Personal and everyday letters
The letters you write yourself — to an employer, a school, a landlord, a bank, a panchayat or a consulate. Thirteen documents, each with a live generator, in English and Hindi.
Every generator is free · Word, PDF and print · No signup · Nothing you type leaves your browser
These are the letters an individual writes in their own name: applications asking for something, declarations stating a fact, consents and authorisations permitting an act, and the certificates you draft for an institution to sign. Each generator below produces a complete draft with a live preview and a free Word and PDF download.
Key takeaways
- Applications ask, declarations state, consents permit, undertakings promise. Picking the right one is most of the work.
- Certificates — NOC, character, bonafide — are signed by someone else, but you should draft them. An office signs a correct draft far faster than it writes one.
- Name the purpose on every document. An open-ended letter is both weaker and easier to misuse.
- Where a court, a passport office or a statute requires a sworn statement, none of these letters will do — that is an affidavit.
- Keep a copy of everything you sign. These are the documents people are asked about years later.
Four jobs these letters do
Thirteen documents sounds like a lot to keep straight. In practice they do only four things, and once you can see which job you need, the right document is obvious.
Some ask for something: a leave application, a bonafide certificate application, a transfer application. They are addressed to whoever decides, they state what you want and why, and their strength comes from making it easy to say yes — which usually means answering the practical objection before it is raised.
Some state a fact: a declaration, a self declaration. They exist because an institution needs something recorded in your own words and signature, and they are worth exactly as much as their precision. A figure and a date are checkable; an assurance is not.
Some permit an act: a consent letter, an authority letter, and — from the other side — an NOC. They should be narrow. One act, one person, one end date is the discipline that keeps them safe.
And some promise future conduct: an undertaking, and to a degree an apology, which promises a corrective step. Both need a specific commitment rather than a general assurance.
| You want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Be absent from work or school | Leave application, or leave application for office |
| Ask an institution to certify your status | Bonafide certificate application |
| Ask an institution to certify your conduct | Character certificate |
| Move branch, department, school or bank account | Transfer application |
| State your address, income, status or a gap | Self declaration |
| State a fact about income, assets or dues | Declaration letter |
| Promise to do or not do something | Undertaking letter |
| Get someone to confirm they do not object | NOC letter |
| Permit an act — travel, treatment, data use | Consent letter |
| Let someone act for you at a counter | Authority letter |
| Say sorry, at work, at school or to a customer | Apology letter |
| Invite someone to visit you abroad | Invitation letter for visa |
Drafting a certificate for someone else to sign
Three of these — the NOC, the character certificate and, in effect, the bonafide certificate — are documents about you that someone else signs. People often assume they therefore have nothing to do but ask.
The faster approach is to draft it. Generate the certificate in the issuer's voice with every detail you already know filled in, send it as an editable Word file rather than a PDF, and ask them to check it and print it on letterhead. HR departments, principals' offices and society committees all sign a correct draft far more quickly than they compose one from a request.
Ask for what you will actually need: letterhead, a signature with the signatory's name and designation printed underneath, a seal where the issuer has one, and two originals if the certificate will be surrendered to an authority. You will not get the first one back.
Before drafting any certificate, ask the bank, consulate or office for their checklist. A certificate that is correctly worded for the wrong requirement is still a wasted week, and institutions are much slower to correct a certificate than to issue one.
When a letter is not enough
Every document on this page is signed, not sworn, and that is the line at which these letters stop working.
An affidavit is a statement sworn before someone authorised to administer an oath — a notary or an oath commissioner — which is what attaches a separate legal consequence to a false statement in it. Where a court, a tribunal, a passport office or a statute requires a sworn statement, a declaration or undertaking will simply be refused, however well drafted.
The common cases are a change of name, filings before a court, and several passport and immigration purposes. Ask the receiving authority which they need before you draft anything, and if the answer is an affidavit, use the affidavit formats rather than trying to make a declaration do the job.
More questions about this page
What is the difference between an application and a declaration?▼
Do these letters need stamp paper or notarisation?▼
Can I write these letters in Hindi?▼
Who signs an NOC or a character certificate?▼
How many copies of a certificate should I ask for?▼
When do I need an affidavit instead of a letter?▼
Looking for something else? All document templates, legal notices and complaint guides are free too.