OCI services has been changed from Travisa Outsourcing to indian based BLS International company

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usacitizentobe

Registered Users (C)
I have applied my OCI card through travisa outsourcing. From July 1, 2013, the services has been given to another Indian based company. I am very concerned how will the application go through with the new services. Any input is much appreciated.

Thanks
 
Questions

Hi

I had few questions as you have applied thru BLS international

1 ) Did you apply for OCI & renunciation of Indian citizenshop together ?
2 ) Have you made the checks payable to BLS or to Indian Visa center ?

The guidelines on BLS website are not clear & I think the travelout sourcing looked to be much better.

Would appreciate any inputs

Thanks
GCcomesoon
 
I have mailed the application on 7/12 to BLS office in Chicago, till date I haven't been able to get any update. Whenever I have called their phone no, its busy or they ask to leave VM. I have done that too , however thats not helping. Yesterday luckily I got someone on the phone , the lady was nice & took all my tracking details. She said so far they haven't received the application ( as per their records ) so I was shocked. Anyways I have been told they will investigate & call me back in next 2 days.

Thier service quallity is really terrible , they don't have the right transition from previous company & folks like me & many others are suffering.
 
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This is all very bad to hear. Travisa was such a well-run service provider and the two times we used them, we had absolutely no problems with them. Now it seems in a tit-for-tat move, by forcing this service from Travisa to BLS, the Indian government is back at what they excel at ... making people's lives miserable over the simplest things. Given how unprofessional BLS is, I suspect these guys are new to all this and quickly formed this company service just to get the Travisa work. BLS even had the audacity to copy info from Travisa's website and yet have no idea how to run this service. My son's old US passport expired but I am holding off on renewing his OCI until the dust settles from this nonsense. At least I know I can still take him to India using his old OCI booklet and visa sticker in his expired passport.
 
JPBoston said:
This is all very bad to hear. Travisa was such a well-run service provider and the two times we used them, we had absolutely no problems with them. Now it seems in a tit-for-tat move, by forcing this service from Travisa to BLS, the Indian government is back at what they excel at ... making people's lives miserable over the simplest things. Given how unprofessional BLS is, I suspect these guys are new to all this and quickly formed this company service just to get the Travisa work. BLS even had the audacity to copy info from Travisa's website and yet have no idea how to run this service. My son's old US passport expired but I am holding off on renewing his OCI until the dust settles from this nonsense. At least I know I can still take him to India using his old OCI booklet and visa sticker in his expired passport.
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I am in such a frustrating mode with BLS and Indian Consulate. These Indian consulate change their service providers every year to make life miserable for every applicants.

I applied mine with Travisa and still waiting for an email from BLS for match up process. As per the Indian consultate Website, my OCI card had been dispatched from New Delhi on July 16th. So far, it did not reach SFO. :confused: I called BLS this week and I think the call is routed to India call center. People are chatting behind in and the whole call was a complete chaos. The rep did not have the latest update, except giving me an answer it is in process.:mad:

Travisa was a best US based company. Not sure, why the Indian consultate gave the contract to BLS? I assume BLS must have lobbyied with money to win the contract. Indian government Dont care about service to applicants.

Very frustrating.
 
usacitizentobe said:
I am in such a frustrating mode with BLS and Indian Consulate. These Indian consulate change their service providers every year to make life miserable for every applicants.

I applied mine with Travisa and still waiting for an email from BLS for match up process. As per the Indian consultate Website, my OCI card had been dispatched from New Delhi on July 16th. So far, it did not reach SFO. :confused: I called BLS this week and I think the call is routed to India call center. People are chatting behind in and the whole call was a complete chaos. The rep did not have the latest update, except giving me an answer it is in process.:mad:

Travisa was a best US based company. Not sure, why the Indian consultate gave the contract to BLS? I assume BLS must have lobbyied with money to win the contract. Indian government Dont care about service to applicants.

Very frustrating.
Click to expand...

Took 10 days to arrive at SFO from Delhi for my spouse case. Even after it is received at SFO you will have to wait another about 2 weeks to get the email alert from BLS International. Yes! you are right with Travisa. They were very professional and you get the real people to talk.

You wait till you get the OCI email alert from BLS services asking you to send in your US passport for matching up.

Good luck
 
madgu-gc2005 said:
Took 10 days to arrive at SFO from Delhi for my spouse case. Even after it is received at SFO you will have to wait another about 2 weeks to get the email alert from BLS International. Yes! you are right with Travisa. They were very professional and you get the real people to talk.

You wait till you get the OCI email alert from BLS services asking you to send in your US passport for matching up.

Good luck
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I spoke with BLS rep named Julia at SFO. She has a tough English accent. I assume she is not from India either. She gave me an heart attack. She mentioned that she doesnot have any details of my application, since it was submitted through Travisa and that I need to contact Travisa. Also she mentioned that BLS doesnot take care of OCI applications submitted through Travisa.

