OCI - Houston Tracker

Thanks SGSNATHAN for your replies.

Yeah..Surrender certificate is taking longer time I think. I heard you have to carry either surrender certificate or cancelled indian passports when you travel. You may want to check on them to be sure. Have a good trip and congrats on your OCI.

sgsnathan said:
I received my US passport with the OCI booklet and the U visa stamp on Thursday (11/4). No word on the Indian passport or the Surrender Certificate. I am assuming that since I already got the OCI, I won't worry about it anymore. But looks like they don't care too much about this from my experience. Maybe they will send my cancelled Indian passport and SC later. Either way, I am preparing for my trip to India in a couple of months. Good luck to you all!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Vinnu for the reply. So it is taking 2 months to process SC now. Can't believe they take so long for SC after collecting $175+$20.

I guess I will have to wait for atleast 2 more weeks since I applied on 17-Sep.

Sorry to see that your OCI was not processed.
 
Sent in SC app when I sent my US passports for U visa stamp

For those of you who have been wondering about the SC app and when you should send it:

I applied for OCI for my whole family on 4/23 and finally received them by Fedex today 11/9. I sent in the SC app for my husband with all of our US passports on 10/26 and received our OCI booklets, U visa stamped US passports, and my husband's canceled Indian passport today!! Finally I am done!!! I feel like I won the lottery or something!

Good luck to those who are still waiting!
 
MommyTX said:
For those of you who have been wondering about the SC app and when you should send it:

I applied for OCI for my whole family on 4/23 and finally received them by Fedex today 11/9. I sent in the SC app for my husband with all of our US passports on 10/26 and received our OCI booklets, U visa stamped US passports, and my husband's canceled Indian passport today!! Finally I am done!!! I feel like I won the lottery or something!

Good luck to those who are still waiting!
Click to expand...

Did you send $20 (as you got your CZ prior to June 1) or $175 for SC?
I am in the same boat and I need to send my PP for U Visa stamping and I got my CZ prior to June 1 and applied for OCI on May 17. Thanks in advance for your answer.
 
srisubu said:
Did you send $20 (as you got your CZ prior to June 1) or $175 for SC?
I am in the same boat and I need to send my PP for U Visa stamping and I got my CZ prior to June 1 and applied for OCI on May 17. Thanks in advance for your answer.
Click to expand...

Yes, my husband got his citizenship prior to June 1, so we sent in $20 to get the passport canceled and then $20 mailing fee for the Indian and US passports. So in my packet was the SC form, Indian passport, copy of US passport (did not send in copy of US naturalization cert as it is illegal by US government), US passports to get stamped with U visa, $20 for SC and $20 for mailing fee. Hope that helps!
 
MommyTX said:
Yes, my husband got his citizenship prior to June 1, so we sent in $20 to get the passport canceled and then $20 mailing fee for the Indian and US passports. So in my packet was the SC form, Indian passport, copy of US passport (did not send in copy of US naturalization cert as it is illegal by US government), US passports to get stamped with U visa, $20 for SC and $20 for mailing fee. Hope that helps!
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot
 
Can any one provide the phone number and/or email address for Houston CGI that they have used to successfully track status for SC. I have applied for SC about 75 days back and has not got it so far. Not able to get status by any means. Started getting worried now. Any help!!!

Thanks
Sunks
 
sunks said:
Can any one provide the phone number and/or email address for Houston CGI that they have used to successfully track status for SC. I have applied for SC about 75 days back and has not got it so far. Not able to get status by any means. Started getting worried now. Any help!!!

Thanks
Sunks
Click to expand...

I applied for surrender certificate at the end of May, got it back the 2nd week of August. Houston consulate is painfully slow...and provide terrible customer service.
 
sunks said:
Can any one provide the phone number and/or email address for Houston CGI that they have used to successfully track status for SC. I have applied for SC about 75 days back and has not got it so far. Not able to get status by any means. Started getting worried now. Any help!!!

Thanks
Sunks
Click to expand...

If you are a Unix/Linux user, you will know what I mean

Houston phone number: /dev/null
Houston Email address: /dev/null
 
rpranesh said:
If you are a Unix/Linux user, you will know what I mean

Houston phone number: /dev/null
Houston Email address: /dev/null
Click to expand...

Thanks coolcatz2375 & rpranesh. You are right about your NULL theory for Houston.
I guess I have no option but to wait and hope some thing happens soon. I did not worry till 60 days but now I am close to 80 days and have started worrying. But nothing much can be done except for wait and wait ....
 
wanna to post my OCI Application withdrawal experience....

We mailed our OCI Application & SC Application together back in Sep (Sep 10th), no ACK until Nov 12th.
My husband went to Houston consulate and requested at the OCI counter if they can pull our SC application & Approve it so that we can apply for Entry Visa as we have a family emergency. Lady at the OCI counter told it is taking 6 to 8 months for OCI so she suggested if we want we can take our application back and apply it later, so we decided to take it back. Application will be pulled by the front desk lady. Old lady at front desk is very arrogant she said she wont give SC application nor search for our OCI packet, she said we can apply for Tourist Visa (said they relaxed the rules so we can apply for Tourist Visa to go to India ( I think to apply for Tourist we dont need SC). i'm not sure how true it is that former Indian Nationals can apply for Toursit Visa but she said it so i guess it is true.
Luckly lady at OCI counter walked to the reception and she said she will find our application (lucky day for us, looks like there is no standard rule on how to proceed, it all depends on who we talk to) so finally she gave all our docs (OCI application , including cashier checks and surrender certificate application.

There is one more counter in the consulate where my husband applied for Emergency Surrender certificate (submitted at 11AM got the certificate & cancelled passports at 3PM), i've read somewhere in this forum that there is no same day service for SC certificate , tht's not true we can apply for SC same day service but you will have to pay extra $35 for emergency service along with normal fee.
So we got the SC and applied for Entry visa same day and now waiting for passports with Visa stamping.


Hope this info helps to evryone who got struck & waiting for SC..
 
The US immigration system can be complex and messy, but atleast they send some kind of a notice receipt on sending documents. With the Indian consulate, cant even get them to answer emails or phone calls. Thereis no receipt of any kind when docs are mailed except the tracking receipt from USPS or fedex. What happens when the cashiers check and money orders become void after a certain period of time that are attached with the applications? Are they going to contact us to send money to them again? They fail to realize that the tons of docs sitting in their mail room have time sensitive information in them.
 
I was under the assumption that my OCI application packet is never opened by the Houston consulate but it is opened. I see received date stamp (sep 14th) on the first page of our OCI Application, so they do open all our applications, sort them and then keep it aside.

OCI application mailed on sep 10th.
 
Photo scanned Nov 16th and OCI app under process FINALLY!! after more than 2 months and sending repeated emails and writing a letter to the consulate....GEEEEEEZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
OCI is Pending - Applied for Entry Visa - Waiting since more than 4 weeks

We have applied for OCI back in August and we still did not get it. So we applied for Entry Visa in October and its been more than 4 weeks, we still didn't hear anything. The latest status says, the documents have been submitted to the Indian consulate. We purchased tickets to India to travel on December 3rd. It looks like we are not going to get the visa. Based on the current situation I don't think we will get the entry visa anytime soon. So here are my questions.

1. Can we fly to Houston from Atlanta directly and request the Indian consulate to grant entry visa?
2. Do I need to take an appointment (I tried to take a personal appointment, but I couldn't find it).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know I shouldn't buy the tickets until we get the visa in our hands, but we have to go to India to attend my brother-in-law's marriage.

Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top