OCI approved in 2009 but have not sent passport(s) in for sticker/card

[bxrbxr]

Hi,

I had applied for my OCI a while ago (February 2009) and it was approved around then.
I have not been able to send my passport in for getting the OCI sticker.

With the somewhat new regulations in place for a cancelled Indian passport ...

1. Can I just send my US & (not cancelled) Indian passport for getting the sticker ?
[I presume that the embassy would cancel and return my Indian passport ?]
2. Do I need to send an additional fee(seems like an additional $20 per the website) ?
3. Any other gotcha ?
4. Any ideas on how long this would take ?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[sam012007]

You are a brave man, really!!!
1) You have not cancelled your Indian passport after acquiring US citizenship, for over a year.
2) You have an approved OCI in 2009, but failed to get the stamp and OCI book.

Any excuse given may not be sufficient for this lapse.

The best I can recommend you call/email and talk to Embassy and find out what they would need. They might need the fee to cancel your Indian passport along with any penalties (Not sure about it).

 

[gc4us]

In any case you will need to cancel your Indian passport... No two views about that. There will always be a situation where one will have to use the consulate for some service or other.... and they will have their bare minimum requirement(s) to see a copy of your cancelled Indian PP, if not the original.

The good news is that you only have to pay $20.00 to get this done as you were Naturalized before the Pre-stone-age and Post-stone-age Demarcation date of "May-31-2010" .

There were some confusing rules floating around May, June-2010 about what is right and wrong when you don't cancel your Indian PP within 3 months of Naturalization. I believe it was stated that, penalties apply if you have travelled using that Indian PP after acquiring US citizenship.

Like Sam said, the best is to try and get in touch with your respective embassy/consulate and see what they have to offer. If it is within driving distance, a visit will do some good, hopefully

If you have enough time to wait for these folks to respond, you can
1. Simply apply for renunciation/surrender cert using their prescribed form.
2. Mail your US PP for stamping the OCI.

If they are really, really, really up-to-date with any technical workflow processes that might be automated, they might be able to flag your OCI stamping request to a Non-Cancelled Indian PP. This will trigger them to send you a note to cancel your Indian PP.

Worst case, they might return the US PP and say, you have not cancelled your Indian PP.

If they have not retained your OCI stickers and booklet, then that will also trigger an action from their side to return your US PP. This is an area where I am afraid, I cannot pitch in as I don't remember reading any post from any user who waited this long to get the PP stamped.

Best case scenario...
1. They really appreciate you not troubling them with stamping the US PP immediately after the OCI approval
2. They happily stamp the OCI sticker and bundle it with the OCI booklet and mail it next day UPS to your address.
3. The Renunciation processing desk processes your Indian PP cancellation request and mails you the cancelled Indian PP with the SC. As the systems are not integrated, they don't get into any "Thou hath commited a sin by not cancelling it earlier" mode and start dragging your case

Good luck

 

[madh4]

You are a brave man, really!!!
1) You have not cancelled your Indian passport after acquiring US citizenship, for over a year.
2) You have an approved OCI in 2009, but failed to get the stamp and OCI book.

Any excuse given may not be sufficient for this lapse.

The best I can recommend you call/email and talk to Embassy and find out what they would need. They might need the fee to cancel your Indian passport along with any penalties (Not sure about it).

i think best course of action in your case is to submit renunciation application with required documents and the indian passport . You will get Renunciation Certificate and canceled Indian PP within short time. If you are residing under jurisdiction of Chicago consulate and submit your application in the morning you can everything back in the evening. You do not even have to go personally but authorize someone to do the job - preferably a relative. Same is true of most of the other Consuls.

Once you have Surrender Certificate you can get your OCI shortly.