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Hi everyone,

I have applied for OCI on the 25th of July through purolator at Ottawa. On the 26th, BLS received my application and sent me an email, copied below:

Subject: Postal Services

Dear ******,
Your OCI application with airway bill no ********** has received at our BLS Ottawa Center.
During this Pandemic and Provincial lock-down, postal application processing time at BLS Quarantined Postal Hub at Brampton/ Surrey/ Ottawa is 3 - 5 business days to process and send the application to Consulate for their decisioning process. The time taken at Consulate would depend on the category / merit of your application. You are required to submit your application duly filled up along with document checklist as mentioned on BLS website. Incomplete or Erroneous applications would be returned back to you.

I have a travel plan coming up on the 2nd of October. Can someone let me know if I would be able to receive my OCI Card by then? I still got 2 months.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hope so. Monday is a holiday and I doubt BLS might delay unless they send couriers on Saturdays. Does BLS send a courier on Saturday?
I’m not sure. I know purolator doesn’t deliver on Saturdays. But not sure if BLS sends it or not. Either way it should only be 2 more business days now until we get our OCIs.
 
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Thank you soo much for highlighting this info and for the screenshot, this should answer my query that indeed its being asked by BLS to upload COPR in Indian Visa Tab during documents upload section.

I am now also clear that, they will see my original SC certificate when I go for submission and I will take a photo copy of SC with me.

One last thing to ask was, I was assuming the Work Letter to be optional but not mandatory , I saw it is a Youtube video from US applicant, he described Work Letter is optional but not mandatory.

Thanks
Employment letter - From what I researched, some already had offer letter when they joined the company and some requested their HR to issue one.
Some running the business probably composed a letter typed and printed with details of what they do and duly signed it.

Very mixed answers.

But employment letter, they did ask for mine when submitting it and kept photocopy of it and sent it in the oci package.
Again, I submitted in Ottawa jurisdiction, if other BLS offices say it can be optional, it may work out for you.
 
Hi everyone,
I have a question re OCI
So, I understand, Once you get the OCI, you do not need a Visa for India.
Do all the airlines flying to India recognize OCI (as they want to see your Visa for India before check-in)?
So, you just book your ticket and board the fly alongwith your Cdn PP & OCI?
What else do you need to do to use the OCI for the first time? Do you need to register anywhere?
TIA for your input
 
Hi everyone,
I have a question re OCI
So, I understand, Once you get the OCI, you do not need a Visa for India.
Do all the airlines flying to India recognize OCI (as they want to see your Visa for India before check-in)?
So, you just book your ticket and board the fly alongwith your Cdn PP & OCI?
What else do you need to do to use the OCI for the first time? Do you need to register anywhere?
TIA for your input
Yes, OCI and PP. OCI is a form of Permanent Residence, and the airlines will treat it as such.
 
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Hi Everyone,
I am process of applying oci and surrender certificate for myself, and oci for my son.
we have plans to go indian October beginning or sep end. Do i hv enough time for myself?
I am in toronto. Do you recommend in person?
Any advice or anything I should be cautious of?
Any member link for process?
thank you in advance.
 
Hi everyone,

I have applied for OCI on the 25th of July through purolator at Ottawa. On the 26th, BLS received my application and sent me an email, copied below:

Subject: Postal Services

Dear ******,
Your OCI application with airway bill no ********** has received at our BLS Ottawa Center.
During this Pandemic and Provincial lock-down, postal application processing time at BLS Quarantined Postal Hub at Brampton/ Surrey/ Ottawa is 3 - 5 business days to process and send the application to Consulate for their decisioning process. The time taken at Consulate would depend on the category / merit of your application. You are required to submit your application duly filled up along with document checklist as mentioned on BLS website. Incomplete or Erroneous applications would be returned back to you.

I have a travel plan coming up on the 2nd of October. Can someone let me know if I would be able to receive my OCI Card by then? I still got 2 months.

Thanks in advance.
I think you should be good. If you havent already booked your travel, I recommend to go with refundable or rescheduling options for peace of mind. For my kids OCI, after one month of sending it via puralator they came up with asking COPR of both parents which is not on the checklist and some signature difference from passport. They did not consider updating the status after one month of receiving additional documents.
 
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Hi Everyone,
I am process of applying oci and surrender certificate for myself, and oci for my son.
we have plans to go indian October beginning or sep end. Do i hv enough time for myself?
I am in toronto. Do you recommend in person?
Any advice or anything I should be cautious of?
Any member link for process?
thank you in advance.

Please note that you can submit application for OCI only after getting SC.
 
Hi All, I understand this thread is for OCI but I felt someone on this thread might be able to help:

my mother currently holds a super visa which will expire in July 2023 because her Indian passport is expiring at that time.I wish to get her passport renewed through BLS Brampton while she is here with me because in India the process takes longer. I tried calling BLS but no luck yet: does anyone know if we can get an Indian passport renewed at CGI TORONTO with a validity of 10 years(if the person is a visitor with either supervisa or tourist visa on their passport)? I did some reading and I found in one of CGI’s documentation that if someone holds a visitor visa etc on their current passport then if they are renewing that passport the new passport validity is only 2 years. Wanted to check if someone has gone through that process please. Because no point if I apply for renewal here and CGI gives only 2 year validity, I would rather then go through the renewal process in India and get 10 year validity and then apply for her supervisa.
 
Question OCI application

Canadian Passport Details in the application

Place of Issue -"Canada"

i typed Canada in this field, is it correct?

in Canadian Passport its written "Issuing Country- CAN" and "Issuing authority- Scarborough"

Please advise if I answered this correctly. Thanks
 
Question OCI application

Canadian Passport Details in the application

Place of Issue -"Canada"

i typed Canada in this field, is it correct?

in Canadian Passport its written "Issuing Country- CAN" and "Issuing authority- Scarborough"

Please advise if I answered this correctly. Thanks
Yes. Country will be Canada and place will be Scarborough.
 
Hi, Did they update your status on the OCI website yet?
My application reached Brampton on 15th July, got the BLS status: Underprocess on July 20 and the BLS status changed to "processing at consulate general" from July 22. Tracking is not activated in the OCI website yet.
Similar for me as well.
OCI sent - 28th July
BLS OCI status (Processing at High Commission) - 1st August

No records found on OCI website.
 
Yes. Country will be Canada and place will be Scarborough.


On OCI application question is "Place of Issue". it does not specify Country or City comparing to Passport it says "Issuing authority"- Scarborough as well as "Issuing Country"- CAN.

not sure which of the two I need to input on OCI application. Or just leave it as "Toronto" instead ?
 
Hi All, Pardon me if this question is already asked. Can we submit both Surrender and OCI together in Brampton office. Is it allowed, please advise.