OCI - Houston Tracker

dsufac said:
I applied in Oct/10 by mail got ack on 1/7/11 and was hoping to be done by April as I am planning to go back to India in May looks like I have to spend $300 more on entry visa. CGI Houston really sucks and was hopping this one month break would help them better the processing time but no.

Houston please fix your OCI processing time.
Does anybody know how long it takes for entry visa.
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It looks like for OCI from the pattern that I have noticed from the people who got granted status, it is 6 months from the date of ackknowledgement at Houston. Yes, they are extremely slow, and it is terrible customer service.
 
I was in the same situation with my wife's case. Decided to get a 6 month tourist visa for $73 instead of a $113 entry visa.
 
Do not understand why there is delay only at Houston. If they think it is sheer volume, then they should hire more or distribute to other consulate or get personnel from other consulate. They should find a solution rather than create more problems with new processing by asking for US passports to be submitted in the initial stage.
Petitions and messages may not work, because they will not respond. One way could be to raise the issue in Indian press or TV channels.We should come with a god write up of what is happening and send it to Indian newspapers and TV Channels. If there is enough noise some might raise an issue in parliament and the hope something would be done.
6 - 8 month process is ridiculous what used to be a 2 month process.
 
What puzzles me is that other Consulates processing OCI dont have problem keeping up with the "sheer volume" of applications except Houston.
 
I see light at the end of the tunnel....

Well folks, looks like my ship came in! I see my OCI status was granted on mar 16. Lets see how long it takes to reach Houston. It took almost 8 months for my application to get approved. Now I need to send my wife's app to Travisa. I am waiting to hear from them about the policy of holding the passport for 6 months. Perhaps PIO will be the way to go? We can always apply for conversion to OCI at a later date if processing times improve.
Good luck to all!!
 
GCGolMal said:
Well folks, looks like my ship came in! I see my OCI status was granted on mar 16. Lets see how long it takes to reach Houston. It took almost 8 months for my application to get approved. Now I need to send my wife's app to Travisa. I am waiting to hear from them about the policy of holding the passport for 6 months. Perhaps PIO will be the way to go? We can always apply for conversion to OCI at a later date if processing times improve.
Good luck to all!!
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Congrats GCGolMal.
Would you mind sharing your photo scanned date?

______________________
OCI Mailed 9/20/2010
Photo Scanned 12/28/2010
 
Finally got the OCI in hand. The actual process of getting the visa/OCI was smooth. Gave the passports at the embassy in the morning (2 or 3 people in line). Collected the passports/OCI in the evening (again just 3-4 people in line). This was the smoothest process of the whole OCI.
 
So, the outsourcing of the OCI processing in Houston to Travisa actually made things worse then? [Much worse, it seems to me. :-/ ]
 
Documents have now been dispatched for my kids OCI application. Waiting for it to arrive into Houston before I take their US passports for the U stamp. Will keep all of you posted on how this goes.
 
kofking said:
Finally Houston got my documents on 18th and I sent my passport yesterday.
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When was the acknowledgement date for your OCI application. It looks like I will be hearing something next month, since my ack date is Sept-17-2010. same for my wife.

please reply
 
Bad Luck

I sent my US passport through UPS to Houston Consulate for U Stamp and UPS lost my package. Does anybody know how I can apply for lost US passport?.
 
Dude, that really sucks! UPS really screwed the pooch on that one!
This is why I plan to go down to Houston and get mine even if it means taking a whole day off, finding someone to pick up and watch my kid after school etc.
 
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