I was totally furiated by this service. :mad: Again I need to call BLS and was on wait for 35 min and spoke with another rep. He said it might take 75 days for the whole process. Need to hang in there. :confused: The good thing is he could access my application in the system. :)
 
Did you ever get an email from BLS? I filed for a misc-service with Travisa and have my new OCI card sitting around in the consulate for about a month. Still no email from BLS and the idiots on the phone are completely clueless. They "recommend" that i wait for an email from them before i send them my U.S passport. Fortunately i only have to do this ONCE ....


madgu-gc2005 said:
Took 10 days to arrive at SFO from Delhi for my spouse case. Even after it is received at SFO you will have to wait another about 2 weeks to get the email alert from BLS International. Yes! you are right with Travisa. They were very professional and you get the real people to talk.

You wait till you get the OCI email alert from BLS services asking you to send in your US passport for matching up.

Good luck
Click to expand...
 
This article lightly mentions that the BLS transition has had issues. It does provide a complaint email address but not sure if that is going to do much good.
 
passcore said:
Did you ever get an email from BLS? I filed for a misc-service with Travisa and have my new OCI card sitting around in the consulate for about a month. Still no email from BLS and the idiots on the phone are completely clueless. They "recommend" that i wait for an email from them before i send them my U.S passport. Fortunately i only have to do this ONCE ....
Click to expand...

Yes I got the OCI email alert from BLS international services. what is the status shown in BLS website (application tracking)?. Did you check OCI online services (http://passport.gov.in/oci/statusEnqury) where it shows your OCI is received at SFO? You send an email to visa@blsindia-usa.com with your details (application tracking number, application reference number and your passport number along with the screenshot of OCI online services). Keep sending every other day the same email content. You will certainly get the response.

Hope this helps.
 
OCI match up email

madgu-gc2005 said:
Yes I got the OCI email alert from BLS international services. what is the status shown in BLS website (application tracking)?. Did you check OCI online services (http://passport.gov.in/oci/statusEnqury) where it shows your OCI is received at SFO? You send an email to visa@blsindia-usa.com with your details (application tracking number, application reference number and your passport number along with the screenshot of OCI online services). Keep sending every other day the same email content. You will certainly get the response.

Hope this helps.
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Finally today I received the email from BLS to send the passports for match up process.

I have 3 applicants in my household. Can I send in all three passports in the same FedEx mail or its better to send them Individually?

Appreciate your feedback.

Thanks
 
usacitizentobe said:
Finally today I received the email from BLS to send the passports for match up process.

I have 3 applicants in my household. Can I send in all three passports in the same FedEx mail or its better to send them Individually?

Appreciate your feedback.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Send them in the same FedEx envelope along with the email copy that you received from BLS international services. You affix the address slip (outside of FedEx envelope) that you got from BLS. You might have already paid for return mailing since you applied through travisa.
 
madgu-gc2005 said:
Send them in the same FedEx envelope along with the email copy that you received from BLS international services. You affix the address slip (outside of FedEx envelope) that you got from BLS. You might have already paid for return mailing since you applied through travisa.
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Thank you Madgu.

Do I have to affix all 3 address slips?
 
Yes I did receive three emails.

I already paid for return shipping to Travisa for 4 or more passports.

Do we have to send any money order of $4.70 each applicant?(bLS website says that)

Sorry for asking lot of questions. And appreciate your great help .:)
 
usacitizentobe said:
Yes I did receive three emails.

I already paid for return shipping to Travisa for 4 or more passports.

Do we have to send any money order of $4.70 each applicant?(bLS website says that)

Sorry for asking lot of questions. And appreciate your great help .:)
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YOu have also paid service charges to Travisa and you don't need to send again $4.70 to BLS. I have not sent any service fee to BLS since I already paid to Travisa. BLS website is not clear....
 
Thank Madgu for your input n feedback. Yesterday I mailed all the 3 passports with the 3 labels affixed on the outside.

How long did it took for them to return the documents from BLS after receipt of the passports ? Appreciate if you can share your timeline.



Thanks
 
usacitizentobe said:
Thank Madgu for your input n feedback. Yesterday I mailed all the 3 passports with the 3 labels affixed on the outside.

How long did it took for them to return the documents from BLS after receipt of the passports ? Appreciate if you can share your timeline.



Thanks
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Here is the timeline BLS has given in their website

Once the OCI card arrives at the Consulate, you will be required to send in your original passport. Once your original passport has been received by the Indian Visa Application Center Office, processing will resume
3 days for Indian Visa Application Center to receive and send the US passport to the Consulate for match up.
7 days for the Consulate to match up the US passport with the OCI card
3 days for Indian Visa Application Center to ship the US passport and OCI card

In my case BLS has taken 6 working days to send the passport to the consulate. I will start sending emails after 14 working days if I do not get my OCI card.

With Travisa I got the OCI card in 7 days after they receive my passport.
 
Thanks for sharing your timeline madgu. It really gives me an idea how this bLS works with the consulate and to track for my documents .:)
 
usacitizentobe said:
Thanks for sharing your timeline madgu. It really gives me an idea how this bLS works with the consulate and to track for my documents .:)
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Today I received the OCI card along with renunciation certificate, passports. It was a real surprise for me. I was expecting it might come next week. Still the application status says 'Processing at consulate'.
 
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