OCI process

[alex the king]

What to do with Indian voter card, though? How do you surrender that??

You don't have to surrender something that is not valid any longer once Surrender is issued. When a surrender is issued it means you are no longer a Citizen of India. You lost the voting rights and the card is invalid by default.

I was searching past 2 years to see anything about he Aadhar. The information doesn't exist. All the info you can see will be related" can a foreign citizen or OCI or NRI can get Aadhar" and the Answer is YES and there are some guidelines not updated by the team that handles it. It was 182 days to be in India prior to the application but you can get it now straight after Landing too(excluding the processing time, you must have an Indian Address proof). I still wonder why they are searching to apply Aadhar when you already have Aadhar, i mean most of us who left Country unless the kids were born here in Canada, rest of us usually have the Aadhar including the children unless someone never applied for it.

i sent numerous emails to UDAI and never got a reply, i don't think they even check the email. As far as i am searching you will find you can get Aadhar after getting OCI/PIO status, but nothing about what happens to the Aadhar if someone attains the OCI/PIO status if they already have Aadhar. Even Quora don't have answer for it.

coming to the voter card again, it becomes invalid for sure, so no point of surrendering it. I never utilized it for neither voting nor identity purpose.

 

[HarjeetToronto]

Has anyone recently done manual pickup from BLS Toronto (Lawrence Ave)?

Do you remember the timings (3-5pm?) and what documents you had to show for pickup? No appointment needed, right?

Also, the BLS India Call Centre said I could get a refund for manual pickup since I have already prepaid (forced) for courier delivery. Does this sound true?

 

[delray55]

You don't have to surrender something that is not valid any longer once Surrender is issued. When a surrender is issued it means you are no longer a Citizen of India. You lost the voting rights and the card is invalid by default.

I was searching past 2 years to see anything about he Aadhar. The information doesn't exist. All the info you can see will be related" can a foreign citizen or OCI or NRI can get Aadhar" and the Answer is YES and there are some guidelines not updated by the team that handles it. It was 182 days to be in India prior to the application but you can get it now straight after Landing too(excluding the processing time, you must have an Indian Address proof). I still wonder why they are searching to apply Aadhar when you already have Aadhar, i mean most of us who left Country unless the kids were born here in Canada, rest of us usually have the Aadhar including the children unless someone never applied for it.

i sent numerous emails to UDAI and never got a reply, i don't think they even check the email. As far as i am searching you will find you can get Aadhar after getting OCI/PIO status, but nothing about what happens to the Aadhar if someone attains the OCI/PIO status if they already have Aadhar. Even Quora don't have answer for it.

coming to the voter card again, it becomes invalid for sure, so no point of surrendering it. I never utilized it for neither voting nor identity purpose.

aadhar is something very new in grand scheme of things. there is no way to suspend or expire aadhar as of now
in future when the govt connects all passports to aadhar this might be possible. but again aadhar is not related to citizenship
its related to residency. any person living in india for 6 months can get aadhar card

 

[sting_hard]

Has anyone recently done manual pickup from BLS Toronto (Lawrence Ave)?

Do you remember the timings (3-5pm?) and what documents you had to show for pickup? No appointment needed, right?

Also, the BLS India Call Centre said I could get a refund for manual pickup since I have already prepaid (forced) for courier delivery. Does this sound true?

what number did you called to reach BLS ?

 

[HarjeetToronto]

what number did you called to reach BLS ?

416-307-2237

Got the number from their web site

 

[K310]

No response on Sampark query yet, its already been 6 weeks since the application was received at CGI. Status stuck in - Surrender certificate has been granted and is available for issuance.Close

On another note I have signed the petition to remove BLS, more than 5k people have signed already. How they can win any award on this planet is beyond me.

Re check email address used to apply surrender certificate, you need to use same email address while raising query.

 

[canadamaple]

My OCI application w

You will either go bankrupt or will turn into another BLS within a year.....

I wonder wat exactly is the CGI is for?

Hahaha...Very likely the case.

 

[canadamaple]

Fellow OCI postal applicants - I have a question for you. How long after BLS receives our application, should we receive a tracking number from BLS? Just curious. Thanks for your responses.

 

[canadamaple]

So here we go, the Purolator says they "Attempted delivery" - receiver unavailable. But I was home WHOLE DAY.....they never called me. And suddenly I saw a stcky in the lobby of my building, saying that I have pick up from somewhere...why the F we pay so much of $$ to BLS and Purolator sh*t we have to have so much trouble. Its much better to pick up directly from BLS.//.

They really bunch of losers that run BLS. I am really pissed right now. Sorry for venting out here.

No need to apologize. Both BLS and Purolator are a bunch of assholes and are running a money-making racket. Hopefully after we receive our OCI cards, we would not have to deal with them till we turn 50

 

[A019624]

Hey Guys... does anyone has ay experience of pick up from Brampton BLS on Saturday ? They gave a print out at the time of submission which says Mon - Sat.. and online it says they don't do pickup on Saturday.. I called and they said the same thing which is online.. So just wondering what is the exact timing and days..

 

[funloving]

No need to apologize. Both BLS and Purolator are a bunch of assholes and are running a money-making racket. Hopefully after we receive our OCI cards, we would not have to deal with them till we turn 50

Why at 50?

 

[OldH1B]

Guys,

Does anyone have experience writing a Change.org petition? It's high time we expose the atrocious, corrupt, and incompetent practices of BLS. Every second post on this forum is a complaint about how poorly BLS handled their application. We pay our hard-earned money for their services and get treated so poorly in return. Most of us let it slide once our application is submitted successfully, but in reality, you will need to come back sooner or later for something else. There are enough complaints on this forum, and I am yet to meet a person who has had a completely positive experience with them. Even if you had a good experience they would have charged you a premium for their return courier service. The government must have set a price limit for their services, but they clearly seem to have circumvented it by using private courier service and forcing it upon us even though it is supposed to be optional. It's a high team we all speak up against this useless company.

one way to retaliate is to follow them on Twitter. Off late they are giving themselves a lot of pat on my own back tweets.
In each of the tweets, reply with the change. org petition link or google reviews link. And start tagging MEA and CGI in all your replies. They will get the answer sooner

 

[sting_hard]

416-307-2237

Got the number from their web site

yaa, i tried that number and when i select option 2 for refund it says send amil to CCsupport fro refund

 

[nskatcv]

No response on Sampark query yet, its already been 6 weeks since the application was received at CGI. Status stuck in - Surrender certificate has been granted and is available for issuance.Close

On another note I have signed the petition to remove BLS, more than 5k people have signed already. How they can win any award on this planet is beyond me.

Just on a lighter note, they might have read your signature on this forum.

 

[prt22]

Why at 50?

Assuming u r already 20+, you don't need to renew the OCI booklet until u turn 50