Surrender Certificate Rules - Which one applies to me

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blanco

Registered Users (C)
I just got my citizenship today (18th May) and I want to surrender my Indian passport ASAP. Clearly this will happen within 90 days of naturalization. So I dont know which of the items in the penalty table at http://www.cgisf.org/ applies to me.

1. If you have an Indian Passport which has already been surrendered - NOT applicable to me since I haven't yet surrendered.
2. If you have an Indian Passport which expired before 1.1.2005 and which has not been surrendered - My passport has not yet expired, so this is NOT applicable to me.
3. Any Indian Passport expiring after 1.1.2005, not surrendered within three years of date of obtaining US naturalization and not used for travel and no services taken - NOT applicable to me, because clearly I will surrender before 3 years.
4. Any Indian Passport which expired on or after 1.1.2005 but was not surrendered for upto 3 years of US Naturalization and which was used for travel NOT applicable to me since I will surrender before 3 years and definitely dont plan to travel on that Indian passport
5. Any Indian Passport which expired on or after 1.1.2005 but was not surrendered for OVER 3 years after acquiring US Naturalization and which was used for travel NOT applicable to me
6. If you have Indian passport renewed/reissued after acquiring US Naturalization Haha, I wont be renewing my Indian passport
7. Indian passport retained unsurrendered & miscellaneous service availed Won't be availing services before surrendering my passport
8. Passport lost/damaged or surrendered to foreign Government I have my passport in my possession

So I am confused.. which one applies to me. Do I need to pay the $175. Am I reading the above wrong ?
 
I am in the exact same boat or probably even more complicated. It had been just a little over 3 months for me and just less than 90 days for my wife after naturalization when we sent the original passports to the SF consulate. Are we required to get/submit the surrender certificates? Also, we haven't used either the US or Indian passports for travel since naturalization.

Worse yet, our OCIs were already approved and sent from New Delhi to the SF consulate (not recd. by them yet) when this new rule came into effect. And I have already gotten an e-mail with the new requirement of the surrender certificates.

I have left a voice-mail for the SF consulate (which I am positive, will not be answered). It would help if anyone could please clarify if we would need to pay the $175 fees. Thanks a lot.
 
My understanding is that everyone from now on will have to shell out $175 for any OCI/PIO/visa service, including those whose applications are partially processed. Those whose passports have already been canceled (as part of a visa application) don't have to pay anything at all.

OP will have to pay the new fees - the penalty table is contradictory and was drawn up by some dim witted idiot in the consulate.
 
Send one check for the family for seperate check ?

Do we need to send one check for the family (example for 2 indian passport cancellation $350)
Also, do we need to add $20 or $40 (for 2 people) again this has to be seperate check/MO or can be
combined into say $370 as single check/MO?

Also, has anyone obtained the SC in person along with OCI card/ U visa?
 
ksri1 said:
Do we need to send one check for the family (example for 2 indian passport cancellation $350)
Also, do we need to add $20 or $40 (for 2 people) again this has to be seperate check/MO or can be
combined into say $370 as single check/MO?

Also, has anyone obtained the SC in person along with OCI card/ U visa?
Click to expand...

I asked this question to the consulate when I applied for birth certificate. You can mail application for 2 together with just 20 dollars extra. So you can send one money order of 370. This was the official reply from consulate.
 
Surrender certificate...

I have my US citizenship and got my OCI in 2007 and had the indian passports voided. Do I still need to get the surrender certificate...

Thank you
Ramdas
 
Per the new rules, you would still need to get the surrender certificate. However, since you already got the passports canceled, it is possible that you may not have to pay the $175 fee and depending on your circumstances, no penalties too. e.g. CGISF has this fee/penalty schedule on their site.
http://www.cgisf.org/renunciation/ricscpenalty.html
Hope this helps.
 
I stand corrected. It seems CGISF has surreptitiously updated their site to now say that no surrender certificate will be issued for passports already canceled. Just last night the site had "gratis" there, meaning it would be issued and for no charge. Must say wow!

