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 .
I got my US citizenship in Nov 2005 and US passport in Dec 2005.
Have the following questions regarding OCI

a) Even for a minor do we have to pay $275 ?

b) Do I have to returne my indian passport back to the embassy ?
For OCI I was planning to send a photocopy of my Indian passport.

c) Has anybody got personal appt. from the embassy for OCI (especially Washington DC). and how long it took to get it ?

I am planning to wait a bit before applying just to see how this process is going.


Thanks.
 
AC2006 said:
I got my US citizenship in Nov 2005 and US passport in Dec 2005.
Have the following questions regarding OCI

a) Even for a minor do we have to pay $275 ?

b) Do I have to returne my indian passport back to the embassy ?
For OCI I was planning to send a photocopy of my Indian passport.

c) Has anybody got personal appt. from the embassy for OCI (especially Washington DC). and how long it took to get it ?

I am planning to wait a bit before applying just to see how this process is going.


Thanks.

a) Yes
b) You must send your indian passport to Indian Embassy for cancellation stamp and they will return the passport back to you
c) I am in SF area and SF consulate is accepting application only by mail. check washington website for the info.
 
AC2006 said:
I got my US citizenship in Nov 2005 and US passport in Dec 2005.
Have the following questions regarding OCI

a) Even for a minor do we have to pay $275 ?

b) Do I have to returne my indian passport back to the embassy ?
For OCI I was planning to send a photocopy of my Indian passport.

c) Has anybody got personal appt. from the embassy for OCI (especially Washington DC). and how long it took to get it ?

I am planning to wait a bit before applying just to see how this process is going.

Thanks.

a) Yes, if you want an OCI for a child. As an alternative, get a PIO card for a child for $155, and later on if needed, convert it ot OCI for just additional $25.

b) Yes. They will cancel the Indian passport and send it back to you.

c) I personally think it's too early to expect the bureaucrats to get their act together. You may want to wait until people actually start receiving the OCIs and share their experiences.
 
Fee for VISA sticker

Does anyone know what is the fee for the U visa ? Is the fee included in $275 or are they going to sock us with more charges after that ?
 
dad22 said:
Does anyone know what is the fee for the U visa ? Is the fee included in $275 or are they going to sock us with more charges after that ?
The first U Visa is free (included). When you get a new passport, you can get the stamp transfered for something like $25, which saves you the hastle of carrying your old passport around.
 
basis said:
Any one know the process for people who are already in India. PIOs in India -how can they get OCI / is there a website where you can get the info.


http://www.mha.nic.in/oci/brochure.pdf
If the applicant is in India, he/she can apply to the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota or Amritsar or Chief Immigration Officer (CHIO) Chennai or to the Under Secretary, OCI Cell, Citizenship Section, Foreigners Division, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Jaisalmer House, 26 Mansingh Road, New Delhi-110011.

Good luck, and take plenty of paisa with you.
 
Enjoy2006 said:
Johnny Cash always replies to females, trying to get their address, their names and phone numbers, I don't know why. I know that for a fact. He is so hungry for attention, especially females attentions I don't also know why?

he has asked females, not one , but females for money and sex in return for immigration benefits, whether those benefits were real of fictional, that's low and very immoral. You are so busted Johnny as you tried to ask on of my relatives for money to , allegedly, get her N-400 approved! How low is that?! Talking about integrity you son of a bitch, what kind of integrity, Publicus and Rahuls' shoes worth more than you and your ideas you dirty bastard!

Guys, I apologize for the language, but that is the least that could be said about that filth to blow his cover, i was, just like you , shocked to learn those facts about Johnny. Be careful guys, he is hiding behind a real beautiful and sweet face, but stings like a sneaky snake.

However, you are lying regarding not trying to do anything else rather than helping; You try to black mail needy females. You are an extortionist, dirty, and horny dog, and you know what i mean. Recently you tried to get sexual favors from somebody - I know - just to allegedly offer her an approval for her application! You know you are just horny and want her to sleep with you. And you even asked for money for your service of trying to help. What kind of a person are you. You are going to deny that, that's normal, but what is not normal is you are committing those dirty and filthy things! I was shocked but the facts were clear with pictures and emails! Where is your integrity?

You will never become neither, you are by far below standards to be qualified for such an honor and this position requires a huge responsibility you cannot bear!

Great, Rahul is the moderator, now you are attacking him, you never said one word before about his performance, you are just jealous of Publicus. You are envious, childish, horn dog, begging for attention!

Enjoy!

And your point is....??
 
I guess "Enjoy2006" posted in the wrong forum :)

Anyways coming back to the main topic,while i understand that the OCI cards are yet to come from New Delhi, has anyone from Australia,NZ,Bahrain etc actually received a response from their embassies ?
Sort of like a letter saying you've been approved and card will be issued shortly OR your form needed to be sent to MHA N.Delhi for verification OR you have been rejected.
What i basically want to know is what has happened so far with applications sent in after December 2.
 
