One is a person who signs your photocopy. The other is a published government announcement of your name change. Mixing them up costs people a wasted trip every week.
A gazetted officer is a person — a senior government officer whose own appointment was published in a Gazette. People ask them to sign or stamp a photocopy.
A Gazette notification is a document — an official published announcement, such as a name change, printed in the Government Gazette.
They share a word and nothing else. If your form asks for an attested copy, you need a person. If it asks for a Gazette copy or Gazette notification, you need a publication. We only do the second one.
Searching for a "gazetted officer near me" and searching for a "gazette name change" feel like the same search. In an office they are two completely different errands, and going on the wrong one wastes a day.
| Gazetted officer | Gazette notification | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A person holding a senior government post | A printed, published government announcement |
| What you get | A signature, stamp and often an official seal on your photocopy | A PDF page of the Government Gazette carrying your entry |
| Where you go | A government office, hospital, college or court where such an officer sits | An application through the Government Press; the result appears on the e-Gazette portal |
| Typical wait | Minutes to a day, if the officer is available | Several weeks, because it depends on a printing schedule |
| Cost | Nothing. Attestation is a duty, not a paid service | Government and service charges apply |
| Used for | Proving a photocopy matches the original | Proving your name legally changed |
| Do we do it? | No — and no private agency can | Yes, this is our work |
The one honest overlap: a gazetted officer is called that because their appointment was itself notified in a Gazette. That is where the shared word comes from. It does not make them able to publish anything for you.
Read the exact wording. In our experience these phrasings map cleanly:
If the form asks for both, they are asking for two separate things: the published Gazette page, plus somebody senior confirming your photocopy of it is faithful to the original.
This is the single most useful thing on this page, and most people do not know it. When the Ministry of External Affairs simplified passport rules, it removed the attestation requirement from the annexures entirely.
"All the annexes that are required to be given by the applicants would be in the form of a self declaration on a plain paper. No attestation/swearing by/ before any Notary/ Executive Magistrate/ First Class Judicial Magistrate would be henceforth necessary."
— Ministry of External Affairs, on the simplification of passport rules
The same set of changes allowed Tatkaal passports to be obtained without the Verification Certificate from a Gazetted Officer that used to be required.
None of this affects a name change. If your passport name is genuinely different from your other records, you still need the Gazette route — the annexure simplification is about paperwork format, not about proving a new name.
Broadly, Group 'A' and Group 'B' (gazetted) government officers — the officers whose appointments are published in the Gazette of India or a State Gazette. In everyday Gujarat terms, people usually approach:
Two practical points. First, attestation is free — an officer performing it is doing part of their job, and anyone charging you for access to one is charging for something they do not own. Second, they will normally want to see the original alongside the photocopy, so carry both.
If you are unsure whether a particular officer qualifies, the honest test is simple: their own appointment or promotion would have been published in a Gazette.
We prepare and file Gujarat Gazette name-change and correction notifications. That is a documentation service, and we charge a fixed fee for it.
We do not provide attestation, we cannot sign as a gazetted officer, and we have no special access to any officer. If what you actually need is a signature on a photocopy, the correct answer is that you do not need us — walk into the relevant government office with your original and your copy, and ask. We would rather tell you that than sell you something you do not need.
We are an independent documentation business in Vadodara. We are not the Government, not the Government Press, and not the Directorate of Government Printing & Stationery.
Send us a photo of the exact line on the form or letter. We'll tell you plainly whether it needs an officer's signature or a Gazette notification — and if it's the first one, we'll say so and you won't need us.
Call: +91 70692 98711 / +91 94267 80195
Normal plan: your Gujarat Gazette within 60 days. Express (extraordinary Gazette): within 30 days — counted from the date full payment is received and your application number is generated. Nobody can fix the Government Press’s exact publication date, so instead of a promise we cannot keep, we give you a real remedy: if we miss the window you get a full refund of everything you paid us — and we still complete your Gazette at no further service charge. In practice most of our filed gazettes publish within about 15 days of filing; the 60/30-day windows are your written safety net. The guarantee is issued in writing with your quote.
