Entry Visa for visiting India - Can I apply with receipt of submission of Surrender of Indian Passport

[ajit90]

Hi ,
I have recently acquired Canadian Citizenship and have to travel to India in December. Seeing in different threads that OCI is taking a lot of time to process. Couple of questions :
1. Can I surrender Indian passport and apply for entry visa ?
2. Is Entry visa generally issued for more than 1 year validity these days ?

 

[sonyvaio]

Hi ,
I have recently acquired Canadian Citizenship and have to travel to India in December. Seeing in different threads that OCI is taking a lot of time to process. Couple of questions :
1. Can I surrender Indian passport and apply for entry visa ?
2. Is Entry visa generally issued for more than 1 year validity these days ?

I guess India has extended ban on tourists. So you won't be able to go to India on visa. You must need OCI or have to show that your travel is due to emergency reasons.
This is as per my best knowledge.

 

[sngr09]

Hi ,
I have recently acquired Canadian Citizenship and have to travel to India in December. Seeing in different threads that OCI is taking a lot of time to process. Couple of questions :
1. Can I surrender Indian passport and apply for entry visa ?
2. Is Entry visa generally issued for more than 1 year validity these days ?

Talked to bls last week, if you are former Indian citizen you are eligible for entry visa for only 3 to 6 months.

 

[lifein360]

I guess India has extended ban on tourists. So you won't be able to go to India on visa. You must need OCI or have to show that your travel is due to emergency reasons.
This is as per my best knowledge.

no. You can apply for entry visa if you’re a formal Indian citizen.

That said, apply for OCI now then you should be OK for December travel based on current timelines

 

[ajit90]

Talked to bls last week, if you are former Indian citizen you are eligible for entry visa for only 3 to 6 months.

This is strange. does it mean they want everyone to apply for OCI ?

 

[mvrsingh416]

Does anyone know if surrender passport receipt can be used as surrender certificate in Entry Visa checklist ?

 

[arav12345]

Hi ,
I have recently acquired Canadian Citizenship and have to travel to India in December. Seeing in different threads that OCI is taking a lot of time to process. Couple of questions :
1. Can I surrender Indian passport and apply for entry visa ?
2. Is Entry visa generally issued for more than 1 year validity these days ?

Hey Ajith, hope everything went well for you.
I am in the same situation, how long did it take for you to get the e-visa?
My oath ceremony is on 23 Dec. I have to travel to India on Jan 28th.
Do you think I would have enough time to appear for my oath and get Canadian PP and then surrender my Indian PP and apply and receive the Visa by around 25th Jan?

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Hey Ajith, hope everything went well for you.
I am in the same situation, how long did it take for you to get the e-visa?
My oath ceremony is on 23 Dec. I have to travel to India on Jan 28th.
Do you think I would have enough time to appear for my oath and get Canadian PP and then surrender my Indian PP and apply and receive the Visa by around 25th Jan?

Depends on when you get your citizenship certificate. That's the variable here.

Once you have the citizenship certificate, you can apply for a passport (Express Mode) and get it in less than 9 business days.

Once you have a passport, you can submit for surrender + Visa application ASAP. Visa processing shouldn't take more than 2 weeks. You do NOT have to wait for your surrender application to get processed as long as you have someone who can collect your surrender certificate when it arrives by mail. Submit your application at BLS Brampton!

 

[arav12345]

Depends on when you get your citizenship certificate. That's the variable here.

Once you have the citizenship certificate, you can apply for a passport (Express Mode) and get it in less than 9 business days.

Once you have a passport, you can submit for surrender + Visa application ASAP. Visa processing shouldn't take more than 2 weeks. You do NOT have to wait for your surrender application to get processed as long as you have someone who can collect your surrender certificate when it arrives by mail. Submit your application at BLS Brampton!

Thank you! At this point, what do I need to do to make sure that I can be processed for both Citizenship certificate and for the PP in 'Urgent Processing'? Anything I can do in advance?

 

[ajit90]

Hey Ajith, hope everything went well for you.
I am in the same situation, how long did it take for you to get the e-visa?
My oath ceremony is on 23 Dec. I have to travel to India on Jan 28th.
Do you think I would have enough time to appear for my oath and get Canadian PP and then surrender my Indian PP and apply and receive the Visa by around 25th Jan?

I think it is possible considering you expedite each and every step as Raj mentioned.
entry visa comes in 7 days usually .

 

[jansh]

Depends on when you get your citizenship certificate. That's the variable here.

Once you have the citizenship certificate, you can apply for a passport (Express Mode) and get it in less than 9 business days.

Once you have a passport, you can submit for surrender + Visa application ASAP. Visa processing shouldn't take more than 2 weeks. You do NOT have to wait for your surrender application to get processed as long as you have someone who can collect your surrender certificate when it arrives by mail. Submit your application at BLS Brampton!

I agree that Citizenship certificate is the variable here but if they are able to get the Canadian passport before their trip, isn't it better to just travel on Indian Passport (assuming that the trip is for few weeks)? Since as per bls..
"There is a grace period of three months after acquisition of foreign nationality (to be counted from the date of registration / Naturalisation Certificate and not from the date of foreign passport) for using Indian passport for travel."

Edit: Did a bit more reading on this and seems like this isn't the way to go. It seems there is another part to this exception which isn't mentioned on bls website, that is, the grace period is only available until a person receives a new passport. So in above case, one cannot use this exception after getting Cdn passport.

