, you can directly call their office.

Contact: 111-119-432

Selecting Documents to Be Attested

You cannot get the photocopies of your degree and marksheet attested unless HEC has verified the originals. Therefore, if you are going through the process for the first time, you’ll have to separately enter ‘Number of Pages for Original Documents’ and ‘Number of Pages of Photocopy Documents’ for each type of document.  

At this stage, the Higher Education Commission’s e-portal will also ask you a few questions. For instance, it’ll inquire if your name on your transcripts and ID card is the same. It will also ask you to confirm that the text on your documents is legible. Please answer there queries accordingly.

HEC Degree Attestation Fee

Here is the breakdown of the HEC degree attestation fee.

Your grand total will be visible at the bottom of the page. Moreover, the amount will be submitted at the time of the attestation.

How to Schedule an Appointment for HEC Degree Attestation

Higher Education Commission takes up to three days to scrutinize your documents. Once the scrutiny is successfully completed, you’ll receive both an email and an SMS alert with further instructions. From that point onwards, you have 100 days to schedule an appointment for HEC document verification and attestation.

If you want to appear at the HEC office in person, simply login to the e-portal and click on ‘My Tasks’. Here you can check the available dates and slots. For cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, these slots tend to fill up quickly. So, it’s important to schedule an appointment as soon as possible.

Don’t procrastinate.

Once you’ve selected the date, download and print the Application Form appearing at the bottom of the grid along with the Bank Challan Form. 

On the day of your appointment, you will have to bring the duly filled application form, original documents, their photocopies, copy of your NIC and the bank form. Make sure to bring an extra set of photocopies as well since HEC will need them for its own record. 

Make sure to get good quality copies of your documents. This is of utmost importance as mediocre or poor quality can result in the rejection of your attested copies from foreign organizations or universities.

Along with the HEC Head Office in Islamabad, the regional centres in Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta also provide the attestation service.

Once your documents are checked and submitted at the counter, you can pay the HEC attestation fee at the bank window on the premises. Usually, the degrees are verified and attested on the same day.

HEC Degree Attestation through Courier

Meanwhile, if you are unable to appear in person for the appointment and don’t want to authorize someone on your behalf to do so either, you can always select the ‘Attestation through Courier’ option. 

If you choose to attest your document via courier, you’ll be required to submit a printout of your application form, original documents and their photocopies, copies of CNIC and the attestation fee to an HEC designated courier company i.e. TCS or FedEx. Please note the attestation fee in this scenario does not include the courier charges.

After you receive the receipt of your payment, log in to the HEC portal and update the status of your application. Usually, it takes approximately 10 days for the Higher Education Commission to send back the attested documents via courier to your address.

In case you need your documents to be sealed in an official envelope, make sure to let HEC know about it beforehand to avoid any future complications.

Fortunately, HEC degree attestation is valid for lifetime. So, you don’t have to go through the process more than once – unless you misplace or update your documents.

If you want to learn more about similar procedures and their fees in Pakistan, such as how to obtain a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis, stay tuned to Zameen Blog – the best lifestyle blog in the country.