PIO1 said:
The first U Visa is free (included). When you get a new passport, you can get the stamp transfered for something like $25, which saves you the hastle of carrying your old passport around.

Do you know this for sure ? I have not seen it explicitly mentioned anywhere and my email queries to the consulates have gone unanswered about this. I just dont want to have to pay another hundreds of dollars to get the visa.
 
dad22 said:
Do you know this for sure ? I have not seen it explicitly mentioned anywhere and my email queries to the consulates have gone unanswered about this. I just dont want to have to pay another hundreds of dollars to get the visa.

It is for sure.The fee of US $ 275 includes the charges for the U Visa.You will not have to pay anything extra.
The only situation where you will have to pay anything as far as this is concerned is to have the visa transferred to your new passport.But if you are willing to carry the old passport along as well,you can avoid this cost as well.
 
mangal969 said:
I guess "Enjoy2006" posted in the wrong forum :)

Anyways coming back to the main topic,while i understand that the OCI cards are yet to come from New Delhi, has anyone from Australia,NZ,Bahrain etc actually received a response from their embassies ?
Sort of like a letter saying you've been approved and card will be issued shortly OR your form needed to be sent to MHA N.Delhi for verification OR you have been rejected.
What i basically want to know is what has happened so far with applications sent in after December 2.



Mangal 969,

I happened to speak to an Indian Consulate Officer (in USA) two days ago. I was informed that they still await the delivery of OCI cards and stickers from Delhi.

Once the cards and stickers arrive, they agreed to contact the already waiting applicants. However, she didnot comment on the approval of the applications as such in India. I assume that process should have gone okay with most of the applications. Generally speaking, I got the feeling that the cards should arrive at the Consulates worldwide by the end of January 06!!
 
boggavarapu said:
Mangal 969,

I happened to speak to an Indian Consulate Officer (in USA) two days ago. I was informed that they still await the delivery of OCI cards and stickers from Delhi.

Once the cards and stickers arrive, they agreed to contact the already waiting applicants. However, she didnot comment on the approval of the applications as such in India. I assume that process should have gone okay with most of the applications. Generally speaking, I got the feeling that the cards should arrive at the Consulates worldwide by the end of January 06!!

Last week I received a reply from Consulate General of India, Toronto that all OCI will be processed in new Delhi. So for old applications (OCi v1) they are waiting for the completed OCI cards and for OCIv2 they need to send the applications to New Delhi who will send the OCI card within 90 days. I guess the situation will become clearer once MHA starts sending the OCI cards. Since none of the embassies/consulates have received anything from New Delhi they are just playing the wait and watch game. I have a feeling that for new applications they are not doing anything or just sending them to New Delhi.

My gut feel of the process is as follows.
1. Part A of the application goes to MHA in New Delhi as soon as the form is submitted online. Once they receive the email they start doing the reference checks etc.
2. Subsequently the local embassy receives part B (in duplicate) with pictures and $275.
3. The embassy forwards one copy of the application with one picture to New Delhi. One copy of the application is retained at the local embassy for future.
4. When the application reaches MHA they take the extra picture and use that in the OCI card assuming they have already completed the reference check. The application form is retained at MHA and they forward the OCI card to the local embassy.
5. Once the local embassy receives the OCI card they call the applicants and ask for their passports.
6. The local embassy verifies the particulars of OCI card with original application, passport etc and if they are satisfied they issue the U visa and affixes it on the passport
7 Since the embassy has original application retained and have themselves issued the U visa they are able to transfer the U Visa to another passport or issue a duplicate U visa.

The only thing they may be different is that MHA prints the U visa as well since it may have a digital image of the person.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
mangal969 said:
I guess "Enjoy2006" posted in the wrong forum :)

Anyways coming back to the main topic,while i understand that the OCI cards are yet to come from New Delhi, has anyone from Australia,NZ,Bahrain etc actually received a response from their embassies ?
Sort of like a letter saying you've been approved and card will be issued shortly OR your form needed to be sent to MHA N.Delhi for verification OR you have been rejected.
What i basically want to know is what has happened so far with applications sent in after December 2.
Through my not so extensive network of contacts, I can tell you no one has got word back for OCI yet at least not OCI v1 from US, Canada, Australia, NZ or UK. Not sure about the others, but I doubt it.

Republic Day is a good day for the CGs to issue OCIs - so if any of you are reading this - might be good.
 
boggavarapu said:
Mangal 969,

I happened to speak to an Indian Consulate Officer (in USA) two days ago. I was informed that they still await the delivery of OCI cards and stickers from Delhi.

