Our college certificates are our most important documents; they can get us a job, brighten our future, and do many more things. But what if you lost your college certificate? Isn’t it scary? Don’t worry; I will help you get your lost college certificate quickly in this article. You should follow these general rules no matter where you are or which university you study.
What to do if you lose your College certificate or degree?
Suppose you have lost your college and other education certificates; first, file a police complaint. Then contact the college or university; they will ask you to apply for duplicate certificates. Submit an application letter and pay the required fees. The university will send the certificates thru the mail within a month.
So it was easy, but many people panic when they know they have lost their educational certificates.
You can read further in this article for the more step-by-step process you can do to get your lost college certificates.
See what did you lose.
As soon as you know you have lost your college certificates, see what other things have been lost with them. Almost every one of us keeps our documents in a file, so losing the file is a pretty bad situation for you because you might lose all the certificates.
Although you may lose all your educational certificates, you can get them back. However, it will take a lot of time, especially if you have done schooling and college in various places.
Possible places where you can lose the documents.
The most common places where you can lose the educational documents of yours. You can go and take a look at these places, which are given below. You might find them easily.
- Venue for job interviews.
- Banks.
- Cyber cafe.
- Taxi
- Restaurants.
- Trains
- Buses
- School
- College.
These are the most common places where people lose their things, and there’s a high probability that you have did this also. So if you have lost your documents, these are the first places to them all.
Sadly if you have lost your documents in any vehicle, especially public transport, there are fewer chances to get them back because they keep moving from one place to another.
Things to do in the first 24 hours if you lose your college certificate.
As soon as you know that you have misplaced your documents. You need to follow some significant things to find it fast because there are high chances that you can get it back during this period.
Here are some steps that you need to take.
- File a police complaint: – The first thing anyone should do is file a missing complaint about your documents. So if someone finds it and uses it for the wrong purpose, you will not be in trouble. Also, they could find your documents with the help of their sources.
- Use social media:- Social media can get back your things. If you have lost your college certificates, you can use WhatsApp groups, Fb groups, and Instagram to get back your documents. Some people are helpful; they can help you get back your things.
- Visit places you went:- In the last 24 hours, visit those places where you went. Nowadays, every place has a CCTV camera installed. Ask the place’s owner if they can help you see the footage. At first, they will say no, but be generous and humble to them. Surely they can help you out.
- Publish a local advertisement: If you have lost your college certificate in your local area. To get it back, you can do a simple thing to give an advertisement. First, go to a local newspaper and get extra help. You can also advertise on local tv channels. This will cost you some money, but this is a practical idea.
Get a digital copy
10 – 20 years back, most people didn’t have internet access, and during that time, if they misplaced their college certificate, imagine the stress. But now things have changed a lot.
If you have your lost college certificate and other documents, first check if you have taken any scanned images or photos on your phone or any cloud storage service like google drive or Dropbox. It’s fantastic if you have taken the image; you can print it out in color format and use it for emergencies.
But if you take no image, here’s what you can do.
- Visit the official website of your college or university.
- See if they are providing a facility to download results.
- If yes, then download the result and use it for the present.
You can apply the same procedure with any institutes where you have studied. It only requires your roll or enrollment numbers and the year you passed out from that institute.
Signup for google drive to store your documents for free!
Contact the college/university.
Now it’s time to do some official work for you. So few lines above, I told you about getting your digital copy of your lost certificate as a result.
But educational institutes do not provide certificates or degrees online because in certificates and degrees, there are a lot of things on the paper like:-
- Official seal of the university.
- Hallmark.
- Original signature of the university head or college head.
- Watermark of the university.
These are things that make a certificate valuable.
So you can contact your college/university using two ways. And based on that, as per my research, I have also mentioned when they will respond to you.
- Using email – 2-3 working days.
- Writing a letter – 7-10 days.
- Going there physically – Depends on the distance of the college.
Tip:- Rather than contacting college, it’s better to go to university because that’s where your certificates will issue.
Apply for a duplicate certificate.
The duplicate certificate is the only way you recover your lost certificate. Here are thing things you need to do to get a duplicated certificate.
- Visit the website of your university. Know the procedure to apply for a duplicate. If you have any doubts, contact them thru e-mail or number.
- Submit your data, including name, address, and roll number.
- Write an e-mail or letter.
- Pay the required fees thru online and offline mediums.
Using these steps, you can apply for your duplicate mark sheet. To know how to write a letter to apply for a duplicate mark sheet, read below.
Application format to get lost college certificate.
This is how you are going to write the letter. You can type it and send it thru post or e-mail this to the university.
To, The Principal or head of university, ___________ (Name of your college), ___________ (college address) Date:__/__/____ From, ___________ (Your Name), ___________ (Course name)' Subject: Application for Issuing Duplicate Certificate or degree. Respected Sir/Madam, Respectfully, I am_________ (Name of the Student) a student of class_____ (Class) having roll number or enrollment number _________ (Roll Number Issued). I am writing this letter to you in order to request you for issuance of duplicate certificate for the ________ (Mention semester /year for which certificate is required) as I have ____________ (Reason – Lost mark sheet / Misplaced during Shifting of House / Documentation Theft/ Mention your reason). Following are the details pertaining to the Lost certificate: Identification Number: _________ (ID Number) Examination Roll Number :________(Examination Roll Number) Semester or year: _______________ (Semester for which needed). Once again request you to kindly issue me the duplicate certificate. Look forward to your quick response. Thanking You, Yours Sincerely, _____________ (Name of the Student), _____________ (Roll Number Number), _____________ (Class)
How will you get your duplicate certificate?
Once you complete all the steps, you will get a tracking link or id to track your duplicate certificate thru the mail.
Most universities never hand over the original degree or certificates. Due to that, the students have first to apply online or offline. Then the university sends it to home or residential addresses thru mail via speed post.
After applying, the university takes 15-20 working days to verify your ID and make a new duplicate certificate.
In some cases, it takes 30-45 days to receive it.
What to do if you never receive a duplicate certificate.
After applying, if you do not get a duplicate certificate within 45 days, you can directly contact the university. They may ask you for some proof of documents whether you are the real person who applied for the duplicate mark sheet.
In that case, you need to submit the following documents such as:-
- Response mail from the university after you have completed the procedure for the duplicate degree.
- Payment receipt.
- Your details.
These are the things that you may require for your duplicate certificate.
At the end
So hope that this may help you all if you lost your college certificate. First, don’t panic if you think carefully; you can find your documents much quicker, and there will be no need to apply for the duplicate mark sheet.
In this blog post, the thoughts I have shared are tested, and there may be some delay and a slight change in the application process.
Thanks for reading!
