Thanks Mangal. Ckecked with wellington embassy NZ applied in the first week of Jan about the file numbers and whether its gone to india or not they said they haven't started to process my application yet. I guess they are waiting for a good date and time to touch my papers.
India Dual Citizenship Mega Thread (Merged)
- Thread starter columbiaman
- Start date
Mangal Pandey said:
If the cards are signed in Canberra/Sydney,then why are the embassies feeding us all this bunk about having to send the applications to India for processing ?Why cant they honestly admit the blank cards and visas are yet to come from the MHA ?
They are obviously following the procedure of doing the pre-verification here (in the country of application),granting the OCI cards and sending it for post verification to India.Funny.
Yup mangal done that waiting for a reply from them. I will let u know wen i get a reply. Wellington nz is good in replying mails fast but they stink(rude) on the phone man and they hang up abrubtly. How abt u have u got urs? wot embassy and at wot stage ur app is at? if u dont mind--
mysticbubbles said:
I remember one question in part A is about the country of current citizenship and date acquired (perhaps this may be missing when the application is submitted). On the other hand maybe they keep changing the requirements for the documents needed.
mysticbubbles
Registered Users (C)
fitness99 said:I remember one question in part A is about the country of current citizenship and date acquired (perhaps this may be missing when the application is submitted). On the other hand maybe they keep changing the requirements for the documents needed.
On second thought, looks like the cert. is proof for "Date and method of acquisition of present Nationality", item 19. in Part B of the application. Under the 'enclosures for each applicant' section, they ask for copy of Passport / citizenship which seems to imply one or the other. But depending on the method of acquisition of present Nationality (like by birth, descent, natruralization etc.), which in our case is naturalization, both the documents become relevant. Passport shows I am a citizen and cert. shows proof of method used. In anycase, CGI Houston says they need it.
mysticbubbles said:
Give them what they want or they wont give you what you want
For some reason each embassy is proving to have their own set of rules.Without fulfilling their requirements you csasnnot possibly hope for your OCI card to be issued.So give them whatever all they ask for.Have a 5-10 min conversation with the embassy official prior to mailing.If they have to contact you for some "deficiency" in the application it will push you behind by a month or so.
I hope you verified that only one notarised set is ok and the other can be a copy of the notarised set.
Your rationale for the naturalisation certificate makes sense.The son of a friend of mine is a US citizen by birth.He also applied for OCI based on his father's passport.With his application he submitted an affidavit signed by his father that XYZ is my son and me & my wife are citizens of India by birth.But he got a call from the embassy that they would still need his birth certificate.Poor guy was born in NY and now lives in California.I did not understand why but makes sense in this line of thinking
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mangal969 said:I am under CGI NY and am at the "File Number does not exist stage" even though it's been above 2 weeks
Mangal you made me laugh so much after reading ur stage(Sorry i know its a serious issue and not to be laughed at). Did you get your file number from cgi ny or did u apply online? I think all these embassies are mucking around. They are sorting this out from 2003. Does it take three years to formulate a procedure--No wonder all the smart intellegent Indians are in foreign countries and not in India.
mysticbubbles
Registered Users (C)
mangal969 said:Give them what they want or they wont give you what you want
For some reason each embassy is proving to have their own set of rules.Without fulfilling their requirements you csasnnot possibly hope for your OCI card to be issued.So give them whatever all they ask for.Have a 5-10 min conversation with the embassy official prior to mailing.If they have to contact you for some "deficiency" in the application it will push you behind by a month or so.
I hope you verified that only one notarised set is ok and the other can be a copy of the notarised set.
We did check and they replied in the affirmative with some hesitancy - I guess they are not sure themselves if its okay. But we got a nice notary officer who went ahead and notarized both sets - just to be on the safe side. As an aside, we do have digital photos albeit professionally taken, whereas cgi-sf says ( in red print) home printed / digital photos will not be accepted - wonder if anyone has had problems with this issue in houston.
Indian4 said:
I know in a way it's funny and in a way it's sad.I applied online and hence have the reference number.File number is supposed to be given by the consulate after processing your payment.Chicago informs of this by e-mail while NY informs of this by snail mail only.
Incidents like these sort of make you realise why you left India in the first place and also despite all the hype, bureaucratic India hasnt changed much over all these years.
