OCI process

[royce110]

I got the reply in 2-3 days - you will have to log back in on sampark profile and go to enquiry and put your email address to see a response. They dont email

Thanks I did that and can only see my query there, no response posted.

 

[Jay416905]

Hello Everyone, just checking if anyone else received an update on their OCI application especially after date of acknowledgement.

 

[shshivam]

What does your BLS tracker say on the status of your application?

It says "Processing at Consulate General". I haven't even received my originals back from them that I sent with the application.

 

[canadamaple]

Guys,

Does anyone have experience writing a Change.org petition? It's high time we expose the atrocious, corrupt, and incompetent practices of BLS. Every second post on this forum is a complaint about how poorly BLS handled their application. We pay our hard-earned money for their services and get treated so poorly in return. Most of us let it slide once our application is submitted successfully, but in reality, you will need to come back sooner or later for something else. There are enough complaints on this forum, and I am yet to meet a person who has had a completely positive experience with them. Even if you had a good experience they would have charged you a premium for their return courier service. The government must have set a price limit for their services, but they clearly seem to have circumvented it by using private courier service and forcing it upon us even though it is supposed to be optional. It's a high team we all speak up against this useless company.

If I were to ever start my company as a competition to BLS, I swear I will use this forum as a guide and offer the most user-friendly service possible. However I guess that I would need to deal with the bureaucracy of HCI and MEA . I believe people have talked about Change.org.

 

[roq]

Lol, but my surprise is that it usually doesn't take that long to process the SC, given other experiences shared on this thread if I am correct.

Yes, I was seeing the trend of ~4 weeks for SC. I raised a HCI Sampark query and they replied that the normal processing time is 6 weeks. Looks like they barely made the processing time in my case

 

[dineshrehab]

If I were to ever start my company as a competition to BLS, I swear I will use this forum as a guide and offer the most user-friendly service possible. However I guess that I would need to deal with the bureaucracy of HCI and MEA . I believe people have talked about Change.org.

You will either go bankrupt or will turn into another BLS within a year.....

I wonder wat exactly is the CGI is for?

 

[shshivam]

Maybe we should create an excel tracker for OCI and SC (same as what we have for citizenship)

 

[funloving]

So here we go, the Purolator says they "Attempted delivery" - receiver unavailable. But I was home WHOLE DAY.....they never called me. And suddenly I saw a stcky in the lobby of my building, saying that I have pick up from somewhere...why the F we pay so much of $$ to BLS and Purolator sh*t we have to have so much trouble. Its much better to pick up directly from BLS.//.

They really bunch of losers that run BLS. I am really pissed right now. Sorry for venting out here.

 

[ss3]

Can we go to consulate general Toronto anytime? Please let me know

 

[Nkrumah]

Can we go to consulate general Toronto anytime? Please let me know

I don't know about any time, but if you can make it today, they do run an open house every Wednesday from 3:00-4:30 pm. Advance registration required.

CGI Toronto Open House Wednesdays

 

[vvarma]

So here we go, the Purolator says they "Attempted delivery" - receiver unavailable. But I was home WHOLE DAY.....they never called me. And suddenly I saw a stcky in the lobby of my building, saying that I have pick up from somewhere...why the F we pay so much of $$ to BLS and Purolator sh*t we have to have so much trouble. Its much better to pick up directly from BLS.//.

They really bunch of losers that run BLS. I am really pissed right now. Sorry for venting out here.

I can totally relate to you on this one. I already know in advance that I will be getting a missed note in my lobby instead of OCI - since Purolator does not service my entire building containing 110 units! Why? Because there is no buzzer - what a lame excuse! Wonder what stops them from calling on phones?

I have missed ALL my Purolator deliveries, so they really suck.

