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Do I have to surrender Indian passport before applying for e-visa to India ?

J J J

Newbie
Feb 5, 2020
1
0
Persons of Indian Origin to obtain Surrender Certificate on Renunciation of Indian Citizenship

The Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, does not allow dual citizenship. It is a punishable offence under the Indian Passport Act, 1967, to apply for an Indian passport, continue to hold an Indian passport, get an Indian passport re-issued or travel on an Indian passport acquiring foreign citizenship. Extant rules prescribe penalties for holding Indian passports by foreign nationals.

Under Indian law, Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs), who have acquired foreign citizenship are required to surrender their Indian passports to the nearest Indian Mission/Post immediately after acquisition of foreign citizenship.

Even after acquiring the Canadian citizenship, the Indian passport can be used to travel for 3 months from the day of getting the Canadian citizenship. The grace period is only for such cases where foreign citizenship has been acquired but a foreign passport is not available to the person. It is also mentioned that it is illegal to travel on an Indian passport, where a person has obtained a foreign passport.

Penalty will be charged if the passport is used after 3 months.

The salient features of the scheme are listed below :

Indian citizens acquiring any foreign citizenship on or after 1 June, 2010 must formally renounce Indian citizenship. This can be done by surrendering Indian passports for cancellation. The Indian passport would be cancelled and returned to the passport holder along with the requisite certificate for future reference. Applicants would be required to pay a onetime Renunciation Fee of Canadian $ 240 + $ 3 (Consular Surcharge) + BLS service fee C$ 7.40 (inclusive of applicable taxes) while surrendering their Indian passports.

Production of Surrender Certificate endorsement is essential while applying for Indian visa, PIO/OCI card or any other miscellaneous consular services, in case Canadian citizenship was acquired on or after 1 June, 2010.

Those who acquired foreign citizenship on 31 May, 2010 or earlier need not pay the Renunciation Fee. They must however get their Indian Passport, whether already expired or not, duly cancelled. Necessary entries in the records would be made by the Mission/Consulate and the Indian passport cancelled and returned to the applicant. Fee of C$ 34 + C$ 3 as Consular Surcharge + BLS Service fee C$ 7.40 (inclusive of applicable taxes) is charged in such cases.

Persons of Indian Origins who had earlier obtained OCI / PIO Cards or Visa without surrendering their Indian passports are required to surrender their last held Indian passport and obtain surrender certificates at the time of renewing their OCI / PIO Cards or for obtaining fresh visa.

The Mission/Consulate would levy penalty if the Indian passport has not been cancelled for more than 3 years, or if it was utilized to visit India or any other consular service was obtained after acquiring foreign nationality. The penalty would be in addition to the Renunciation Fee. Contact the nearest center of BLS International Services Canada Inc. to find out the exact amount of penalty. Following are the provisions relating to penalty :

1. Penalty for retention of Indian passport after acquiring Canadian citizenship for a period in excess of three years from the date of acquiring Canadian citizenship :

a) If your Passport expired on or before 31 December, 2004 - no penalty.

b) If your passport expired on or after 1 January, 2005 - C$ 343.

(Note: Retention Penalty (C$ 343) is different from Renunciation Fee (C$ 240). The latter needs to be paid by those who acquire foreign nationality on or after 1 June, 2010.)

2. Penalty for travelling on Indian Passport after acquiring Canadian citizenship is C$ 343 for each time, subject to a maximum of C$ 1711.

3. Penalty for getting Indian Passport renewed or re-issued after acquiring Canadian citizenship is C$ 856 for each such renewal or reissue.

4. Penalty for obtaining any miscellaneous passport service (name change, etc.) on Indian Passport after acquiring Canadian citizenship is C$ 343 for each such service.

