India Dual Citizenship Mega Thread (Merged)

The India Dual Citizenship will be Operational:

  • In 2003

    Votes: 4 20.0%
  • In 2004

    Votes: 11 55.0%
  • Sometime after 2004

    Votes: 4 20.0%
  • I am skeptical if this will happen

    Votes: 1 5.0%

  • Total voters
    20
  • Poll closed .
hipka said:
Congrats!! Your valuable criticism of GOI will be missed. BTW 17 months is still less than the 48 months it takes to get the brit perm. residence.
Without giving away my age, its been 30+ years to get OCI ;) Thanks Hipka, to you and your employer - GoI.
 
Look of PIO CARD ?

Do you happen to know what you gets when they issue a PIO card. I heard it is a booklet ( looks like passport ) and some kind of visa in passport. What does it says on visa stamp ?
__________________
California Service Center, Oakland DO
 
PIO1 said:
Thanks Indian4, fitness, mangal969 and congrats to mangal panday. We both applied in 2004, but I did a new app again in 06 online. I think future people should fill in the online app its not secure - but there is less chance for typos - mine was perfect.


Question

We are about to go to India and will be doing a lot of travelling. Other than the Visa, we don't need the OCI, so I was wondering can I leave the OCI Certificate at home. The visa seems good enough for customs, so why do I need to carry the certificate around? Can anyone get a definative answer. I got a blank look from the Embassy when I asked the busy clerk.

From what i know you have to carry both.That's what the rule is.
How stupid of them to put the US Passport no on a lifetime validity card !I wonder will the $25 upgrade also include a new OCI card ?

Enjoy not standing in the foreigner's line at Immigration !(Though you may already have done so with the PIO :D)
 
helper00 said:
Do you happen to know what you gets when they issue a PIO card. I heard it is a booklet ( looks like passport ) and some kind of visa in passport. What does it says on visa stamp ?

PIO card holders just get the passport like card.There is no visa.
 
I re-did my fiddling on the MHA website....I can safely confirm that CGINY issues Granted status to 50 candidates/day.Should be an indicator for those with the file nos when they can expect to get Granted status and start the countdown ;) .Today's last no is 809. Remember to skip weekends and public holidays :p :(

I would love to have an update on ths status of Granted people as regards their cards.CGINY doesnt look likely to post this information on their website.I believe there was a Mr Krishnan who was approved late Jan-early feb from NY.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
mangal969 said:
From what i know you have to carry both.That's what the rule is.
How stupid of them to put the US Passport no on a lifetime validity card !I wonder will the $25 upgrade also include a new OCI card ?

Enjoy not standing in the foreigner's line at Immigration !(Though you may already have done so with the PIO :D)

I think they need to map the OCI issuance to a US passport number for USC's. There is a page in the PIO booklet for endorsing a new passport number once the old passport expires...I am not sure if the OCI booklet has any provisions similar to the PIO booklet...
 
mangal969 said:
I re-did my fiddling on the MHA website....I can safely confirm that CGINY issues Granted status to 50 candidates/day.Should be an indicator for those with the file nos when they can expect to get Granted status and start the countdown ;) .Today's last no is 809.

Remember to skip weekends and public holidays :p :(

I did some fiddling based on your earlier response on the MHA website for Houston CGI, and there seems to be no pattern..the highest numbers are processed and the lower numbers are not....hmmmmm...I wonder if Houston is going bottom up.... :rolleyes: :p
 
THe OCI card does have a single blank page (From PIO1's description) or maybe they have some printer technology to overwrite.
But i think the card is married to the U visa..so if your u visa changes,the oci card will also change.
It does make sense to have the passport no if eventually you are going to carry 2 passports (The expired one with the U visa and the current one).
 
fitness99 said:
I did some fiddling based on your earlier response on the MHA website for Houston CGI, and there seems to be no pattern..the highest numbers are processed and the lower numbers are not....hmmmmm...I wonder if Houston is going bottom up.... :rolleyes: :p

Dont look for patterns.Any app that has gone in but has some deficiency will remain as it is.Just see the latest no to get granted status and count the no of apps which have granted status given on that day.They will process the file nos in serial order.
 
As a footnote i can verify for sure that the creation of the file happens in India while the issue of the Grant status happens in the embassy.How ? The file nos list always updates around 10-11AM EST (End of the days play for the babus in India)and the Granted ststus list always updates around 7-8 PM EST (Too early for our babus)
 
Got my Oci Today Hahahahaha

mangal969 said:
THe OCI card does have a single blank page (From PIO1's description) or maybe they have some printer technology to overwrite.
But i think the card is married to the U visa..so if your u visa changes,the oci card will also change.
It does make sense to have the passport no if eventually you are going to carry 2 passports (The expired one with the U visa and the current one).

Hello Everyone

To my surprise the oci card, visa and my passport everything was sitting in my letter box today. What a way to start my weekend im already drunk while typing this guys. I have bought a lotto ticket so if i win a million dollar this weekend well that would be perfect to finish it off.

My special thanks to my good friends who have been very supportive through this journey-- mangal 969, fitness, qwert, basis, merced, ociguy,mangal pandey,pio1 and all the ones i missed out--THANK YOU VERY MUCH---

Now coming to the questions/Answers

The U Visa Number and the Certificate numbr are the same--Link 1(MArried)
The U Visa and the Certificate will have ur Passport NUmber(Inside the last back cover)--link 2

I reckon if the passport expires you dont have to go for another OCI card as u have already been granted OCI-BUT- you need to go for a U VISA-nz$14(not sure) of the price on ur new passport. HCI NZ NEVER SPEAKS OF UR CERTIFICATE EXPIRING BUT IT DOES TALK ABOUT YOUR VISA EXPIRING/CHANGE OVER TO THE NEW PASSPORT.