 

[prt22]

So here we go, the Purolator says they "Attempted delivery" - receiver unavailable. But I was home WHOLE DAY.....they never called me. And suddenly I saw a stcky in the lobby of my building, saying that I have pick up from somewhere...why the F we pay so much of $$ to BLS and Purolator sh*t we have to have so much trouble. Its much better to pick up directly from BLS.//.

They really bunch of losers that run BLS. I am really pissed right now. Sorry for venting out here.

No need to be sorry for venting. You paid for a service that you aren't getting so anyone would be frustrated. Same experience with Purolator for me. They never call cell phone# but luckily the pickup is very close to my place so I can walk there to pick it up.

 

[Nkrumah]

BLS + Purolator = Deadly Combo

 

[i6evx5e8]

BLS + Purolator = Deadly Combo

The only thing I am afraid of is misplacing originals.

 

[vg1989]

Guys,

Does anyone have experience writing a Change.org petition? It's high time we expose the atrocious, corrupt, and incompetent practices of BLS. Every second post on this forum is a complaint about how poorly BLS handled their application. We pay our hard-earned money for their services and get treated so poorly in return. Most of us let it slide once our application is submitted successfully, but in reality, you will need to come back sooner or later for something else. There are enough complaints on this forum, and I am yet to meet a person who has had a completely positive experience with them. Even if you had a good experience they would have charged you a premium for their return courier service. The government must have set a price limit for their services, but they clearly seem to have circumvented it by using private courier service and forcing it upon us even though it is supposed to be optional. It's a high team we all speak up against this useless company.

Pretty much everyone who dealt with BLS (including their own employees) knows about the corrupt, and incompetent practices of BLS but I am amazed to see that its going on for several years.

I have had an experience of handling multiple OCI applications at various times in the past for family and friends.

Before pandemic, BLS used to sell their shady expensive services (especially courier, SMS etc.) by just mentioning the total amount in the end so that you have a lesser chance of questioning but there were still many people like me who were aware of it because of forums like this and avoided all those unnecessary charges (like $30 for acknowledgement - just an unnecessary piece of paper, SMS charges etc.).

Even I was able to get the final OCI delivery from them at lower prices like $15-$20 because in reality these people just want to sell at whatever price possible, it still makes them decent money instead of in-person pickup. But atleast in-person pickup option was there if you simply told them NO for courier charges, it wasn't easy for BLS to force earlier.

Pandemic changed the game quite a lot for BLS. They started the appointments concept, which meant that a lot of the people were required to send their applications to them over mail through their expensive service as they open only limited appointment slots. Since their OCI process is complex, it gives BLS an opportunity to keep charging for expensive couriers by sending the applications back-and-forth with minor issues.

Even the ones who get appointment, there's no pick-up option (you still need to buy courier for delivery) but again shady as its not officially mentioned on BLS website. You will be just told in-person that there's no pickup option. With so much limited traffic inside BLS because of appointments culture, they could have atleast allowed pickups in theory but it impacts their revenue model.

Now the fun part is that they keep coming up with different methods of making money. E.g. now they have started keeping originals, they won't send it along-with OCI. And they won't merge OCI delivery with originals so that they can charge you for multiple times for courier fee. The whole point of in-person visits was for them to see the originals and return them right away. It really annoys me that just for the sake of BLS making more money, now we need to leave our important originals with such an incompetent institution like BLS.

I remember during my last visit earlier this month with my friend (one for SC+OCI and one for OCI), BLS guy was so arrogant that how did we even question them on anything (whether it was about keeping originals for OCI, or asking for pickup option instead of delivery charges or the rule change about SC+OCI can't be submitted together). Every time there was a question (since the beginning till the end), his answer was to take back your applications if we wanted to ask any question. He knew its hard for people to get appointments, so we don't have the option of going back.

The bottom line is that if we would have experienced it in India, probably lesser people would have complained because people are used-to dealing with corrupt institutions like BLS in India. But the problem is that now we are used to Canadian culture and its painful to see nobody is able to prevent them from doing such mal-practices in Canada.