Renunciation fee cancelled for many people of Indian Origins

New info posted on the SF Consulate site (emphasis added):

LATEST NEWS: In supercession of previous rules, Government of India has decided that Persons of Indian origin who have already acquired foreign citizenship uptil 31 May 2010 will not be required to pay renunciation fees of USD 175.00, he/she will be required to pay Miscellaneous fees of USD 20.00 when getting the old Indian passport cancelled/surrendered.

In future those Indian citizens who acquire foreign citizenship on or after 01 June 2010 will have to submit declaration of renunciation of their Indian citizenship forms as given on website and fees of USD 175.00

I don't see it anywhere on that site.

Here is the snapshot.

Showing on the NY Consulate site as well.

I see it now - on both NY and SF sites. Thanks.

Nothing on the UK VFS site yet, hopefully it will be updated soon, and they will stop making people pay this fee!

That's something of an improvement --- and it demonstrates that those in authority over this things have some open minds about it.

I wonder about why they are keeping the steep $175 fee for ones who give up their Indian citizenship after May 31, 2010. I think a better idea would have been

1. Grace period of 3 months after acquiring citizenship of another nation.

2. If people want to avail of any service (visa/PIO/OCI) within 3 months let them send their Indian passport with the application which will then be cancelled without any additional charge (fee of services cover the costs).

3. If people don't want to avail of any services within 3 months they can send the passports the cancellation for nominal processing fee of $xx ($20?).

4. People applying for services after 3 months who haven't cancelled their passports will be charged various penalties.

5. For people acquiring foreign citizenship prior to June 1, 2010 assume that they acquired on May 31, 2010 for interpretation of above rules.

Or something like that.

I am a US citizen of Indian origin, naturalized last year.

I submitted my India visa application in the first week of May at Travisa, SF.

At that time I was only asked to provide a signed copy of the renunciation form (no $20 fee).

I checked the status of my application - there have been no updates beyond the fact that the consulate has received the documents.

I keep getting a weekly automated mail saying that the application is in the final stages. It's impossible to reach them by phone. Should I go back to Travisa to ask?

vegan, what you say makes too much sense. That's why it's not happening!

Nobody is going to be in favour of being charged for things like this.

However, maintaining Indian missions abroad is hugely expensive, and I suspect that the £90 fee will reflect the actual cost of checking, administering and recording the surrendering of Indian citizenship. After all, they charge £50 for a one year tourist visa, which is pretty much a rubber stamp job.

The Indian authorities might be seeing it like this: Why should the current Indian taxpayers subsidise services to people who don't want to be Indian any more?

Still, it's a lot of money to find when it's not expected - the people I feel really sorry for are the people who paid the fee yesterday. Will they get a refund? Highly unlikely!

Good News. Maybe its time to take a walk across the park and talk to a man about a horse

Thanks for spotting it.

Maybe someone or many wonderful desis of the recent vintage (what an oxymoron) gave the diplomatic babucrats a piece of the mind, and disinvited a few to local daru-khanapina parties

To punish the ungrateful B*

Wow !! That is unheard of ! Daal me kuch kala hai >2weeks ? Start bugging Travisa daily for status.

Haylo

If you look at the 2 paragraphs you wrote, you seem to have answered your own question. That is:

The Indian taxpayer is not subsidizing anything for those who do not want to be Indian citizens anymore. They (new foreign citizens) are being charged a normal tourist visa fee or one for a PIO card or one for an OCI card.

Also, the visa fees that India charges a given country is the equivalent of what the other country charges Indian passport holders. For example, I am going to Russia tomorrow (yes, it is true, to St. Petersburg - nice way of getting a "paid-for" 10 day vacation from this horrible hot, humid climate in KGP) and I travel on a US passport. When I wen to the Russian consulate in Kolkata I found out that the Russian visa costs the equivalent of US$ 130 (in INR) which is what the US charges a Russian passport holder who wants a visa to the US. A Russian visa for an Indian passport holder is significantly less (something like the equivalent of US 26). Does that make sense? After, a visa is a visa on any passport

But, that is the way it is.

IMO, GOI is always looking at fleecing people any which they can and NRI's with foreign passports are easy prey.

Cheers

Nattusbs

Did you fill in the ten year history of travel that the russia visa application asks ?

I paid the $175 fee before they changed it recently. The SF site says they have taken the matter of "refund" of $155 with Indian govt and will update the status on the website. They will not entertain any calls or email queries on this matter. (yeah like they answer email and calls other times! )

It also says on the SF site that if you already have a cancelled stamp on the passport (when you applied for a visa) then you do not need a surrender certificate.