As the U VISA itself is self contained looks like you need not carry your OCI certificate--(Saying that---No one would know in the international arena that you also have a Certificate :D ). It won't hurt if you carry your card with you as it looks flasher than a Indian passport except for the photo quality- My face looks like a wide screen tele :D Poor photo scanning skills by INDIANS :D .

Parametrs

Date applied - 16 Jan 06
No response from hci nz after that
Didn't get any acknowledgement
No file number
Didn't have the fun opportunity of checking the status on the online MHA site every 5 minutes
Threatnd canclng app hci nz said no go not in my powers to do that :D
Kept mailing and annoying them finally yesterday they said " OCI sent today"--hci nz seems to use 3 words as their default reply for anything :D
17 Mar 06 rcvd my OCI
on the visa it says date of issue 8 Mar 06--

jai hind--mera hindustan---
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Indian4 said:
Hello Everyone

To my surprise the oci card, visa and my passport everything was sitting in my letter box today. What a way to start my weekend im already drunk while typing this guys. I have bought a lotto ticket so if i win a million dollar this weekend well that would be perfect to finish it off.

My special thanks to my good friends who have been very supportive through this journey-- mangal 969, fitness, qwert, basis, merced, ociguy,mangal pandey,pio1 and all the ones i missed out--THANK YOU VERY MUCH---

Now coming to the questions

The U Visa Number and the Certificate numbr are the same--Link 1(MArried)
The U Visa and the Certificate will have ur Passport NUmber(Inside the last back cover)--link 2

I reckon if the passport expires you dont have to go for another OCI card as u have already been granted OCI-BUT- you need to go for a U VISA-nz$14(not sure) of the price on ur new passport.

As the U VISA itself is self contained looks like you need not carry your OCI certificate--(Saying that---No one would know in the international arena that you also have a Certificate :D ). It won't hurt if you carry your card with you as it looks flasher than a Indian passport except for the photo quality- My face looks like a wide screen tele :D Poor photo scanning skills by INDIANS :D .

Parametrs

Date applied - 16 Jan 06
No response from hci nz after that
Didn't get any acknowledgement
No file number
Didn't have the fun opportunity of checking the status on the online MHA site every 5 minutes
Threatnd canclng app hci nz said no go not in my powers to do that :D
Kept mailing and annoying them finally yesterday they said " OCI sent today"--hci nz seems to use 3 words as their default reply for anything :D
17 Mar 06 rcvd my OCI
on the visa it says date of issue 8 Mar 06--

jai hind--mera hindustan---
Congrats Indian4. Great news.......

To answer ur questions -
1. You need not get U visa transferred to renewed passport. You can carry your existing passport which has visa. If you dont want to carry your existing passport (which would become 'old' passport when you get another passport) then you can get it transferred to new passport at nominal fee as mentioned by you.

2. You need not carry OCI Card / Registration Card. I asked this to MHA, MOIA etc and they said that all you must carry is the foreign passport that has the U visa pasted and of course a valid foreign passport if the one that has U visa is no more valid.

Well then enjoy your newly earned status and let us know when are you gonna fly to the country of which now you are an overseas citizen......

I hope you and other successful members continue to visit the board......Have a terrific weekend....
 
basis said:
Congrats Indian4. Great news.......

To answer ur questions -
1. You need not get U visa transferred to renewed passport. You can carry your existing passport which has visa. If you dont want to carry your existing passport (which would become 'old' passport when you get another passport) then you can get it transferred to new passport at nominal fee as mentioned by you.

2. You need not carry OCI Card / Registration Card. I asked this to MHA, MOIA etc and they said that all you must carry is the foreign passport that has the U visa pasted and of course a valid foreign passport if the one that has U visa is no more valid.

Well then enjoy your newly earned status and let us know when are you gonna fly to the country of which now you are an overseas citizen......

I hope you and other successful members continue to visit the board......Have a terrific weekend....

Thank you so much basis. Yes of course i will be in touch with everyone, this forum is a bit addictive because of the quality people it has except for the "goi employees" :D . In my wild dreams it will be nice to have a big piss-up with all you guys sometime. I am going to India in the 3rd week of June, my wife is a european and is so thrilled to visit India and so as my family to see us in India just cant wait!!!!!!!!!!
 
Can anyone point to me where I can see actual image of the OCI card ? If inside pages can be seen nothing like that ?
 
Indian4 said:
HI Basis

I will scan it on monday and post it on yahoo mail(As an e-mail with oci card and visa image as attachment) and then post the user id and pass for that yahoo mail account on this forum by that way everyone can have a look at it. I would edit it in such a way that it will look like a blank OCI/visa as i dont want to put my personal info on the forum.

Thanks in advance - Indian4.
 
US Electronic Passport

Just curious, does anyone have the new US Electronic Passport with the addition of a computer chip embedded in the back cover? It supposed to have been begun issuing last December.
 
sv2707 said:
Just curious, does anyone have the new US Electronic Passport with the addition of a computer chip embedded in the back cover? It supposed to have been begun issuing last December.

I dont think they have started issuing them yet.Besides your old passport (non electronic) will be valid for it's full extent.So who cares ??
Besides I'm not too hot about the idea of my data being accesible by radio waves.I would prefer barcode scanning or the officer physically reading my data anytime.Of course this will bring passport fraud down by a huge amount.SO thats a positive
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Top