Procedure for obtaining Surrender Certificate/Renunciation Certificate

Please note that acceptance of applications for this service has been outsourced to BLS International Services Canada Inc. Applications should be submitted to their centers located at Toronto and Brampton. The applicant would need to submit the following :

  • Duly filled-in application form
  • Original Indian passport with one copy.
  • Copy of the Canadian Citizenship certificate.
  • Copy of Canadian passport, if held.
  • Copy of Record of Landing
  • Applicable Fees.
In addition to the prescribed fee, an applicant would be required to pay C$ 2.00 on account of Consular Surcharge + BLS service fee of C$ 7.40 (inclusive of applicable taxes.)

In case the application is sent by mail, the same should be forwarded to the Toronto Center of BLS International and must include the prescribed fee plus BLS charges and courier fees, for return of documents. For more details, please visit their website www.blsindia-canada.com. The relevant application forms could also be downloaded from BLS website: www.blsindia-canada.com.

Where to submit application:

Applications for passport services can be deposited at any of these Centres, depending on the convenience of the applicant. The addresses of these centres are given below:

1. Toronto BLS Centre-1448 Lawrence Avenue East, Unit 6A, Toronto, ON M4A 2V6, Canada.

Phone: +1-416 307 2237 ;Website: www.blsindia-canada.com

2. Brampton BLS Centre-20 Gillingham Drive, Unit 701,Brampton, ON L6X 5A5, Canada

Phone: +1-416 307 2237 ;Website: www.blsindia-canada.com

3. Winnipeg BLS Centre-1770 King Edward Street, Winnipeg, MB , R2R 0M5, Canada.

Phone: +1-204-285-3985, Website: www.blsindia-canada.com


The Consulate has not appointed or authorized any other agency or individual agent to render any passport service on behalf of Consulate other than M/S BLS International

CLARIFICATIONS

Surrender Certificate cannot be issued if the last held Indian passport is not physically produced.

Penalty, if applicable, cannot be waived or reduced.

There is no penalty in cases where the PIO opted for foreign nationality before 1.1.2005 and the last held Indian passport also expired before that date.
 

amitgreatus

Newbie
Aug 14, 2019
7
1
India
Category........
FSW
Visa Office......
Ottawa
NOC Code......
2174
AOR Received.
25-03-2019
Med's Done....
08-05-2019
Any idea if we can apply evisa for India immediately after acquiring Canadian passport and not wait for surrender certificate? (Okay to surrender Indian passport but BLS takes time to issue surrender certificate) Does the evisa portal ask for surrender cert?
 

forw.jane

VIP Member
Apr 29, 2019
6,793
2,781
Any idea if we can apply evisa for India immediately after acquiring Canadian passport and not wait for surrender certificate? (Okay to surrender Indian passport but BLS takes time to issue surrender certificate) Does the evisa portal ask for surrender cert?
e-Visa is not only for ex-Indians. So there is no dependency on surrender certificate for it.
 

amitgreatus

Newbie
Aug 14, 2019
7
1
India
Category........
FSW
Visa Office......
Ottawa
NOC Code......
2174
AOR Received.
25-03-2019
Med's Done....
08-05-2019
e-Visa is not only for ex-Indians. So there is no dependency on surrender certificate for it.
Okay so how much ideal minimum gap should be kept from Oath ceremony and travel date? I'm trying to gauge if I'm called for oath 2 weeks before travel date. Opted for e-certificate and if I go for urgent passport still how many days of buffer is needed?
 

forw.jane

VIP Member
Apr 29, 2019
6,793
2,781
Okay so how much ideal minimum gap should be kept from Oath ceremony and travel date? I'm trying to gauge if I'm called for oath 2 weeks before travel date. Opted for e-certificate and if I go for urgent passport still how many days of buffer is needed?
Buffer for Canadian passport?
 

sarvesh90

Hero Member
Jun 18, 2018
505
130
Both canadian passport and indian evisa
You can get Canadian passport in one day using Express service for $110. You need to provide proof of urgency (travel tickets, itinerary, etc)
Also, processing times for e-visa on the website is 4 business days.
So even if you have a week after your oath ceremony for your travel, you should be good. I am in the same boat, waiting for oath ceremony.
 

sjose1

Full Member
Dec 18, 2017
20
5
Hey .. 4 year later - another person in the same situation!

