India Dual Citizenship Mega Thread (Merged)

[PIO1]

I was presented the OCI card by Consul General Satish C. Mehta today, Valentine's Day, February 14, 2006, at the Toronto Consulate in a Special Ceremony for the first OCI Cardholders in Canada who applied in late 2004. A U-visa sticker was also affixed in my Canadian Passport. The OCI card says I am an Overseas Citizen of India but a Canadian National. The U-visa sticker is invalid in Restricted, Protected and Cantonment Areas of India. A special permit for visiting such areas can be separately issued by the Consulate without charge. Both the U-visa and the Card say place of issue "Delhi".

Congrats OCIGuy - you are (I think) the first member of this forum to get an OCI!

 

[Indian4]

Congrats!!!!!!

I was presented the OCI card by Consul General Satish C. Mehta today, Valentine's Day, February 14, 2006, at the Toronto Consulate in a Special Ceremony for the first OCI Cardholders in Canada who applied in late 2004. A U-visa sticker was also affixed in my Canadian Passport. The OCI card says I am an Overseas Citizen of India but a Canadian National. The U-visa sticker is invalid in Restricted, Protected and Cantonment Areas of India. A special permit for visiting such areas can be separately issued by the Consulate without charge. Both the U-visa and the Card say place of issue "Delhi".

COngrats OCI guy very nice to see you so happy. COuld you please let me know how long did ittkae for you from the time of applying to getting the oci card and sticker???

 

[PIO1]

COngrats OCI guy very nice to see you so happy. COuld you please let me know how long did ittkae for you from the time of applying to getting the oci card and sticker???

over 14 Months it seems if he applied in 04. I think I will be going for the record - about 16- 17 months depending on when I get it

 

[Hotdiggety]

I was presented the OCI card by Consul General Satish C. Mehta today, Valentine's Day, February 14, 2006, at the Toronto Consulate in a Special Ceremony for the first OCI Cardholders in Canada who applied in late 2004. A U-visa sticker was also affixed in my Canadian Passport. The OCI card says I am an Overseas Citizen of India but a Canadian National. The U-visa sticker is invalid in Restricted, Protected and Cantonment Areas of India. A special permit for visiting such areas can be separately issued by the Consulate without charge. Both the U-visa and the Card say place of issue "Delhi".

Well, congratulations. I live in Toronto as well, and I saw that ceremony on the Asian news last night. Looks like the consulate just received about 10 stickers, and they made the most of it by handing them out on television. What they're not showing is the frustrating wait everyone else is going through.

What's so hard about printing stickers and booklets, anyway? A country like India can't produce more than a few hundred every few months? What the heck are these people doing? They can print regular passport booklets in quantity, but not OCI stickers?

There was one thing that really irritated me about that news broadcast last night. The news readers kept referring to it in glowing terms as "dual citizenship". The people they interviewed kept saying they were so happy to get "dual citizenship". If I could have, I'd have reached into my TV set and given them a good shake while saying "This is NOT dual citizenship. This is a visa. Just a visa. NOT citizenship. You have no constitutional rights in India, only whatever freedom the government of the day chooses to give you, or take away, by regulation".

No wonder the Indian government hasn't bothered to even try to change Article 9 of the constitution to give us the real thing. Most of our people seem to be too stupid to know the difference. The government is counting on it.

 

[Hotdiggety]

One more thought about those stickers and booklets. I know something about the printing business. Those booklets can't be produced at all, unless they're produced in quantity. The only way they're economical to print, is if they're printed in runs of 10 or 20 THOUSAND at a time, at the very least.

Contrast this with the few hundred that the GoI is releasing to its missions around the world. I think it's a virtual certainty that they're deliberately holding these things back to dramatically slow the whole process down. I can only speculate about the reasons why, but welcome back to the world of Indian bureaucracy.

 

[qwert97]

I was presented the OCI card by Consul General Satish C. Mehta today, Valentine's Day, February 14, 2006, at the Toronto Consulate in a Special Ceremony for the first OCI Cardholders in Canada who applied in late 2004. A U-visa sticker was also affixed in my Canadian Passport. The OCI card says I am an Overseas Citizen of India but a Canadian National. The U-visa sticker is invalid in Restricted, Protected and Cantonment Areas of India. A special permit for visiting such areas can be separately issued by the Consulate without charge. Both the U-visa and the Card say place of issue "Delhi".

