Need to travel to India immediately after canada citizenship Oath

[Suh1756]

There is risk involved IMO.

The safest way is to apply for a Canadian passport + Entry visa to India and then travel. If this trip is not for an emergency, postponing it would be the best course of action.

There are some flaws in your plan. Entering a country with one passport and exiting it with another passport might invite trouble. When you are coming back, you will be entering Dubai with your Indian passport and leaving with your Canadian passport? That might cause problems. Usually, you enter and exit a country with the same passport.

Alternatively, you can apply for a Canadian passport in India but exit India with your Indian passport and head to Dubai. When you land in Dubai, show your Canadian passport and get visa free entry and then fly onward to Canada.

Another thing that might work is if someone can collect the Canadian passport in Dubai and mail it to your Indian address. That way, you can probably show your Indian passport when exiting to Indian immigration authorities but when you land in Dubai, you can get a visa-free entry with your Canadian passport. Once you enter Dubai with your Canadian passport, you can then exit and leave for Canada with the same passport.

Thank you for the detailed response @rajkamalmohanram. Since India doesn't allow dual citizenship will I be allowed to fly out with two passports from the Indian airport in case if my family manages to courier me the Canadian passport to India? Anyone here who was successful at that?

Also, can passports be couriered internationally? I heard it cannot be. I need to do some research here. Thanks again.

 

[steaky]

Alternatively, you can apply for a Canadian passport in India but exit India with your Indian passport and head to Dubai. When you land in Dubai, show your Canadian passport and get visa free entry and then fly onward to Canada.

You missed the point that it is illegal to travel on an Indian passport, where a person has obtained a foreign passport. That said once the traveler land in Dubai, can't he apply the Canadian Passport there and fly onward to Canada?

Edit: Alternatively, while in India couldn't he cancel his Indian passport and use Canadian Passport (if he got one from the consulate) to exit India?

 

[steaky]

Thank you for the detailed response @rajkamalmohanram. Since India doesn't allow dual citizenship will I be allowed to fly out with two passports from the Indian airport in case if my family manages to courier me the Canadian passport to India? Anyone here who was successful at that?

Also, can passports be couriered internationally? I heard it cannot be. I need to do some research here. Thanks again.

Canadian Passport can be couriered internationally. The question is whether Indian passport can do the same.

 

[Suh1756]

You missed the point that it is illegal to travel on an Indian passport, where a person has obtained a foreign passport. That said once the traveler land in Dubai, can't he apply the Canadian Passport there and fly onward to Canada?

Unfortunately I won't have 20 business days in Dubai on my way back.

Edit: Alternatively, while in India couldn't he cancel his Indian passport and use Canadian Passport (if he got one from the consulate) to exit India?
[/QUOTE]

I can't think of any reason why this wouldn't work.

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

You missed the point that it is illegal to travel on an Indian passport, where a person has obtained a foreign passport. That said once the traveler land in Dubai, can't he apply the Canadian Passport there and fly onward to Canada?

Edit: Alternatively, while in India couldn't he cancel his Indian passport and use Canadian Passport (if he got one from the consulate) to exit India?

Well, I took that point into consideration. AFAIK, there is a penalty for doing that. I have mentioned it in several places on the forum - I should have mentioned it here as well. If you use an Indian passport after obtaining Canadian passport, you will pay a penalty of $250 per use of Indian passport. If the OP obtained a Canadian passport in India and then traveled to Dubai on Indian passport, when surrendering his passport, he'll pay a fine of $250. However, since the trips he's taking is within the 3 month window, the penalty would be the worst outcome here, not prosecution AFAIK.

If the OP obtained a Canadian passport in Dubai and then traveled to India on Indian passport and back from India to Dubai again on Indian passport, he'll pay a fine of $500.

Any trips taken on Indian passport from the "Issue Date" of the Canadian passport would be penalized AFAIK. If he used the Indian passport after 3 months of becoming naturalized Canadian, then that would be completely illegal and might be liable for prosecution.

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Unfortunately I won't have 20 business days in Dubai on my way back.

Edit: Alternatively, while in India couldn't he cancel his Indian passport and use Canadian Passport (if he got one from the consulate) to exit India?

I can't think of any reason why this wouldn't work.
[/QUOTE]

I don't think so. If you renounce your Indian citizenship while you are in India (especially when you entered India with an Indian passport), you will not have a legal status in India because Canadians need a visa to enter India even as a tourist. These are some murky waters. How will the government agree to have your Indian citizenship surrendered and let you be in India without legal status? That's weird.

 

[Suh1756]

I can't think of any reason why this wouldn't work.

I don't think so. If you renounce your Indian citizenship while you are in India (especially when you entered India with an Indian passport), you will not have a legal status in India because Canadians need a visa to enter India even as a tourist. These are some murky waters. How will the government agree to have your Indian citizenship surrendered and let you be in India without legal status? That's weird.
[/QUOTE]

that makes sense.

 

[lifein360]

Honestly - this is all tons of hoops to jump through - each hoop having its own murkiness and uncertainty.

I would advise everyone trying to to travel to India to get their canadian passport, surrender indian passport, and apply for entry visa at the bare minimum if possible else reschedule. Everything else comes with too many question marks.

edit: I know this is easy to say for me as I am not traveling home for the holidays, but I see several such threads here and on Facebook and it all sounds insane. I guess this all depends on each person's appetite for uncertainty and hassles.

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Honestly - this is all tons of hoops to jump through - each hoop having its own murkiness and uncertainty.