Foreign Exchange
basis/mangal/qwert ... anyone: do you know why Indian companies (even hotels) insist on getting paid in US$ and not INRs when concerning "foreigners"? Is there some rule somewhere? If so where? And does this apply to CoIs, NRIs, PIOs and OCIs? I am getting hassled by an Indian company to send a DD in US$ when I can save $$$ if I send it through my CitiBank NRE account.
basis/mangal/qwert ... anyone: do you know why Indian companies (even hotels) insist on getting paid in US$ and not INRs when concerning "foreigners"? Is there some rule somewhere? If so where? And does this apply to CoIs, NRIs, PIOs and OCIs? I am getting hassled by an Indian company to send a DD in US$ when I can save $$$ if I send it through my CitiBank NRE account.
PIO1 said:
Another grey area.
Some info found on most sites - Most Indian Hotels have published their Room Tariff in Indian Rupees. Some hotels have published their Tariff only in US Dollars. Some hotels have published their tariff separately in US Dollars and Indian Rupees. The Indian Rupee Tariff is applicable only for Indian nationals. The US Dollar tariff is applicable for all foreigners and Non Resident Indians – NRI’s. Foreigners residing in India with valid work permits are allowed to settle their bills in Indian currency but will pay the equivalent of the US Dollar room tariff.
Indians selecting hotels with only published US Dollar tariff will require to pay the rate in Indian Rupees converted on the spot at the time of departure, when the payment is being made. On-line Currency Conversion facility is provided on the Home Page of our site. Similarly foreigners and NRI selecting hotels with published tariff in Indian Rupees, will pay in equivalent US dollars as per the conversion rate applicable at the time of making the payment.
PIO1 said:
It all depends on the arrangement that you entered into. If you bought something in Indian Rupees you need to pay in INR; if you bought something in USD you need to pay in USD. The company you are dealing with cannot change the payment terms after the delivery of good (or services). The Sale of Goods Act is clear on that part.
Please note that it may be sometime better to pay in USD since hotels etc artifically inflate the conversion rate to their advantage.
PIO1 said:
PIO1 - The legal position is very clear - you are an NRI as long as you are either a CoI or PIO (need not be PIO card holder) who is resident outside India. So CoI, NRI, PIO and OCIs who are resident outside India are all NRIs as per FEMA. I am quoting the actual definition from the bare act below -
http://iic.nic.in/iic5_a06.htm
http://www.timesofmoney.com/remittance/jsp/tomHome_nriAccFAQs.jsp#26
Who is a Non-Resident Indian (NRI)?
"Non Resident Indian" means a person who is a citizen of India or is a person of Indian origin residing outside India for employment/carrying on business or vocation.
Now look at next rule that answers your question -
Are NRIs allowed to settle their hotel bills in India in Indian rupees? NRIs are allowed to settle their hotel bills in India in Indian rupees.
I had posted this in my previous posts as well. So basically all the hyped up PIO / OCI cards add nothing to your NRI status as long as you remain resident outside India.
If you want to be resident in India then ofcouse PIO / OCI cards are useful.
The unfortunate part is most of the advancements that the legislators / administrators have enacted are not being properly implemented. See below.
PIO1 said:
Following explains this
http://www.nriinternet.com/NRIhotels/INDIA/Hotel_Charge_NRIs_15percentMORE/2_RBI_dual pricing.htm
PIO1 said:
NRI's have the option of paying in rupees or dollars as far as i know.
As far as the harrasing company goes ,did you initially agree to pay in dollars? In that case you have no option but to send in dollars.If it was a grey area then i guess you can send either way.
But will it really be cheaper to send a rupee draft ? As far as i know Citibank incorporates a transfer charge within the conversion rate.If you send a dollar draft the onus of the conversion falls on the receiving company.Say you are sending 100$.The RBI rate is 50.But Citibank will give a rate of 49 and keep 1 as transfer charges.
So if you have to send the company 50,000 you'll have to send a draft of $1000 directly or $1020 through Citibank.
asecretidnew
Registered Users (C)
Chicago consulate have started publishing OCI applicant information on their website. They are publishing information which I feel should not be published. What a crap. . They have posted the following information:
Ref. No: Name of the Applicant USA / Foreign Passport No. OCI No. U-Visa No.
. They have posted the following information:Ref. No: Name of the Applicant USA / Foreign Passport No. OCI No. U-Visa No.
asecretidnew said:Chicago consulate have started publishing OCI applicant information on their website. They are publishing information which I feel should not be published. What a crap.
Ref. No: Name of the Applicant USA / Foreign Passport No. OCI No. U-Visa No.
I agree. This information should have been kept confidential (looks like someone at the Chicago consulate decided to make this information public on the web!
). This makes me wonder how GoI handles all the confidential information they have on all the applicants!On the flip side, looks like a LOT of applications are processed