I had applied in December 2004 with the Toronto Consulate. I wonder why I was not invited to the ceremony Here is the press release
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5967_1626132,001600060001.htm

OCIguy, based on what I have read on this forum, PIO's applciation was rejected since it did not have mother's name and some other details were missing and was asked to reapply. I wonder how they processed yours in the absence of this information. Can we assume that they are not rejecting all applications but only a few and whats the criteria? I am hopeful again

 

[fitness99]

Well, congratulations. I live in Toronto as well, and I saw that ceremony on the Asian news last night. Looks like the consulate just received about 10 stickers, and they made the most of it by handing them out on television. What they're not showing is the frustrating wait everyone else is going through.

What's so hard about printing stickers and booklets, anyway? A country like India can't produce more than a few hundred every few months? What the heck are these people doing? They can print regular passport booklets in quantity, but not OCI stickers?

There was one thing that really irritated me about that news broadcast last night. The news readers kept referring to it in glowing terms as "dual citizenship". The people they interviewed kept saying they were so happy to get "dual citizenship". If I could have, I'd have reached into my TV set and given them a good shake while saying "This is NOT dual citizenship. This is a visa. Just a visa. NOT citizenship. You have no constitutional rights in India, only whatever freedom the government of the day chooses to give you, or take away, by regulation".

No wonder the Indian government hasn't bothered to even try to change Article 9 of the constitution to give us the real thing. Most of our people seem to be too stupid to know the difference. The government is counting on it.

I agree!

Why do they keep calling it "Dual Citizenship"? It looks like GoI and some of the folks are confused.

 

[qwert97]

I still think that they need to get their act together and start issuing the OCI at a faster pace. I think issuing 2 cards cards at Prawasi diwas, 10 cards in Toronto, 14 in SF and few in Chicago is only a political stunt. I am pretty sure they can do better than that.

 

[romit]

Anybody from SF?

Did anybody hear anything from CGISF?

Thanks

 

[Hotdiggety]

I still think that they need to get their act together and start issuing the OCI at a faster pace. I think issuing 2 cards cards at Prawasi diwas, 10 cards in Toronto, 14 in SF and few in Chicago is only a political stunt. I am pretty sure they can do better than that.

I'm pretty sure that these delays are deliberate on their part. Imagine if everyone got their booklets and stickers in a couple of months. What are they going to do for revenue then? This way, it keeps a lot of people hanging for months, maybe years, and forces them to keep going back to the consulates for visitor visas (C$62 a pop here). The inconvenience and expense to us is not a factor in their calculations, of course.

 

[qwert97]

I'm pretty sure that these delays are deliberate on their part. Imagine if everyone got their booklets and stickers in a couple of months. What are they going to do for revenue then? This way, it keeps a lot of people hanging for months, maybe years, and forces them to keep going back to the consulates for visitor visas (C$62 a pop here). The inconvenience and expense to us is not a factor in their calculations, of course.

Hotdiggity

Since you are in Toronto and have similar circumstances as me, it may be worthwhile to join hands and fight this together. I have tried to contact the consulate general and Mr. bagga but all I get is a stereo type replies. I am planning to speak to the Ambassador Ms. Shyamala in Ottawa. Are there any other applicants on this forum who are dealing with Toronto? I am planning a visit in April and I do not want to spend $62 per applicant.

 

[Hotdiggety]

I agree!

Why do they keep calling it "Dual Citizenship"? It looks like GoI and some of the folks are confused.

They're not confused. This a deliberately created illusion, that they know most people wouldn't question. Think about it - constant use of the word "citizenship", a blue booklet that looks like a passport but isn't, and ceremonies to hand those things out. If they called it what it really was, then it would seem pretty silly to have a ceremony to hand out a visa.

Also, there's the whole thing about giving OCIs to citizens of countries that allow dual citizenship. It's a meaningless requirement, since they're not giving out citizenship, but they're making it sound like you belong to an exclusive club if you get it.

This is a straight con job.