I would advise everyone trying to to travel to India to get their canadian passport, surrender indian passport, and apply for entry visa at the bare minimum if possible else reschedule. Everything else comes with too many question marks.

edit: I know this is easy to say for me as I am not traveling home for the holidays, but I see several such threads here and on Facebook and it all sounds insane. I guess this all depends on each person's appetite for uncertainty and hassles.

Agreed! It is already stressful traveling during the pandemic. You'll have to already show a bunch of documentation other than your passport (Covid test, Air Suvidha forms, Proof of vaccination, e-Pass if you are traveling to Tamilnadu etc). On top of that, adding the uncertainty of traveling with Indian passport after Canadian citizenship is just too much IMO - at least for me.

Unless you are traveling because of an emergency, get a Canadian passport, apply for surrender + entry visa together, get your stamped Canadian passport and then travel. You will save yourself a lot of headache.

 

[BK7]

Answered above in RED. Note that I haven't personally tried this nor do I need to (I already got OCI). I saw this somewhere on the forum and a friend of mine pointed it to me as well as she intends to do this because she has to travel to India kind of urgently.

Did your friend end up travelling using this loophole?

Or has anybody else tried this out?

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Did your friend end up travelling using this loophole?

Or has anybody else tried this out?

No, she didn't. I advised her to not do this and get a visa instead. So, she got a visa and then traveled to India.

 

[alexmclan007]

I hope this message finds you well. I am an Indian citizen currently in the process of acquiring Canadian citizenship (waiting for oath ceremony). I may not be able to complete all the necessary formalities before my planned trip.

I am scheduled to travel to Iraq at the end of February for approximately over a month, and I am concerned that I won't have enough time to surrender my Indian passport and complete the required formalities before my departure. I plan to complete the required formalities and surrender my Indian passport as soon as I return from Iraq.

I have the following questions:

1. Once I receive my Canadian citizenship (and hopefully also Canadian passport), can I continue to travel to Iraq temporarily on my Indian passport. (I have applied for Iraqi visa on my Indian PP so I am planning to carry both Indian and Canadian PP if I receive it in the given timeframe)
2. If I hold both my Indian and Canadian passports, would I be able to travel to Iraq using Indian passport temporarily without facing any legal or travel-related issues?

I would greatly appreciate any advice on how to proceed with my travel plans while ensuring compliance with the relevant regulations.

@ravi.v @rajkamalmohanram @ravi.v @can-immi @Inderjeet1539 @indbangalore

 

[forw.jane]

I hope this message finds you well. I am an Indian citizen currently in the process of acquiring Canadian citizenship (waiting for oath ceremony). I may not be able to complete all the necessary formalities before my planned trip.

I am scheduled to travel to Iraq at the end of February for approximately over a month, and I am concerned that I won't have enough time to surrender my Indian passport and complete the required formalities before my departure. I plan to complete the required formalities and surrender my Indian passport as soon as I return from Iraq.

I have the following questions:

1. Once I receive my Canadian citizenship (and hopefully also Canadian passport), can I continue to travel to Iraq temporarily on my Indian passport. (I have applied for Iraqi visa on my Indian PP so I am planning to carry both Indian and Canadian PP if I receive it in the given timeframe)
2. If I hold both my Indian and Canadian passports, would I be able to travel to Iraq using Indian passport temporarily without facing any legal or travel-related issues?

I would greatly appreciate any advice on how to proceed with my travel plans while ensuring compliance with the relevant regulations.

@ravi.v @rajkamalmohanram @ravi.v @can-immi @Inderjeet1539 @indbangalore

Do you know the visa requirement to travel to Iraq on Canadian passport?

I am not sure how Iraq immigration works but in India if you enter with Indian Passport you cannot exit with Canadian Passport. If that's the case with Iraq too then you will be stuck as you cannot exit with an Indian passport without PR card. Also travelling on Indian passport after gaining Canadian citizenship will lead to penalties while surrendering Indian passport.

 

[armoured]

I am not sure how Iraq immigration works but in India if you enter with Indian Passport you cannot exit with Canadian Passport.

I daresay this is the case with most countries, really - Canada and USA are exception in having (basically) no exit 'controls' (i.e. no passport control upon exit), although they do attempt to track who exits through the airline or by other means (esp sharing info with each other). Perhaps Schengen Zone in EU, since you can enter via one country and depart via another has the same problem, and it's unclear how much they check/correlate all that data (probably like Canada and USA in the end though, collecting the info).

So for most other places, basically that involves the presumption that if you are in the country as a foreigner, you should have an entry stamp to check it against (as with your India case). That can be regardless of whether there are 'visa' requirements. With machine-readable passports and databases, and more frequent 'ETAs' and other e-Visas, it's closer to the base mode assumption these days - they look it up if they don't have it stamped in your passport.

What this means for the OP - no idea. It seems basically daft to me to attempt this. Either take the lump/fines for using the indian passport after its 'best before' date or take the time to get the visa in the Canadian passport.

 

[armoured]

So for most other places, basically that involves the presumption that if you are in the country as a foreigner, you should have an entry stamp to check it against (as with your India case).

It's possible I have stronger opinions on this than most, having run into the issue in some countries that are very strict about exit requirements - including having to pay fines and get embassies involved for things like the visitor having overstayed a few hours. It usually involved expensive rebooking of flights, or trips cancelled altogether.

Foreigners who lose their passports have to jump through some serious hoops (apart from getting passports replaced). Not a chance you could leave on a different passport.

The airlines don't much care, but the passport control people do.