Surrender Certificate

[vurve]

Hello,

I came to know about something called "Surrender certificate" today. here is the description from the Consulate General of India(San Francisco) web site -

"Indian citizens acquiring US (foreign) citizenship and renouncing Indian citizenship are required to surrender their Indian passports and obtain a “Surrender Certificate” which is issued by the Consulate. The charges for obtaining this service is US$ 175/-. These passports are cancelled and returned to the passport holder for future reference."

And here are some links from the consulate website -

http://www.cgisf.org/renunciation/ricsc.html
http://www.cgisf.org/renunciation/ricscpenalty.html

I have to travel to India in about 20 days time and I learned about this new development just today. I recieved my US citizenship in July 2008, and shortly after that, applied for OCI. As part of the OCI application process, I had to send my Indian passport to the consulate, and it was stamped "Cancelled" and returned to me along with my OCI card.

I am not sure if I still need to apply for the surrender certificate. I have sent an email to the Consulate asking about this. If anyone has any info on this please let me know.

Here are some other links on this -

http://www.indianembassy.org/newsite/Renunciation.asp#1

http://www.immihelp.com/nri/indian-c...r-certificate/

http://www.mynews.in/News/Surrender_...up_N57528.html

Thanks,
Vivek

[csingh]

My husband and are also dealing with the same thing! We don't have our OCI cards yet and were going to apply, now we need to get this surrender certificate.
If you already have an OCI and more importantly, your Indian passport has been cancelled adn returned to you; you don't need this certificate to travel to India.

[vurve]

Thanks for the reply and the confirmation that this does not impact those who have already had their passports cancelled as part of the OCI process.

I am still waiting for the reply to my email that I sent to the consulate, but hoping they say the same thing.

Good luck to you in your quest for the Surrender certificate!

Vivek

[csingh]

Thank you! We need all the luck in the world to figure this one out. Looks like an arbitrary rule some babu thought of and just implemented without giving any thought to the process.
They've changed the form 3 times since we started this process. Anyways, the SFO consulate says that if your passport is already cancelled they won't even issue you a surrender certificate and you won't have to pay the fee etc. so seems kind of dumb if they expect you to mail in an application just for the heck of it?
I hope they clarify and confirm for you.

[Jose Contreras]

Honestly, you should probably contact an attorney. They will be more informed about this topic.

[csingh]

I doubt it. Hiring an attorney for obtaining a surrender certificate seems overkill to me.
Its a pretty straightforward form that you fill (single page) and mail out with your original indian passport and fee. You get back the passport with a cancelled stamp on it and a certificate stating the same.
If you already have an OCI, that means your indian passport was already cancelled and you have nothing more to do with teh process.