Once the cards and stickers arrive, they agreed to contact the already waiting applicants. However, she didnot comment on the approval of the applications as such in India. I assume that process should have gone okay with most of the applications. Generally speaking, I got the feeling that the cards should arrive at the Consulates worldwide by the end of January 06!!
This is great but what's the difference between now and 14 months back? They were still awaiting delivery then. Has the MHA actually printed the OCIs?

Has anyone seen a closeup of Ms Rai's OCI - was it done with an inkjet printer and glue?
 
qwert97 said:
Last week I received a reply from Consulate General of India, Toronto that all OCI will be processed in new Delhi. So for old applications (OCi v1) they are waiting for the completed OCI cards and for OCIv2 they need to send the applications to New Delhi who will send the OCI card within 90 days. I guess the situation will become clearer once MHA starts sending the OCI cards. Since none of the embassies/consulates have received anything from New Delhi they are just playing the wait and watch game. I have a feeling that for new applications they are not doing anything or just sending them to New Delhi.

My gut feel of the process is as follows.
1. Part A of the application goes to MHA in New Delhi as soon as the form is submitted online. Once they receive the email they start doing the reference checks etc.
2. Subsequently the local embassy receives part B (in duplicate) with pictures and $275.
3. The embassy forwards one copy of the application with one picture to New Delhi. One copy of the application is retained at the local embassy for future.
4. When the application reaches MHA they take the extra picture and use that in the OCI card assuming they have already completed the reference check. The application form is retained at MHA and they forward the OCI card to the local embassy.
5. Once the local embassy receives the OCI card they call the applicants and ask for their passports.
6. The local embassy verifies the particulars of OCI card with original application, passport etc and if they are satisfied they issue the U visa and affixes it on the passport
7 Since the embassy has original application retained and have themselves issued the U visa they are able to transfer the U Visa to another passport or issue a duplicate U visa.

The only thing they may be different is that MHA prints the U visa as well since it may have a digital image of the person.

Tornoto obviously has not read up on the new procedure for issuing OCI.
They have to send it to New Delhi ONLY if the preverification by the consulate shows something.
The actual process is something like this:
1.The embassy receives the application.

2.The embassy confirms that all requirements for OCI have been met and does a pre-verification of the candidate within 15 days

3(a) If the pre-verification is clear the embassy is to grant OCI (issue the card & visa etc) and send the application to New Delhi for Post verification(But at this point you already have your OCI so what happens next is really none of your concern.If post verification they find something wrong they will contact you and cancel your OCI.)

3(b) If the pre-verification turns up something the embassy is to send the form to the MHA and they will approve/disapprove of the application within 120 days.The MHA will inform the embassy and the embassy will issue the OCI if approved or refund the money if disapproved.

4.The embassy maintains a register of people issued the OCI and sends it to the MHA on a regular basis.

They may have already sent the 2004 applications to New Delhi so i have no idea on how they will process those.But this is the procedure described in the law.


The visa sticker does seem to have a digitized photo as it can be seen in one of the pice of Ms Rai's U visa

Come to think of it PIO1 ,Neither of Ms Rai or Mr Sharief actually opened their OCI cards or there isnt a picture of them doing that.Maybe they were just given their U visas and the proof samples of the OCI cards :D
 
From TOI...

From Times of India...

According to Fernandes, the despatch of overseas Indian citizenship cards to the 8,000-odd applicants will begin this month. He said the government was expecting 50,000 more applications soon.
 
akkcausa said:
From Times of India...

According to Fernandes, the despatch of overseas Indian citizenship cards to the 8,000-odd applicants will begin this month. He said the government was expecting 50,000 more applications soon.

Interesting...they never say exactly when people will start receiving the the OCI cards.

BTW, not bad in year 1, 50,000*275 = $13.75 million. Great work by Indian bureaucrats in generating revenue!!!!!
 
This is the reply that I got from SF consulate for applications submitted on Jan 05

This is the reply that I got from SF consulate for applications submitted on Jan 05
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir,

We have not received any OCI card from the Ministry of Home Affairs
regarding the applications submitted last year. We are sorry that we are
unable to provide you with any exact or estimated time frame.

We would get in touch with you once we receive the OCI from India.


Yours Sincerely,

OCI Team
Consulate General of India
540 Arguello Blvd
San Francisco, CA 94118
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
Scrutiny in a month

This article says "scrutiny of the 8000 applications will take place within a month". I take this to mean the processing will start within the next month, not the issuance of 8000 OCIs.


8000 OCI applications received

akkcausa said:
From Times of India...

According to Fernandes, the despatch of overseas Indian citizenship cards to the 8,000-odd applicants will begin this month. He said the government was expecting 50,000 more applications soon.
 
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