Struggling to get my spouse back into India

destined2doom

Today morning , as it became a routine nowadays, I was doing the same old keyword search for "India entry visa + spouse + Home Ministry" when I bumped into this forum and found a dozened folks troubled by the same problem as myself.

To start with,my spouse is a german national and we got married in Bangalore India under special marriage act and then off she went to
Germany to get entry visa..Then started the ordeal ...When she applied with her marriage certificate for an entry visa she was denied the same stating that either she needs to produce my Indian passport with her name added as spouse name or the Marriage Registrar's signature should be verified..

I got her name added as spouse name in my passport in a snap..by showing RPO the marriage certificate..and off I sent the scanned copy to germany with high hopes..
Again she went to the consulate...and finally I gotta text from her saying...She cant really believe they took her application charged the fees and asked her to collect the passport with 1 year entry visa to India in the evening..I was elated...But barely an hour might have elapsed the consulate called her back and asked her to get the marriage certificate verified by Minsitry Of Home Affairs,New Delhi..

Huh...And then I found information on Hague thingy where the Home Ministry of State issues order to the Police Comissioner to verify the marriage and then Comissioner in turn sends a request to the Marriage Subregistrar to verify whether the same marriage has been solemnised in his office..and then the whole process goes in a "for" loop where i is inversly proportional to the "BR!@E" and "Connexions" anyway I got the mammoth task done in a spectacular 36 hours.

Now I've sent the document to get attested by the Ministry of External Affairs which then I would send to my wife on Monday to re-apply..Hope things go fine from there ...

But I dun understand why they asked for Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi ..
Whereas all known information points to the fact that home ministry of state does the running around and MEA, Central says Home Ministry aint lying..The certificate thus issued is binding to all foreign countries and Indian Counterparts...

If someone is wearing the same shoes or wore it in past ..Please comment
Regards

edwardseco

I did this with the INS in Amrika and it only took 2 years. Four times they lost the paperwork. My mom called a boy she used to date in high school who had gone to Washington and bamn, done in an hour. Best of luck and wishes to you as well as infinite patience..

destined2doom

Oh my Gawd...2 years !!!..Its just a month and I think I have never been challenged by a thing so seemingly formidable..I almost stopped going to work ...I will keep my fingers crossed this Tuesday ..

Backup plan is to move PMO then NHRC ... then maybe Media

Nick-H

I have heard of an authenticated marriage certificate being required. Our marriage certificate is typed on ordinary paper: even Indian officials here have said, "Is this what they gave you?" --- but they do few Special Marriage Act weddings,and they have no printed form. The High Commission of India in London did not query it at all!

Part of the difficulty we had in applying for X visa in Chennai (eventually gave up) is that they were perpetually saying that they were verifying the marriage and it never seemed to happen.

In principle, it is not unreasonable that they should verify the marriage to be genuine, and it is not half as bad as it can be in UK where their investigations can be very intrusive.

But all this paperwork crap is so frustrating --- sounds like you're handling it pretty well!

Ultimately, it may require financial incentive

See here from the Team-BHP forum, some crazy vicious-circle official idiocy.

destined2doom

Thanz Nick..4 the feedback...My wife was also told the investigations on verification of marriage would be initiated by the authorities from Germany via Delhi to the concerned state and back to delhi then forwarded to embassy...I heard people growing old during this entire process..And self initiated the process by meeting under secretary of state then hand carrying the papers to departments after departments ..Not all the times monetary incentives work..Sometimes u need 2 stimulate the emotional sides of the officials also...But I think the clue is never ever let the document stay in any office overnight...Couple of agencies are also there like YourmaninIndia and Urogulf but for whatever money they charge everyone said it takes one month atleast from Home Ministry of State..But MEA in Delhi is supposed to pretty fast...I wrote to Joint Secretary of MEA ...And I am sanguine to get the document by monday...
But the problem is I dunno how come the Home Ministry in central concerned...My wife is not seeking PIO or OCI...Only X-Visa..which we may or may not convert to PIO /OCI later...If anyone is aware please let me know whether German citizens can have OCI without surrendering the German passport?

icetea

Oh my, the first time I've seen the "Hague thingy" mentioned on this forum! Are you by any chance talking about the Hague apostille (Hague Convention)? Because if you are, I also had to deal with it.

I'm a bit confused here...you keep mentioning the Ministry of Home Affairs, while I had to deal with the MEA, they do all these verifications for documents to be used abroad, including marriage certificates, study diplomas and so on.

I didn't need anything of the sorts for getting my X visa, but since I'm required by law to register my Indian marriage in my home country, I needed to get that marriage certificate verified and certified for international use (they wouldn't accept it otherwise). We had to go to the state government (Tamil Nadu foreigner division), get a stamp over there, then go to the MEA and get yet another stamp on top of it. Is this that you're talking about? My husband got the MEA stamp right away, he just went there, got lucky and got it stamped in an hour or so, if I recall well (no bribe).

I still haven't solved the apostille problem though...the authorities in my home country won't recognise the Indian MEA stamp because it doesn't have the specific apostille (a certification/stamp) format, and according to them India should apply that because it signed the Hague convention in 2004 and it's on their list bla bla...but of course India doesn't implement it yet...and authorities in my home country don't seem to care or understand. I've been pointed to 3 different institutions to get yet another stamp on that certificate, total confusion. Anyway this is a different issue so I won't go into details here.

ranjan154

You are a new victim of red tapism as India has been known. A lot of formalities and nothing concrete, moreover, they will not tell the entire process in one go, they will keep on adding task after task.I do not understand if they are so concerened about every minor details then how come terrorists keep on entering Indian soil that too regularly. Anyway, my friend I can only wish you should reunite with your spouse soon.

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Rakesh Ranjan
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malvin

In general,I think Germany doesn`t allow dual nationality,but PMO card should not be a problem.

kmalik

Germany does allow dual citizenships. A German citizen seeking to acquire another citizenship requires a permission from the German Govt. to retain the German citizenship.

Also, OCI does not add up to citizenship (despite what it seems like) and is essentially a lifetime visa with certain additional privileges baked in. You are never issued an Indian passport, and should not have any citizenship issues with Germany or another country. If anyone has a different experience, I'd love to see it.

destined2doom

Yest my wife re-applied with the sealed marriage certificate from Home Department of State and Ministry of External Affairs.The guy behind the counter said..This looks fancy but of lil use..We want a reply to our mail with ref no XXXXXXX from Ministry of Home Affairs to give us permission of stay..
I told her to go and directly see the consular and demand an explanation for non-acceptance of the certificate faxed by MEA..The learned consular says...We do accept this marriage certificate [as if he had a choice not to ] but we want permission from Home Affairs in Delhi to grant you an entry visa ...She demanded a copy of the letter which they sent to Home Affairs but was refused.

End of the day I will travel to delhi with the wonderful number..This I think is the last try to appease the authorities before I move to the Human rights Court..Hope they accept my plea and not reject it on the grounds of being frivolous.. I also appealed to the PM's office.