$250 penalty for renunciation - an extortion!

Wow! Personal attacks of such venom! That too on your first thread. Way to go! In case you hadn't notice, you aren't exactly convincing anyone.

Anyway - carry on. I am going to stop responding to you or this thread - so you can get a cheap shot in. More CAPITALs please to show how angry you are!

A google search gave me this link http://www.immihelp.com/nri/indian-c...r-certificate/

Whoever wrote the instructions for OCI is a bumbling idiot.

Today I received an email from Travisa stating that the copies of passports I sent in was in sufficient. I wrote back saying I had printed out their instructions, and cross referenced it against the 18 pages of attachments and was confident that it was all there.

Original instruction: "A copy of the first three pages of the Indian passport and the last two pages of the Indian passport containing your vital information"

Travisa clarification via email: "You need the first 3 (face down on a copier=1 page) and last 2 Indian passport"


Do you see the difference? I had to burst out laughing..

It looks like they put in this new clause recently, "If the Indian passport expires on or after Jan 1, 2005, and the Indian passport is not surrendered beyond three years after the naturalization date, a penalty of $250.00 will be charged."

See this IndiaMike old post and also if you already have a cancelled stamp on the passport, then you do not need a surrender certificate.

I know it is very confusing as they are coming up with new set of rules. Good Luck fighting it.

kmalik - I just followed the tone of your 2nd reply to this post. You set the (lashing) tone! I read the posts carefully and I see there are people agreeing and it doesn't bother me if they don't.

To all: I am just asking for opinions. I am here to learn. In all my posts I am trying to clarify misconceptions.

Now, this issue is rather new it seems. Also, as I said in my first post, many people will escape this penalty.

If you are here to learn, you could have searched the site and followed the threads, before posting. Rationally speaking, look at some of the fees US charges some foreigners for various forms, and applications. they are much higher than $250. There are many indians who have misused their Indian passport and others are having to suffer.

If you say you helped drive a petition, then you know which organizations were in the forefront in making GOI reduce the fees from $175, to $20.

I do not know what misconceptions you are alluding to, this is a ever changing issue.

Rajvidya, I always remember being reminded by the Indian consulate in NYC that if I were to ever acquire U.S. citizenship that I need to inform them and get my passport canceled. And I'm talking about many, many years ago--before PIOs and OCIs and whatnot existed. And various family members of mine got their Indian passports canceled following the same advice so I'm pretty sure this cancellation thing isn't at all new--but I don't doubt that you may not have been aware of it.

In fact, many Indians still opted to keep their Indian passports in breach of the law which is why the consulates actually started stamping Indian passports with this message: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...itizenship.jpg

I'm sure most countries would be happy with a "cancelled" stamp. This surrender of the passport seems unnecessary. Whilst it is probably the property, not of individual, but of the country that issues it, it is still a very personal document, and contains not only memories, but visas and immigration stamps that might be required by other authorities in the future.

In practice, that's exactly what they did--canceled and returned it. I don't think they normally kept them, though you're right they legally could have. On my brother's passport, for example, they stamped canceled all over it, cut the corners of the covers, and wrote "Holder acquired U.S. citizenship" before returning it.

Oh ... All this business about "surrender" had made me think the wrong thing.

nycank - I checked the threads before posting; there is one about this new $250 who is crying out for help with the surrender cert! So I opened the discussion. I am talking about this "extra" $250 penalty that was suddenly sprung up without notice and all the criteria that went with it. In the original documentation of Jun 2010, "people naturalized before Jun 2010, no action needed" was the essence of it. Needless to say the poorly written documentations on their site is no help. Lot of discrepancies, lot of inconsistencies.

rotar - I asked the officials when I got the OCI, they said "no action needed".

"...if a person was naturalized BEFORE June 1 2010 and their passport expires after 2005 and if they have kept the Indian Passport without surrendering for 3 years after naturalization..." - why all this absurd & complex criteria? Why 2005? why not 1980? Did people misuse the passport only after 2005?

Anyway. I guess they figured that they were not raising enough revenue. So, they are narrowing the extortion audience: those whose passports expired after 2005. They will keep this until the next uproar. Notice how they roll these schemes out before the summer travel season when people don't have much choice and they have to "suck-it-up". That is what they are counting on. They have made things so complicated.......my American neighbor can get to India with a lot less hassles than my children who have ties to the country. Once you find a way to navigate through the latest maze of rules, the clowns will come up with an additional set of wrinkles. "Muhammed-bin-Tuglak" will be proud of his lasting legacy.

I looked up aarosh's link and the websites states that the $250 penalty applies only if the Indian passport was used for travel after another countries passport was obtained. If you have not used the Indian passport, then only the $20 fee applies.

I fall into the "if a person was naturalized BEFORE June 1 2010 and their passport expires after 2005 and if they have kept the Indian Passport without surrendering for 3 years after naturalization" category and paid only $20 for renunciation.

rajvidya, Can you please clarify if you have used the Indian passport after obtaining your current citizenship?

I figure the Indian govt wants to charge a penalty if the Indian passport was used, because an ex-Indian citizen would need a visa to travel to India and cold avoid the visa cost by continuing to use the Indian passport.

I did not use the Indian passport after obtaining current citizenship for anything at all. I have entry/exit stamps on the US passport to prove it. I also have the Indian passport with no stamps on it. crvlvr, please tell me which consulate did you go through and when? I understand a penalty for misuse, but we never did misuse it in any fashion.

http://indiacgny.org/php/showContent...d=223&sub=sub3

Check this page out for the info I pointed out. This is also outlined in travisa site. This is a new rule and is sprung up real sneakily!

I went through SF, Indian Consulate and got it done on Oct 25, 2010 for $20

From the Indian Embassy's (who over see all the other consulates) website:

http://www.indianembassy.org/index.p...content&id=175

I have bolded a a key difference between the verbiage here and your original post

Actually, there is nothing different... Naturalization after Jun 1 2010, you pay $175 for renunciation, which was publicized. Naturalization before Jun 1 2010, you pay $20 for renunciation, which was publicized. Fine. This is the same as what I wrote and what everyone saw and what you highlighted. Now, the problem is "If the Indian passport, the validity of which expired on or after 1.1.2005, is retained beyond three years after acquisition of foreign citizenship, a penalty of US$250/- will be charged." Here is the issue. This is a new rule. This is what I am targeting at.