Power of Attorney From Abroad for Bangladesh: Embassy Attestation, DC Stamping & Registration

In this guide: Choosing the right instrument · Execution abroad · Steps in Bangladesh · Foreign companies and foreign nationals · What the attorney may and may not do · Controls against misuse · Revocation and termination · If the principal can travel

Summary

A power of attorney executed outside Bangladesh for use here should be signed before, or authenticated by, a Bangladesh diplomatic mission, or, where the executing state is party to the Apostille Convention and the receiving office accepts it, notarised and apostilled. On arrival in Bangladesh it must be stamped by the Collector (Deputy Commissioner) within three months of first receipt, and, if it is irrevocable or authorises the sale or transfer of immovable property, registered. An instrument that misses any of these steps is liable to be refused by the Sub-Registrar, the bank or the court at the moment it is needed.

Choosing the right instrument

• Special power of attorney. Confined to a defined act: selling a scheduled plot, conducting a named suit, operating a named account. This is the appropriate instrument in most cases.
• General power of attorney. Wide authority over property or affairs. Convenient, and correspondingly dangerous if given to the wrong person.
• Irrevocable power of attorney. Given for consideration, typically in land sale or development arrangements. It must be registered, it cannot be revoked at will during its term, and under the Act it survives the death of the principal.

Grant the narrowest power that achieves the purpose. For immovable property, schedule it exactly: district, upazila, mouza, JL number, khatian and dag numbers, and area.

Execution abroad

Route one: the Bangladesh mission

The principal signs before the consular officer at the Bangladesh embassy, high commission or consulate, with photographs and identity documents of both principal and attorney, and pays the consular fee. Most missions expect the document to arrive drafted in the Bangladesh format and unsigned. For land transactions this remains the safest route, because Sub-Registry and Collectorate offices are most familiar with mission-authenticated instruments.

Route two: notary and apostille

Bangladesh acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention on 29 July 2024, and the Convention entered into force for Bangladesh on 30 March 2025. A power of attorney notarised in another Convention state and apostilled by that state’s competent authority no longer requires consular legalisation. Two cautions apply. First, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Finland objected to Bangladesh’s accession, so the Convention does not operate between Bangladesh and those states, and documents from them still require legalisation. Second, practice at individual land offices is still settling. Confirm acceptance before relying on an apostille for a land transaction.

The February 2025 amendments

Amendments to the Power of Attorney Rules 2015, gazetted on 12 February 2025, allow a principal abroad to execute using a Bangladesh national identity card or birth certificate, or a foreign passport bearing a No Visa Required endorsement, rather than only a Bangladesh passport. This removes the principal obstacle for the second generation of the diaspora. The amendments also require an authenticated power of attorney to be sent to Bangladesh within six months of its authentication.

Steps in Bangladesh

• Stamping. Under section 18 of the Stamp Act 1899, an instrument executed abroad may be stamped within three months after it is first received in Bangladesh. The Collector’s office stamps and endorses it.
• Registration. An irrevocable power of attorney, and a power to sell or transfer immovable property, must be registered. A document executed abroad should be presented for registration within four months of its arrival.
• Use. The registered or stamped original, with certified copies, is then used before the Sub-Registrar, the land office, banks or the court.

Plan the courier and the first appointments before the principal signs. Deadlines that run from arrival are easily lost while the document sits with a relative.

Foreign companies and foreign nationals

A foreign company acting in Bangladesh, whether in litigation, before the RJSC or Invest Bangladesh (formerly BIDA), or with a bank, ordinarily grants authority by a power of attorney executed under a board resolution. The resolution and the power are notarised and apostilled or legalised in the home jurisdiction, then stamped in Bangladesh. In litigation, a duly authorised attorney may act as the party’s recognised agent under Order III of the Code of Civil Procedure and instruct advocates. Foreign nationals holding property rights, for example through inheritance, use the same routes as Bangladeshis abroad.

What the attorney may and may not do

An attorney acts only within the written authority, and courts and Sub-Registrars construe powers strictly. A power to “manage” land does not authorise a sale. If the attorney is to sign a sale deed, receive the price, apply for mutation, or file and defend proceedings, the instrument must say so expressly.

Controls against misuse

• Prefer a special power for a single transaction, with an expiry date.
• Require sale proceeds to be paid into the principal’s own account, not the attorney’s.
• Require copies of every deed executed and every receipt given.
• Check the land records periodically for transfers you did not authorise.

Revocation and termination

A revocable power ends by written revocation. Give notice to the attorney and to every office where it has been or may be used: the Sub-Registrar, the land office, the bank. Where the power was registered, register the revocation. A power also ends on completion of its purpose, on expiry, and, unless irrevocable, on the principal’s death or incapacity. An irrevocable power can be brought to an end during its term only on the grounds and by the procedure the Act provides. Where a power has already been misused, act immediately: the remedies include suits to cancel the resulting deeds and criminal proceedings for fraud.

If the principal can travel

A principal who will be in Bangladesh can usually execute and register the power here, in person, before the Sub-Registrar. That avoids the mission, the courier and the arrival deadlines.