 

[Hotdiggety]

Hotdiggity

Since you are in Toronto and have similar circumstances as me, it may be worthwhile to join hands and fight this together. I have tried to contact the consulate general and Mr. bagga but all I get is a stereo type replies. I am planning to speak to the Ambassador Ms. Shyamala in Ottawa. Are there any other applicants on this forum who are dealing with Toronto? I am planning a visit in April and I do not want to spend $62 per applicant.

qwert97, I'm afraid that speaking for myself, I'm not going to contact any of these people until I'm sure that the process is moving smoothly. I've had too many bad experiences with them, and the less contact I have with them, the better for my state of mental health. In my experience, it's more productive to bang your head against a brick wall. However, I hope you have better luck than me.

 

[PIO1]

How to check status

Hi,

You can actually change the File number on the MHA status check page to see where your consulate is up to.

File no is in the form:
cccbnnnnnnyy

where cccb is the consulate code i.e. USAS for SF or USAN for NY
nnnnnn is the number of the application
and yy is the year e.g. 06

So USAS is up to 671 (Under process)
And they have granted 560.

So just scroll through a few numbers:

e.g.
USAS00066906
USAS00067006
USAS00067106

I managed to see some friends who got OCI on this site just by scrolling through!

You can do a similar thing with the Ref No (replace the first 0 with an I), but file no is better. Hope this makes sense. Bad security - but nice way to see what's going on!

 

[romit]

Hi,

You can actually change the File number on the MHA status check page to see where your consulate is up to.

File no is in the form:
cccbnnnnnnyy

where cccb is the consulate code i.e. USAS for SF or USAN for NY
nnnnnn is the number of the application
and yy is the year e.g. 06

So USAS is up to 671 (Under process)
And they have granted 560.

So just scroll through a few numbers:

e.g.
USAS00066906
USAS00067006
USAS00067106

I managed to see some friends who got OCI on this site just by scrolling through!

You can do a similar thing with the Ref No (replace the first 0 with an I), but file no is better. Hope this makes sense. Bad security - but nice way to see what's going on!

This is pretty good analysis. But I am from San Fran and my reference number is USASIxxxxx06, so there is an I after USAS and also my number is below 669 and it still says the "File Number does not exist".

 

[PIO1]

This is pretty good analysis. But I am from San Fran and my reference number is USASIxxxxx06, so there is an I after USAS and also my number is below 669 and it still says the "File Number does not exist".

I am exactly like you. Untill the MHA gets our applications, start processing them, and updates the status database, we will keep getting file number does not exist. but try subtracting 100 or 200 - and this will give you an indication of where they are at.

 

[Indian4]

I am exactly like you. Untill the MHA gets our applications, start processing them, and updates the status database, we will keep getting file number does not exist. but try subtracting 100 or 200 - and this will give you an indication of where they are at.

PIO lates news from nz is they have sent my application to INdia(MHA) for processing, how long do u think it will take. I asked them for ref nos they say they dont have it and they will send me as soon as they have it. May be another bull

 

[PIO1]

PIO lates news from nz is they have sent my application to INdia(MHA) for processing, how long do u think it will take. I asked them for ref nos they say they dont have it and they will send me as soon as they have it. May be another bull

Seems to be around 4-6 weeks from MHA receipt to OCI in your hand... I think it should start getting close to the 15 days (or 3 weeks end-to-end) that was promised, as the backlog is reduced.

 

[Indian4]

Here are the phone no's buddy

Shri Vayalar Ravi- Minister PHONE- 91-11-24676839 / 24676837
E-MAIL ID minister@moia.nic.in

Hi Mangal Pandey

You said the OCI stickers and cards issued by Aussie says issued in cannbera but the OCI guy from toronto says his one shows India-----Different consulates process in different ways do u thnk??

 

[datruthseeker]

OCI - current status

Hello folks. I am new to this Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) (or is it called Overseas Indian Citizenship, OIC??)....so sorry if my questions are redundant. But after reading the posts here, I am confused about the current status of OCI. Are they accepting new OCI applications? Are they issuing OCI? Is there any thread/link that helps me understand the current OCI situation? I would appreciate any info on (1) how to apply for OCI including documents, fees, etc. (2) How long it takes for the process. Some folks have expressed their unhappiness over the delays. So I am not sure whether to just get a regular mutiple entry visa or apply for OCI right away. Not sure about the PIO card either. I just need a hassle-free visa to visit India frequently for the near term. Welcome any suggestions on the best option among OCI/PIO card/10-yr visa.
Thanks in advance