Hi, I booked my tickets in October before I even received the oath date. I am going via LHR on British Airways and coming back on direct flight from Delhi in Air Canada. I just booked all tickets on the airline website.
Entry Visa for visiting India - Can I apply with receipt of submission of Surrender of Indian Passport
- Thread starter ajit90
- Start date
How long did it take for you receive the certificate? and how many days is the processing time for the entry visa?
Hi everyone,
I am in the same boat. Had Oath Ceremony on Nov 9 and my tickets to India were already booked for December 16th.
During the Oath, the agent said he cannot expedite certificate unless travel is less than 3 weeks away. So, the certificate came by mail on November 18th. Applied to passport on same day and via express process got it on November 24th. You can even ask them to give the passport earlier and explain you want it in 1 or 2 business days since its urgent. On the 24th itself (yesterday)I applied for passport surrender and entry visa. I will let you all know when I get the entry visa.
You can call BLS as soon as you know expected date of passport and they will give you a shipping label to mail your applications to BLS for the next day after you get your passport. I am in Montreal, so I got the shipping label for Ottawa. BLS uses Purolator for shipping. You pay for both sending and receiving documents.
I called BLS a few times since I had questions about documents etc.
I am in the same boat. Had Oath Ceremony on Nov 9 and my tickets to India were already booked for December 16th.
During the Oath, the agent said he cannot expedite certificate unless travel is less than 3 weeks away. So, the certificate came by mail on November 18th. Applied to passport on same day and via express process got it on November 24th. You can even ask them to give the passport earlier and explain you want it in 1 or 2 business days since its urgent. On the 24th itself (yesterday)I applied for passport surrender and entry visa. I will let you all know when I get the entry visa.
You can call BLS as soon as you know expected date of passport and they will give you a shipping label to mail your applications to BLS for the next day after you get your passport. I am in Montreal, so I got the shipping label for Ottawa. BLS uses Purolator for shipping. You pay for both sending and receiving documents.
I called BLS a few times since I had questions about documents etc.
BLS told me entry visa takes 7 to 10 business days to process entry visa. Fingers crossed! Certificate can take 1 to 2 weeks. If your travel is less than 3 weeks from Oath ceremony you can ask the agent to expedite during Oath Ceremony. I would recommend explaining your situation to the agent during Oath Ceremony and request to get Certificate as soon as possible.
3 weeks? Mine is a little over 4 weeks (oath on 23rd Dec and trip on 28th Jan). Hopefully I can try and convince them for a urgent processing (citing X-mas and New year holidays) and if I get my certificate by 27 Dec, I can apply the PP that week itself. If this doesn't work out, I do not see any other option other than rescheduling my oath ceremony.
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The agent from Montreal told me they only expedite if travel date is within 3 weeks. I would try to convince the agent. If I had known earlier that I would have to surrender my indian passport and apply for entry visa to travel to India, I would have rescheduled my Oath ceremony. I did not know that the e-visa for canadians had been suspended and the grace period for using your Indian passport was not really true. There is no good information online. The last few weeks have been very stressful. But at the same time, I was nervous about rescheduling my Oath date because it took so long to get the date in the first place. I hope the entry visa comes on time.
Hey. Did you add any document for " Proof of Emergency" with your Entry Visa Application ?
Thanks.
Hi,
I wrote a cover letter explaining that I want to go to India to visit family and that I had already booked tickets. I attached a print out of the tickets to the cover letter. The visa is currently under process.
sandhu111
Hero Member
- Sep 25, 2015
- 74
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- Ottawa
- NOC Code......
- 7271
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- App. Filed.......
- 1-8-2016
- Doc's Request.
- No
- Nomination.....
- No
- AOR Received.
- 3-8-2016
- IELTS Request
- sent at the time of file submit
- Med's Request
- Upfront
- Med's Done....
- 8-8-2016
- Interview........
- No
- Passport Req..
- 14-12-2016
- LANDED..........
- Inland
Hi,
I applied for the entry visa and I did not do any biometrics. When I called BLS and asked them about supporting documents, they did not mention biometrics either. Currently they are only giving short term entry visas, which may not require biometrics.
sandhu111
Hero Member
- Sep 25, 2015
- 74
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- Ottawa
- NOC Code......
- 7271
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- App. Filed.......
- 1-8-2016
- Doc's Request.
- No
- Nomination.....
- No
- AOR Received.
- 3-8-2016
- IELTS Request
- sent at the time of file submit
- Med's Request
- Upfront
- Med's Done....
- 8-8-2016
- Interview........
- No
- Passport Req..
- 14-12-2016
- LANDED..........
- Inland
I have not received it yet. They started processing it last Monday and it says "Under processing by High Commission". I will update my status here once it is approved.