OCI - San Francisco Tracker

Thanks Ramkay for sharing your detailed expereince. Did they say they will be processing your Surrender certificate in 2-3 days or OCI card in 2-3 days or both ? Did you find out if this Surrender Certificate has any use in the future; would they return it to you or just return the passports with the U-sticker ?

Sureneder certificate processing is a seperate process. it is processed and sent to me by another cell .
OCI lady got confirmation from the cashier that I paid for surrender certificates, and she resumed the OCI processing and the 2-3 days is for processing my OIC.

Any Use of surrender certificate in futuer ( I dont know) . who knows what they will ask in future when we visit embassy for something else.
They will send the surrender certificate and cancelled passport together.
 
Who ever want to visit SF CGI

I can tell onething. The vice CG is nice and very helpful. will try to hear our issues and do the best he can do. So do the people behind the counters. They are trying to do the best. We should talk reasonable. I felt that they are trying to do their best to cope up with these sudden changes and flood of people visiting the SF office.

If you have travel plans. DONT wait till the last minute.
 
I sent my OCI application on 4/30 also and was received on 5/03. No acknowledgement yet. I did not include my US passport and prepaid envelope. I was planning on sending both once I saw approval on the site. Now I am really worried. Some members are saying that they mailed in May and already had it returned back.
 
AFAIK, the current trend is that it is taking 15 days to see acknowledgement in the status from the day they rececie your OCI application. That too if they have already sent your application to Delhi for processing before this Surrender cert mess faced up (May 7th/8th).

You still have to pay for the surrender certificate.


I sent my OCI application on 4/30 also and was received on 5/03. No acknowledgement yet. I did not include my US passport and prepaid envelope. I was planning on sending both once I saw approval on the site. Now I am really worried. Some members are saying that they mailed in May and already had it returned back.
 
I got below email on my pending OCI which has been granted and dispatched, but not yet completed:

----------------------------
Dear Applicant,

In order to process your application for OCI card further, please send at the earliest the following additional documents:

1. Colored, legible photocopy of Green Card or EAD or original Indian passport (issued from India) on which first time entered USA original I-30 (www.uscis.gov) and supporting documents provided at the time of obtaining immigrant visa to enter the US.
2. Your latest Indian passport, if not already sent.
3. Two copies of your US Naturalization copy, if not already sent.
4. For applicants born outside of India please send copy of Birth Certificate with signature of both parents together with copies of both parents Indian & US Passports.
5. If you have not sent your US passport, please send it along with these papers.
6. Pl note that there maybe additional payment required on account of renunciation of Indian citizenship/surrender of passport. Once we receive the above mentioned documents, the additional amount to be paid, if any, will be communicated to you. Pl Check http://www.cgisf.org/renunciation/ricsc.html for further details.

When you mail in your papers, make sure you mention your File number which is USAS.........

Mail your papers to:

OCI Cell - Documents
Ref no: USAS...............
540 Arguello Blvd.,
San Francisco, CA 94118

Please print this page and attach with additional documents being sent by you. This is important so that the documents can be linked to your file.

This is a system generated email. Please do not reply to this email.

Sincerely,

OCI Team
Consulate General of India,
San Francisco

-----------------------------------------------
 
Talkative,
Do you have all the items in no. 1? For those of us who came in the 60s, there were no such things as photocopy machines, and we do not have copies of all those documents.
 
Talkative,
Do you have all the items in no. 1? For those of us who came in the 60s, there were no such things as photocopy machines, and we do not have copies of all those documents.

We had gotten a similar mail. The wording in the mail is not very clear. Apparently any of the following can be used.
1) color copy of the GC or
2) Original passport used to enter US or
3) Original I-130 document and other docs related to immigrant visa

Fortunately we had both 1) and 2). They just took 1). 3) is for folks who may not have 1) or 2) Ours were I-140 based I-485 and hence 3) wasn't even applicable.

I read somewhere they may be doing this to isolate folks got GCs through asylum that I am guessing would not be eligible for OCI. Apparently asylee GCs have a different notation as would GC stamp based on asylum. This just my reading of it, better to please confirm directly with the consulate.
 
Just to share, CGISF returned my OCI application today with latest check list.I mailed my application on
8th May ( i.e before the new rule is introduced) and received by consulate on 10th May.They returned my application after two weeks.$36 postage,and two weeks of processing time wasted on top of mental stress.

We had gotten a similar mail. The wording in the mail is not very clear. Apparently any of the following can be used.
1) color copy of the GC or
2) Original passport used to enter US or
3) Original I-130 document and other docs related to immigrant visa

Fortunately we had both 1) and 2). They just took 1). 3) is for folks who may not have 1) or 2) Ours were I-140 based I-485 and hence 3) wasn't even applicable.

I read somewhere they may be doing this to isolate folks got GCs through asylum that I am guessing would not be eligible for OCI. Apparently asylee GCs have a different notation as would GC stamp based on asylum. This just my reading of it, better to please confirm directly with the consulate.
 
Hi,

i got the same exact e-mail on 5/18/2010.