Can anyone here share their experience back from 2019? How did it go?

I could see that there is a grace period of 3 months for surrendering the passport after acquiring another citizenship.
https://eoi.gov.in/eoisearch/MyPrint.php?0834?001/0005

So it looks like one can travel using another passport and then surrender with in 3 months.
 

Rina Arora

Star Member
Nov 9, 2018
72
22
Hey .. 4 year later - another person in the same situation!

Can anyone here share their experience back from 2019? How did it go?

I could see that there is a grace period of 3 months for surrendering the passport after acquiring another citizenship.
https://eoi.gov.in/eoisearch/MyPrint.php?0834?001/0005

So it looks like one can travel using another passport and then surrender with in 3 months.
Hey, I am in the sane situation. What did you do?
 

be-live

Newbie
Apr 12, 2017
7
0
I am in similar situation with the need to travel to India within a short span after my oath ceremony. I only have a 10 days gap between Oath ceremony & my planned travel date to India which is definitely tight unfortunately. From the quick research that I have done so far in terms of next steps:
  • Procuring Canadian Passport: As soon as 2 days after Oath Ceremony with urgent processing & fees
  • Indian entry visa: Up to 2-3 working days. Not sure if there is a faster service option here at BLIS with additional fees, but will check & confirm
  • The only roadblock seems to be getting surrender certificate in time to apply for entry visa. I couldn't find a faster turn around option for this and wanted to confirm if anyone is aware of such an option with BLIS.
As for some of the questions in this thread so far, its very clearly stated in Indian e-visa application requirement "Person of Indian origin must enclose a copy of Surrender Certificate of old Indian passport" prior to applying. Also its stated in the check list for entry visa --> "Surrender Certificate (mandatory)"
Not sure why and how some folks are claiming you can apply for entry visa without having received SC. If anyone could confirm with their experience if Surrender Certificate receipt was accepted while applying for India entry visa or did you have to show the actual SC itself.

Thanks.
 

forw.jane

VIP Member
Apr 29, 2019
6,793
2,781
I am in similar situation with the need to travel to India within a short span after my oath ceremony. I only have a 10 days gap between Oath ceremony & my planned travel date to India which is definitely tight unfortunately. From the quick research that I have done so far in terms of next steps:
  • Procuring Canadian Passport: As soon as 2 days after Oath Ceremony with urgent processing & fees
  • Indian entry visa: Up to 2-3 working days. Not sure if there is a faster service option here at BLIS with additional fees, but will check & confirm
  • The only roadblock seems to be getting surrender certificate in time to apply for entry visa. I couldn't find a faster turn around option for this and wanted to confirm if anyone is aware of such an option with BLIS.
As for some of the questions in this thread so far, its very clearly stated in Indian e-visa application requirement "Person of Indian origin must enclose a copy of Surrender Certificate of old Indian passport" prior to applying. Also its stated in the check list for entry visa --> "Surrender Certificate (mandatory)"
Not sure why and how some folks are claiming you can apply for entry visa without having received SC. If anyone could confirm with their experience if Surrender Certificate receipt was accepted while applying for India entry visa or did you have to show the actual SC itself.

Thanks.
Any specific reason you want entry visa in place of evisa which you can get in 24 hrs which does not need SC.
 

be-live

Newbie
Apr 12, 2017
7
0
Any specific reason you want entry visa in place of evisa which you can get in 24 hrs which does not need SC.
No specific reason really. My assumption was that Person of Indian Origin now with Canadian citizenship can only apply for entry visa prior to having OCI. I will look into details for e-visa instead. Thanks for the suggestion.