Gottipatti Posted January 3, 2014 Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 Hello, If anyone has recently (i.e. within the last one year) applied for an OCI card (that enables an U.S. Citizen who was formerly an Indian Citizen to travel to India without having to get a visa), could you please let me know the process and agency to approach. The Indian Consul General's office refers you to travisa outsourcing, but the travisa outsourcing webpage indicates that processing of OCI cards has been transitioned to the Indian outsourcing company, BLS International. I find that the consul general's office does not appear to know about BLS! Also, does one have to formally renounce their Indian citizenship before they apply for the OCI card? I would appreciate if anyone can let me know the process they followed (recently) to get an OCI card. Please do not post Googled links as I have gone through almost all of them in the various public fora and Googled sites. Thanks, GP Link to comment
pontevecchio Posted January 3, 2014 Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 I will answer part of your question. The moment you get US Citizenship you are supposed to inform the embassy and mail the Passports to the Embassy. The passports are returned with cancelled due to acquiring Foreign Citizenship.notation. If you fail to do this there is a fine before you can apply for OCI. Link to comment
will_crack Posted January 3, 2014 Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 Apparently, you haven't googled enough ! Care to check this ? : visa.blsindia-usa.com Which Consulate are you referring to ? Link to comment
Gottipatti Posted January 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 I will answer part of your question. The moment you get US Citizenship you are supposed to inform the embassy and mail the Passports to the Embassy. The passports are returned with cancelled due to acquiring Foreign Citizenship.notation. If you fail to do this there is a fine before you can apply for OCI. There is a three year period within which one must submit the renunciation certificate and their most recent Indian passport with a "processing" fee of $175. After three years, of acquiring U.S. Citizenship, there is a fine of $250. Thanks for the note, though. Link to comment
Gottipatti Posted January 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 Apparently, you haven't googled enough ! Care to check this ? : visa.blsindia-usa.com Which Consulate are you referring to ? Thanks for most obvious url, though. The Indian Consulate at Chicago has not updated its personnel of the transition from Travisa to BLSIndia. Its quite disconcerting when the consulate officials keep referring to something other than what's most "apparent". Link to comment
will_crack Posted January 4, 2014 Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 Just to qualify a bit on the pretty generic and partly incorrect info given by "pontevecchio": If the most recent Indian passport is retained for more than 3 years after acquisition of citizenship of another country, a penalty of $250.00 applies, except where the most recent Indian passport expired before January 1, 2005 or where the most recent Indian passport shows a 'Cancelled' stamp. Also, you can apply for renunciation and OCI concurrently. No need to renounce Indian citizenship before applying for OCI. Link to comment
pontevecchio Posted January 5, 2014 Report Share Posted January 5, 2014 Semantics. In any case this post does not involve US Immigration. Also concurrent means the Passport is cancelled and then the OCI is processed. Link to comment
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