04/16/2010 - Mailed
04/30/2010 - Acknowledged
05/05/2010- Granted
05/05/2010- Photo Scanned
05/05/2010- Dispatched
05/18/2010- e-mail for additional documents
 
Same with me - CGISF returned my OCI application today with latest check list. I mailed my application on
May 1st (before the new rule is introduced) and received by consulate on May 3.They returned my application after 20 days. It took them 20 days to think and then return the packet. I don't think they get that how they waste people time and money.
 
OCI:US Passport and Surrender Certificate

Folks:

I am planning send OCI application to consulate (in San Fran) soon for my family and I have following questions :-

1. We both (Husband and Wife) are naturalized citizen and kid us born (has PIO )

1. Can I submit application without US passport? E.g. Send our Indian passport, application, fees, copy of US passport : for kid, PIO card but not US Passport (just copy)?
If yes then at what stage in the process they ask for US passport or are they going to return my application?

2. If I submit for Surrender Certificate and OCI together then can I expect them to co-ordinate this at their end or should I get the certificate first and then file for OCI?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks
 
Folks:

I am planning send OCI application to consulate (in San Fran) soon for my family and I have following questions :-

1. We both (Husband and Wife) are naturalized citizen and kid us born (has PIO )

1. Can I submit application without US passport? E.g. Send our Indian passport, application, fees, copy of US passport : for kid, PIO card but not US Passport (just copy)?
If yes then at what stage in the process they ask for US passport or are they going to return my application?

2. If I submit for Surrender Certificate and OCI together then can I expect them to co-ordinate this at their end or should I get the certificate first and then file for OCI?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

1) Yes, you can send copies of the US passports and even of the PIO with the application and then send the originals when you see the status change to dispatched. That way you can use the passports/PIO for travel and also the consulate doesn't have to wait/e-mail you for the passports/PIO. We did this for ours.
2) I would normally expect them to be able to do this. If you do not have travel to India coming up in the short term, my personal advice would be to get the surrender certificate done before and then send it with the OCI app. In our case, the new rule came into effect after our OCI cards were already issued, so this was a bit different.

Hope this helps and all the best!
 
Got the OCIs and passports back today!

Finally! Just got our OCI cards, US passports and canceled Indian passports, PIO some time back.

Interestingly the online status continues to show as "not yet" received by SF consulate.
We had been to the consulate for the surrender certificate (the new rule came into effect after our cards were already dispatched) and the OCI lady had said she would mail them out by Friday or early next week. The online status today morning was still the "not yet" despite us having seen the cards in our file at the consulate and also the USPS tracking was not showing any activity.

The package also contains 1 part of the 2-part surrender certificate form, that now has the consulate stamp, signature and a DRIL no. that is also now seen on the US passports. Is this the surrender certificate itself or just an acknowledgment of the application? Thanks for your inputs.

A big relief indeed as we are traveling on the 2nd! Thanks to the helpful consulate folks and this forum's members.
 
1) Yes, you can send copies of the US passports and even of the PIO with the application and then send the originals when you see the status change to dispatched. That way you can use the passports/PIO for travel and also the consulate doesn't have to wait/e-mail you for the passports/PIO. We did this for ours.
2) I would normally expect them to be able to do this. If you do not have travel to India coming up in the short term, my personal advice would be to get the surrender certificate done before and then send it with the OCI app. In our case, the new rule came into effect after our OCI cards were already issued, so this was a bit different.

Hope this helps and all the best!

Thanks!! Actually we have to go to India in July end and I will be receiving my US passport in first week of June. So this may be cutting close that is why I was asking to send it together.
 
Thanks!! Actually we have to go to India in July end and I will be receiving my US passport in first week of June. So this may be cutting close that is why I was asking to send it together.


As per current rules, apply for surrender certificate first to avoid return of OCI application. Applying for surrender certificate doesn't require US passport. So by the time you receive the US passport, you can expect the surrender certificate in same timeframe.

Congrats Awaiting_PR !
 
As per current rules, apply for surrender certificate first to avoid return of OCI application. Applying for surrender certificate doesn't require US passport. So by the time you receive the US passport, you can expect the surrender certificate in same timeframe.

Congrats Awaiting_PR !

Thanks!! Surrender Certificate also requires US Passport Number.
 
As per current rules, apply for surrender certificate first to avoid return of OCI application. Applying for surrender certificate doesn't require US passport. So by the time you receive the US passport, you can expect the surrender certificate in same timeframe.

Congrats Awaiting_PR !

Ashma,

Thanks!

That's a very good suggestion. SC can be done using Naturalization Cert also. So rseth123 can take care of it while the passport is in process.

rseth123,
You are right about the SC form requiring the US passport no. But I am guessing this could be resolved better if applying in person.
 
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Has anybody here applied for surrender cert? The form says "I .... of full age and capacity..." Does it mean for Adults only - what abt indian born kids? do we have to apply in separate form for them or just include them with either parents - also not sure if we need to pay separately for them (kids) if we add them with parents?
 
I got my application returned today. Same reason. I sent the application way before the 'surrender certificate' rule.
Anycase, what are you doing with the returned money order? I mean... keep it for using it with re-submission?

Please post any surrender certification application experiences... looking for timeframe.
 
I have another question on returned OCI applications. Can you resend them after obtaining surrender certificate, OR do you need to use the online application process again? I tried calling the consulate, but getting the answering machine.
 
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