I agree with super duper. Some of my relatives here had to pay additional penalty fee of $250.00 when they surrendered their Indian passport. When the rules were later changed, they made an exception to the $250.00 penalty fee and only charged if you didn't surrender the Indian passport upon acquiring US citizenship and kept the Indian passport beyond the next 3 years or months.
There's also some of my friends who paid $175.00 even if they became citizens before the July 1, 2010... There was a talk of refunds once the $20.00 fee applied. But no one has received their refunds yet. Sale ghoos khate hai...Sabhi sarkaari afsar khate hain..
Truth be told. I myself had to pay that $250, a penalty, to get my passport canceled.
So, how did I find out that I had to pay $250 for a penalty?
Well, here is what I did:
I sent my expired passport to Consulate General of India - Houston DIRECTLY ( this is before TRAVISA came into the whole processing picture ), and sent only $20 for processing fee.
I sent ONLY $20 in the beginning is because I thought since I had gotten my citizenship before June ( or July { I forget the month that they say on the consulate website } ) 01, 2010, I therefore would qualify for the $20 processing fee, but instead I missed the part that if your passport was expired BEFORE the January, 01, 2005, then you were eligible for that $ 20 for sure, and if it was anything after that, then you were doomed. To make the long story short, My passport expired on February/06/2006.
Yes, there is this grace period they mention, but Central Government of India crafted this laws such that hardly anyone would qualify for that $20 processing fee.
Only people who has their passport expired before January, 01, 2005, are eligible for this, no one else regardless what the law says in regards to the grace period.
I would urge for people that think they can get by this rule can definitely try and send their surrender certificate application to TRAVISA and see what they say, but I also would recommend that people should consult the Immigration lawyers as to what they have to say in these regards.
So, either way I was going to pay for it anyway.
Consulate General of India - Houston sent my passport along with the Surrender Application ( application had NOT turned into a certificate yet due to the fact that Houston Consulate did NOT sign and stamp on the surrender form, NOR did they stamp on the expired passport ) back to me, and they had enclosed a letter stating that I had to pay $250, plus $20 for the processing. That's a total of $270. (Mail charges are NOT even included in this amount at all ! )
So, in conclusion, we had to pay $270 for myself, $270 for my father, $270 for my mother.
Now, my younger brother did not have a passport from India, as he was endorsed on the mother's passport, so he got spared.
So, people be careful as to how you view these laws, and when applying please make sure you consult an licensed immigration lawyer, and see what they have to say, and do your own homework.
-Thanks.
Oh, by the way, the total amount of money we spent for getting our expired Indian Passport canceled, and getting the O.C.I for the entire family of four costed at the exact amount of $2010. This includes the mailing fees that Consulate General of India - Houston had asked for.
Did anyone see the Irony that previous year of 2010, and the total cost was $2010?
well, that is all.
