I went today and was taken care by a guy. I was happy with his services. I had spent sleepless nights and done so many reviews of my application so I was waiting for him to find a mistake, which he did, but I was well prepared. Issue was place of birth name difference. Similar to @abbas.pasha case. I got an affidavit and was waiting for him to ask. Before he even could say the issue - I handed him the Affidavit, he smiled and accepted it.Hi All
Finally back from BLS and here is my detailed post. Sit with a bag of chips and read on !!
So last year I did my canadian born daughter's OCI via post and it went through, we got the OCI in time for the India travel. Even there BLS over charged me with courier fees of return of originals when clearly there were no originals to be submitted. I escalated the matter to so many places, finally got my money back. Yes I was able to!
Now that we 3 (father mother and Indian born son) had the surrender certificates it was time for our OCI.
When we went first time for SC we were shown mistakes in the forms, read below and don't make the same mistakes
- Emergency contact address missing with postal code. They want his full janam kundli !!!
- Address didn't match the DL. As per them AVE is not the same as AVENUE.
- Emergency contact cannot be someone in India, this made sense to me. I added a canadian emergency contact.
There were mistakes in all the 3 forms and the Sardarji agent, although courteous had a big smile on his face when he offered 30CAD per form to be filled by BLS if I didn't want to return. Back then, I since my wife couldn't take more time off work so I decided I will pay 30 for her and get her application filled up. The lady at the counter near washroom literally was copy pasting the entire form by holding down the ctrl + Arrow key. She didn't know Ctrl + A/ Select all. Anyways that was done and I decided I will return with my and my son's correct application filled up.
There were no appointments and they had only opened till end of June that time. I was following the slots every hour almost. I saw they opened it for 3 months in one go and that day I took probably 10-15 slots. Because each person needs one slot and I had SC/ SC Backup/ OCI/ OCI backup slots. Yes, I cancelled my extra slots which I had booked today so hopefully someone would have benefitted from them.
For the geeks - In the process I even figured out their systems validation rules - how they find a unique combination for one person's name/ passport/ phone number/ email ID combination. I was able to bypass that and get multiple slots. The security guard doesn't check your passport/ email ID etc. You can change them slightly and make different combinations and get the slots if you desperately need them. Don't feel guilty about taking multiple slots, you are not taking anyone's chance. If you don't show up or cancel, they allot it to walk-ins. So someone surely gets helped anyways.
I went the second time for SC and he was raising his eyebrows on the photos. Said there is no stamp and seal at the back. I said show me a rule on your website or OCI website where it says that its required. I had a ruler in my hand and I was ready to go guns blazing. I offered to call the head lady Ms Mascerenas and start an argument there, I had all the data points. Of course I printed the photo at home, why should I not. If it satisfies your photo criteria. In the end he gave up and agreed to process it - saying if CGI returns it back its not my fault. I just smirked at him and let him do his job.
The 2 applications for SC were done and I got all the 3 SCs by courier in a month's time. I could NOT win the battle of Courier/ self pickup. They were ready to decline my application and send me to Brampton, which I didn't want to as its very far from me and not worth saving the 30$.
Now coming to OCI
I went today and was taken care by a guy. I was happy with his services. I had spent sleepless nights and done so many reviews of my application so I was waiting for him to find a mistake, which he did, but I was well prepared. Issue was place of birth name difference. Similar to @abbas.pasha case. I got an affidavit and was waiting for him to ask. Before he even could say the issue - I handed him the Affidavit, he smiled and accepted it.
He took a bunch of copies because for the citizenship certificate I had done 2 pages in one sheet landscape mode and he said that may be an issue. I let him do that and charge me which is fair enough. All other documents were in order.
For my son, I had submitted 2 applications. One with signature (based on the advice from the BLS call center guys) and other with his finger print. I knew they would say the opposite thing of what I am carrying so I took both. There the lady says - under 10 kids only fingerprint. Sure, here is the form.
All went through. Told him in the beginning itself, I don't want any VAS, no SMS, no call back, no passport cover nothing. And he was happy to NOT add any of those. It took a while for my token number to come and around an hour at his desk because I had 3 applications.
In the end it ended well and thanks to Abbas bhai and others who helped.
Summary - Although I still hate BLS but I hate them a little less, because when I thought about it, these guys at the BLS office are just following orders from the main boss. I don't think they are interested in finding mistakes in your form every single time you go there. There are so many of us who just clear this pilgrimage in the first visit itself. The problem is at the higher level.
The BLS owner and Indian Government are hand in glove I feel. Its similar to getting a civil contractor in India for a road repair work. The tender goes to the person who gives the best kick backs to the officer granting the work. In our case, BLS is possibly taking "very good care" of the officials who grant them the contract. Not just in Canada, but globally. I have used VFS in USA and they are not as chaotic as BLS.
Now the issue is BLS website <> OCI Website <> CGI website <> BLS Office employees. All of them have different instructions and they don't care 2 hoots of updating or synching them. This is where the greasing of the palms comes into play, because this is the chance for BLS to make extra money, part of which goes to the right person who lets them have the contract.
We have done change.org with so many signatures in the past but MEA has bigger things to take care of right now. Nothing happened to BLS. As long as BLS issues a certain number of SC/ OCI etc applications in a day they are good to go. The ratio of rejections vs acceptance is what is negotiated as the cost of NOT synching their systems and their sample forms and their rules. This is where the kickbacks come in. You can tag MEA, CGI, PMO as much as you want but no one would bother. Unless it gets highlighted in Media and when it comes to reputation, that's when someone will take any action on it.
A simple fix of this problem would be to sync the different systems and have consistent form filling instructions ! That would make it so much easier for Sr Citizens too. I had an elderly couple next to me, the lady pointed mistakes in almost every page. When they said they followed the form filling instructions, she said I don't care what you have read from where. These are the rules. Fix the forms and return. Return when - when you have no appointments to take???? I felt so bad for themIn the end its just a deadlock.
I personally feel this is like a major pilgrimage I have completed !
Best way to fill the forms is to review the form filling instructions from every website BLS/ OCI/ CGI but then google up and research on forums like this to get most up to date rules which BLS is following !
I will make another list of common mistakes which I took care of.
Its like Vikram Betaal.. Tu bola aur main laaya
This also reminds me about Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron!! (epic stress buster)
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