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

I agree that Citizenship certificate is the variable here but if they are able to get the Canadian passport before their trip, isn't it better to just travel on Indian Passport (assuming that the trip is for few weeks)? Since as per bls..
"There is a grace period of three months after acquisition of foreign nationality (to be counted from the date of registration / Naturalisation Certificate and not from the date of foreign passport) for using Indian passport for travel."

Yes but they can't come back to Canada without a Canadian passport.

If you enter India with an Indian passport and try to exit using your Canadian passport, they might question you when coming back because when they take your Canadian passport for placing the exit stamp, they'll notice you don't have an entry stamp on your Canadian passport. They'll start questioning how you entered India and when you tell them you used your Indian passport, that might cause problems. We never know with Indian immigration. Plus, unless they are planning on staying in India for a while, getting a Canadian passport on time might not be possible (the processing time might be longer when applying for passport abroad).

That is why people employ tricks like Applying for a Canadian passport in India -> applying for a Dubai visa on Indian passport, Exiting India to Dubai on Indian passport, Showing Canadian passport on arrival at Dubai to get a visa-free entry and then flying from Dubai to Canada on Canadian passport. They then come back to Canada and when they surrender the passport, they'll have to pay a penalty for use of Indian passport after obtaining Indian passport (for the India -> Dubai trip)

If you are traveling to India for the first time as a citizen, either get an OCI if you have time OR get a visa if you are short on time. Do not travel with your Indian passport, complicates a lot of things.

 

[jansh]

Yes but they can't come back to Canada without a Canadian passport.

If you enter India with an Indian passport and try to exit using your Canadian passport, they might question you when coming back because when they take your Canadian passport for placing the exit stamp, they'll notice you don't have an entry stamp on your Canadian passport. They'll start questioning how you entered India and when you tell them you used your Indian passport, that might cause problems. We never know with Indian immigration. Plus, unless they are planning on staying in India for a while, getting a Canadian passport on time might not be possible (the processing time might be longer when applying for passport abroad).

That is why people employ tricks like Applying for a Canadian passport in India -> applying for a Dubai visa on Indian passport, Exiting India to Dubai on Indian passport, Showing Canadian passport on arrival at Dubai to get a visa-free entry and then flying from Dubai to Canada on Canadian passport. They then come back to Canada and when they surrender the passport, they'll have to pay a penalty for use of Indian passport after obtaining Indian passport (for the India -> Dubai trip)

If you are traveling to India for the first time as a citizen, either get an OCI if you have time OR get a visa if you are short on time. Do not travel with your Indian passport, complicates a lot of things.

@rajkamalmohanram You're right. Actually, I did edit my post few mins earlier saying this method is not advisable for a different reason but I did come across exactly what you mentioned above as well.

I do have a question though, you mentioned above that one can get Visa to travel to India after obtaining Cdn passport without waiting for surrender formalities to complete. Can you please confirm if that works? I was going through document checklist for Entry visa and I think surrender certificate was a required document?

I asked this in the OCI thread but let me post here as well..
"Wife received date for Oath ceremony on Nov 17 (based on tracker, haven't received email yet) and she has plans to go to India on Jan 15 (2 week trip). I think she should be able to get the Canadian passport by mid-Dec. But from current timelines, it does not look like there is enough time after getting Cdn passport to surrender Indian passport & get OCI.
In order to make this trip, can she get a Visa? If yes, what kind of Visa can she apply for, I'm a little confused about the Visa as I think Tourist visas are still suspended? Thanks!"

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

@rajkamalmohanram You're right. Actually, I did edit my post few mins earlier saying this method is not advisable for a different reason but I did come across exactly what you mentioned above as well.

I do have a question though, you mentioned above that one can get Visa to travel to India after obtaining Cdn passport without waiting for surrender formalities to complete. Can you please confirm if that works? I was going through document checklist for Entry visa and I think surrender certificate was a required document?

I asked this in the OCI thread but let me post here as well..
"Wife received date for Oath ceremony on Nov 17 (based on tracker, haven't received email yet) and she has plans to go to India on Jan 15 (2 week trip). I think she should be able to get the Canadian passport by mid-Dec. But from current timelines, it does not look like there is enough time after getting Cdn passport to surrender Indian passport & get OCI.
In order to make this trip, can she get a Visa? If yes, what kind of Visa can she apply for, I'm a little confused about the Visa as I think Tourist visas are still suspended? Thanks!"

You CANNOT get a visa without surrendering your Indian passport. You have to apply for surrender and visa together. However, once you surrender the passport, you don't have to wait for that application to be completed before a visa is issued to you or before traveling to India.

Tourist visas are being issued now and they are valid for travel from 15th November.

The processing time for visa is around 2 weeks. Surrender takes 4 - 8 weeks of processing and the cancelled passport + surrender certificate will be sent back to you. As long as there is someone to collect that document for you (either in-person or at your home), you don't have to wait for that before you travel.

 

[arav12345]

You CANNOT get a visa without surrendering your Indian passport. You have to apply for surrender and visa together. However, once you surrender the passport, you don't have to wait for that application to be completed before a visa is issued to you or before traveling to India.

Tourist visas are being issued now and they are valid for travel from 15th November.

The processing time for visa is around 2 weeks. Surrender takes 4 - 8 weeks of processing and the cancelled passport + surrender certificate will be sent back to you. As long as there is someone to collect that document for you (either in-person or at your home), you don't have to wait for that before you travel.

What did you do to prove that your case needs to be processed in 'Urgent Category'? For both the citizenship certificate as well as the PP?