The Gujarat Gazette process, step by step
Seven stages stand between your decision to change your name and the published PDF on the government portal. This page walks through every one — what happens, who does it, and where the days go — exactly as we run it at our Vadodara centre.
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Three parties, clearly divided roles
A gazette name change involves exactly three parties, and understanding who controls what saves a lot of frustration:
- You decide the new name, provide documents, and sign the affidavit in person before a notary. Nobody can do these for you.
- We (Harsiddhi Services) draft, verify, arrange notarisation and the newspaper notice, compile and submit the application, pay the fees you approve, follow up with the press, and deliver the published PDF. This is professional assistance — we are facilitators, not a government body.
- The Directorate of Government Printing & Stationery (DGPS), Government of Gujarat, at Gandhinagar scrutinises applications and publishes the gazette. Approval and the publication date rest entirely with this office.
One more piece of orientation: since July 2021 the Gujarat Government Gazette is published electronically only. There is no printed booklet at the end of this process — the deliverable is a PDF on the official portal, egazette.gujarat.gov.in, downloadable free by you and by anyone who ever needs to verify your name change. If you are still deciding whether you need a gazette at all, start with our plain-language explainer.
The seven stages, from first message to published PDF
- Stage 1 — Consultation (day 1)You tell us what you want to change and why — on WhatsApp, by phone, or at the Chhani Jakatnaka office. We confirm whether a gazette is genuinely needed, whether the Gujarat state gazette or the central Gazette of India suits your purpose, and send a personalised checklist with one fixed written quote. If a simpler correction would solve your problem, we say so here and the process ends at zero cost.
- Stage 2 — Document check (days 1–3)You send photos or bring copies of your ID, address proof and scenario documents (marriage certificate, decree, birth certificate as applicable). We run a character-level comparison of the old-name spelling across everything you own and fix the anchor spelling for the file. The full list by scenario is on the documents page. Nothing proceeds until the set is complete — submitting a partial file is how DIY applications lose a month.
- Stage 3 — Affidavit drafting and notarisation (days 2–7)We draft the name-change affidavit — old name, new name, father's or husband's name, address, reason — on Gujarat stamp paper of the correct value. You sign it in person before a notary, who verifies your identity, administers the oath and records the act in the notarial register. That personal appearance is the legal heart of the affidavit; it cannot be delegated. We arrange the notary appointment; details of the drafting service are on the affidavit page.
- Stage 4 — Newspaper advertisement, where applicable (days 5–12)Most files include a public notice in a daily newspaper matching the affidavit word for word, and the central gazette route requires an original advertisement — for central filings the practice is one English daily alongside a local-language daily. We confirm exactly what your route requires before placing anything, book the insertion, and preserve the original tear sheet for the application. Advertisement charges are billed at cost, separately from our fee.
- Stage 5 — Application to the Government Press (days 7–15)We compile the prescribed application form with the notarised affidavit, the tear sheet, self-attested ID and address proofs and two photographs, and submit it to DGPS with the publication fee. The exact government fee is confirmed with the press at filing and shown to you before payment — official fees change, and we do not quote stale figures. From here the file is in the government's queue.
- Stage 6 — Scrutiny and publication (typically 2–6 weeks after submission)DGPS checks the application: does the affidavit match the advertisement, do the proofs support the old name, is the fee correct, is the format right. Clean files pass; inconsistent ones come back — which is why stages 2–5 are done slowly and checked twice. Once cleared, your notification is queued for an upcoming gazette issue and published with an issue number and date.
- Stage 7 — E-gazette download (publication day)We monitor the portal, locate your notification the day it appears, download the PDF free of charge and send it to you — along with the issue reference and a one-page guide so you can re-download it yourself, forever. This PDF plus your affidavit and tear sheet form the permanent evidence set for every future record update.
