Indian Visa for Infant Daugher (US Citizen) - Please Help Urgent

raj_9757

Me and my wife are Indian Citizens with Indian Passport. We are working in US in H1 for the last 4 years. Our 16month daughter was born in US and is a US Citizen. We came to India on Feb 1st. Upon arriving at Chennai - i found that her Indian Visa was expired (almost had a heart attack). Spoke to the immigrations officer and he gave us a 30 day TLP (Temp Landing Permit) which expires on March 1st. He told us our daughter should leave India on or before March 1st.

When i checked with Singapore, i found that it is not possible to get an Indian Visa with a Singapore Tourist Visa (one should be a citizen or a perm-resident of singapore to get an indian visa). I am looking for Srilankan option. No idea how to proceed. Here are my questions -

1. Do we (me & my wife - indian citizens) need to take srilankan visa?
2. Does my daughter (us citizen) need to take srilankan visa before going there?
3. If we go to srilanka, will the job get done i.e., will they issue a indian visa for a us citizen to get back to india?
4. How long does it take?

Thanks a lot in advance.

edwardseco

Some of this is easy, the daughter will get an SL visa on arrival. You can then get an Indian visa in SL easy, max 1-5 working days. You are right about Singapore. Don't know about Indian passport holders..

Haylo

Presumably you are getting her a tourist visa in Sri Lanka? If so, bear in mind that you may only be given three months, but even if her visa lasts longer than six months, she will need to leave India after 180 days.

As someone with Indian parents, your daughter would have qualified for OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) status, which gives her the lifelong right to reside in India without a visa. If you are heading back to the States for more than a month or two, it is definitely worth your taking this opportunity.

If not, once this short term issue has been sorted, you can get her a PIO card, which exempts her from a visa for 15 years.

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capt_mahajan

Schedule A in the link says, no you don't (30 days)

http://www.immigration.gov.lk/html/visa/fees.html

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raj_9757

Thanks a lot for the replies.

If i can get my daughter 3 months visa from srilanka, i can apply for a PIO or a OCI in Chennai using that 3 month visa - right? Currently when i asked the immigrations bureau at chennai they tell me since she is on a TLP they cannot process her PIO. Please let me know if i can get my daughter a PIO or something equal (long term visa) in India itself when she has a valid (limited (3month) visa).

Thanks again.

raj_9757

I am leaving to US next month - but my wife and daughter will be in India for a year. Can i go there and apply for a PIO or a OCI for my daughter? Will it work if she is in India? Is it legal? Please let me know.

Thanks.

Haylo

Nick-H, who knows far more about PIO / OCI than I ever will, posted yesterday that in clear cut cases it is not necessarily any more straightforward to apply outside India than from the applicant's home country, which I'm sure will be good news to you!

mazha

Your daughter is not eligible for a OCI, only PIO. For some strange reason I've not been able to figure out, if both parents have Indian passports, the child born in US/Canada can only get a PIO card. If at least one of you had US/Canada/other citizenship, then the child can get OCI.

PIO means the child has to go to a police station and get a foreigner registration every six months when she is in India. OCI is exempt from this clause. Also OCI people can get back Indian citizenship if they stay one year in India after four years outside, PIOs require 12 years.

You will not be able to apply for a PIO for the child from the US, because the Indian consulate will ask for the child's passport to issue the PIO card. Applying in India would be easier. Ask around and find someone who works in ministry of external affairs in Delhi, that will make things a lot easier.

Haylo

Apparently, although dual citizenship is not officially permitted by India, in practice it would be easy for you to get an Indian passport for your child. Although India does not permit this, America it seems is quite happy for its citizens to have dual citizenship with other countries.

Note that I have absolutely no idea of the repercussions of doing this!
How utterly bizarre, having two Indian parents seems about as clear cut as it could get for an OCI application.

Can anyone throw any light on this?

mazha

No, getting an Indian passport is not easy for a foreign citizen. Unless you make a fake passport.

Also, I understand America is picky about which country their citizens can be a dual citizen of.

Here is my thinking: although the OCI/PIO rules have been drawn up very carefully (to deny citizenship to people from Pakistan and Bangladesh) I think the rules are very US-centric, as the lobbying for dual-citizenship was driven by US-based Indians. I think there is something in US law that seeks a "first right" for people born on US soil. The OCI rule is trying to accomodate this, so that Indian parents don't spirit away their kids using OCI. But this wouldn't explain why you can get OCI if one or both parents are US/foreign citizens. Maybe the assumption is that if one parent is a US citizen, then there is less chances of people running away with US-born kids! It is quite puzzling.

It is also a problem, because many Indian couples on extended visits to the US don't realize this, and have a child in the US, but later find out that they have to go to the police station every six months in India.

lucullan

My experience:

My daugthters visa expired 6 motnhs back. I am a foreigner holding a PIO card and my hubby is Indian. I approached FRO today asking thme what i can do...she was on 6 months tourist visa.
I told them that i plan to apply for a PIO card for her. They said if taht is the case, I should apply online (i am in hyderabad and it is done online here) for visa extention...they will give me one year visa which will allow me to apply for PIO.

I have to pay 30 USD for late registration, 30 USD for expired visa fee and 65 USD for a visa extention.

I would definitely advise you to go to FRO and solve the matter there and hopefully there will be no need to exit India. They seem really nice when it comes to kids - at least in my case.

The info is frehs cos i was at FRO today.

Nick-H

The child must, obviously, be a citizen of another country. Otherwise, never heard about there being a problem with two parents!

Residents Permits are issued for periods as seen fit by the FRRO; 6 months would be very short --- mine is currently five years.
Like they do to issue any visa? I don't understand why this should be a problem

It might make it more expensive too

raj_9757

The problem that i have is my daughter did not have a valid visa while getting into India. I approached FRRO Chennai and he told me he would not be able to do anything (get her a PIO, etc) since she is on a TLP. TLP are for emergencies and they give only upto 15 days. He said in my case he is giving 30 days since its for an infant. I am in a tight situation as i will not be able to extend the TLP or apply for a PIO since she is on a TLP !!! Looking above for any HELP

mazha

[QUOTE=Nick-H;665907]The child must, obviously, be a citizen of another country. Otherwise, never heard about there being a problem with two parents!

See point 3 here:

http://www.cgivancouver.com/oci.html

Nick-H

Yes, very odd.

Their link to the MHA site appears to be to the OCI FAQs PDF. It is broken, but point number 6 is Very, very odd.

I'm sure you can understand that I don't feel like going through every word of the MHA OCI stuff here to try to get to the bottom of it, but if you come across he relevant 'point 6' or other explanation, it would be interesting.