PDF of last night's page print attached.
 
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We applied in person today for the surrender certificates. My wife and I were both charged $175 each even though it has been less than 90 days for my wife since her naturalization and the consulate getting her passport and for me, none of the conditions mentioned apply. We explained this to them but paid anyway since we have travel coming up in less than 2 weeks and didn't want to argue with them. All the same, the consulate folks seemed genuinely helpful, to us and others as well. Really appreciate that.
 
Awaiting_PR said:
PDF of last night's page print attached.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of Dog Day Afternoon. One robbery which starts well, but then things go downhill...
One BOSS somewhere
- decides to change a rule,
- does not want to listen to what he thinks is BS about how long it takes to change rules, and
- then crapolla all over
==> consulates not only suddenly burdened with the extra workload
==> more phone calls to answer, more emails to respond
==> but also the scrambling to debug their websites as and when a poor applicant finds something wrong.
 
Awaiting_PR said:
I stand corrected. It seems CGISF has surreptitiously updated their site to now say that no surrender certificate will be issued for passports already canceled. Just last night the site had "gratis" there, meaning it would be issued and for no charge. Must say wow!

PDF of last night's page print attached.
Click to expand...

Ha Ha! Now they have revised it again! Now it says that NO SURRENDER CERTIFICATE ISSUED if passport has been surrendered!
 
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For any kind of service they are asking for surrender certificate.
However for those who have already surrendered their passports, they are now not issuing surrender certificates

cgisf.org/renunciation/ricscpenalty.html
If you have an Indian Passport which has already been surrendered - No Surrender Certificate Issued

So how are we supposed to get any kind of service when the passport has already been surrendered???
 
Surrender certificate - Original or copy

Awaiting_PR : Did the SF consulate say they needed the original surrender certificate attached to the OCI application or a copy would suffice ? Are they going to mail back the surrender certificate or just attach to your pending OCI application ?
 
abhi777771 said:
For any kind of service they are asking for surrender certificate.
However for those who have already surrendered their passports, they are now not issuing surrender certificates

cgisf.org/renunciation/ricscpenalty.html
If you have an Indian Passport which has already been surrendered - No Surrender Certificate Issued

So how are we supposed to get any kind of service when the passport has already been surrendered???
Click to expand...

They usually return your canceled passport back to you - hang on to the canceled Indian passports for the rest of your life!
 
nkm,

what I meant was that I already have the cancelled passport with me. But for any kind of service now they are asking for surrender certificate. But at the same time they are not issuing surrender certificate to those people who already got their passport cancelled earlier (before this new rule) - does'nt make any sense
 
abhi777771 said:
nkm,

what I meant was that I already have the cancelled passport with me. But for any kind of service now they are asking for surrender certificate. But at the same time they are not issuing surrender certificate to those people who already got their passport cancelled earlier (before this new rule) - does'nt make any sense
Click to expand...

My hope is that eventually they will settle down to a more meaningful set of requirements and if you can show a canceled Indian passport you can avail of any consular service in the future.
 
Does Surrendering means the same as Cancellation?

Does in both cases the Indian Passports are canceled and given back to you or does surrendering means you will physically have to give them the passports in exchage of a surrender certificate as a proof that you ever held one
 
ashma said:
Awaiting_PR : Did the SF consulate say they needed the original surrender certificate attached to the OCI application or a copy would suffice ? Are they going to mail back the surrender certificate or just attach to your pending OCI application ?
Click to expand...

They did not specify. However, the OCI person had us file for the surrender certificates and got an extra receipt each for them from the surrender cert app receiving lady and put it in the OCI file. I hope she put back the Indian passports in the file too. BTW, they didn't ask for the US passports/Nat Cert for the surrender cert, nor any return envelope. I hope things proceed smoothly and that they soon send us the OCIs (that were received by them already from New Delhi) along with the canceled Indian passports and surrender certificates.
 
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