Finding and downloading your notification on egazette.gujarat.gov.in
Gujarat's e-gazette portal was launched in July 2021, replacing printed gazettes entirely — a change that works strongly in your favour, because your notification now lives permanently on a government server instead of in a booklet you could lose.
In practical terms, here is what you need to know about retrieving your notification:
- The portal offers a gazette search by criteria such as department or type, gazette part, date range and keyword or reference — you narrow to the right part and the period after your submission cleared.
- Personal name-change notices appear in the gazette part reserved for such notifications; we give you the exact part and issue reference with your delivery so you never have to hunt.
- Downloads are free. There is no charge, no login wall for published issues, and no "premium copy" — treat anyone selling you a gazette PDF with suspicion.
- The downloaded PDF shows the issue number and date along with your old name, new name and details as published — this is what banks, HR departments and government offices verify.
- Save it in at least three places: your email, your phone, and cloud or DigiLocker-style storage. You will use it for years.
The portal's exact menus evolve, so rather than screenshot-by-screenshot instructions that go stale, we hand every client a current retrieval note at delivery — and the portal itself is always the authority: egazette.gujarat.gov.in.
An honest word about how long this takes
Reported practice for the Gujarat route is that publication follows roughly two to six weeks after a complete, correct submission. Around that sit the preparation stages — drafting, notarisation, the advertisement — and any queue time. Our end-to-end service completes in typically 45–60 days on the normal plan (₹3,000) and around 30 days on express (₹5,500). Express buys priority handling at every stage on our side; the service and inclusions are otherwise identical.
| Stage | Controlled by | Typical share of the time |
|---|---|---|
| Consultation, documents, affidavit, advertisement | You + us | 1–2 weeks |
| Application compilation and submission | Us | A few days |
| Scrutiny and publication | Government press | 2–6 weeks (reported practice) |
No one controls the date — so we guarantee it in writing
The gazette publishes on the government's schedule, not ours or yours — no agent controls the date. That is why, instead of a vague promise, we put it in writing: if your gazette is not published within 60 days on Normal (30 days on Express), we refund our entire professional fee and still complete your publication at no further service charge. What genuinely shortens timelines is a file that clears scrutiny the first time — which is the part we do control, and the reason our process front-loads all the checking. A fuller breakdown is on the timeline page.
What we cannot do
We cannot publish the gazette, influence DGPS's decision, or approve our own files — approval rests solely with the authority. We also will not backdate, alter documents, or state a reason in your affidavit that is not true. What we do is preparation, verification, submission and follow-up, done carefully enough that the authority has no reason to say no.
Publication is the milestone, not the finish line
The gazette gives you the evidence; your records still need updating one by one. The order matters, because agencies validate against each other. The sequence we advise: Aadhaar first (most other systems check against it — see Aadhaar after gazette), then PAN (how that works), then bank accounts, then passport where relevant (a name change means a reissue — see passport and gazette), and finally EPFO and insurance records.
Thinking of doing the whole gazette process yourself instead? It is a public process, and you are entitled to — our candid comparison of effort, cost and failure points is in the DIY vs professional help guide. If after reading this page you would rather hand the file to people who run it every week, that is what we are here for.
The bottom line
We built this page to be useful even if you never hire us. If you do, you get the same thing this page gave you — straight answers — plus a team that files, follows up and finishes. The quote is free and binding.
The process — common questions
How long does the Gujarat Gazette name change process take?
Where is the Gujarat Gazette published and by whom?
Do I get a printed gazette copy?
Is a newspaper advertisement always required?
What does the whole process cost?
Can my application be rejected, and why?
Do I have to travel to Gandhinagar at any point?
How do I find my notification on the e-gazette portal?
What happens after publication — is the process finished?
Can I do the whole process myself without a service like yours?
Ready for stage 1? It costs nothing to find out where you stand
WhatsApp your situation and document photos. We confirm whether you need the gazette, which route fits, and send a checklist with one fixed quote — work and payment begin only when you say go.