Mzee

I have had incredible trouble applying for a PIO/OCI at HCI London despite having documents to show my grandmother's place of birth in India. They wanted birth certificates (1923) from the village she came from, school certs etc. So I sent my father along to the HCI in Kenya (he lives there) and they are more than happy to grant me an OCI. They accepted all the documents and will issue it to me when I eventually attend with my passport in person. Knowing that I am British they even agreed to allow me as long as I need from the date of the application to appear in person to collect - and the fee was so much cheaper. Now I know that this is not helpful to anyone who doesn't have family in another country to apply to them but it shows that this is just another prime example of the way in which the Indian authorities 'interpret' all the rules :curse::curse::curse:

noni

Congratulation at last somebody with good news.

Goacrazy56

Great news Mzee
It's time someone had some goods news Congratulation Im so pleased for you
GC

John Chappell

Hi Mzee,

I think more to the point, it shows how poor the relationship seems to have gone between UK / India on Visa and other issues where FCO / HCI are involved.

Regards to all

John

Mzee

True. I think its disgraceful. :curse:

Mzee

Thank you GC At least there's a way out now !!

silverlining

Our family of three recently submitted our application for OCI.Based on the rukles of the website, the applicatnt is not allowed to contact the High Commission regarding the staus of their appliaction prior to 12 weeks.Affter 9 weeks of submission, we received a call to say that one particular signature was missing and was requested to send this by fax.We sent a fax to the embassy enclosing the documenation requested along with a cover letter.As we never got a response, we sent an email to OCI department to the email id that we found in the OCI-London website.Still we have not got a response back from them inspite of now sending 2 emails and 2 faxes.
For the amount of money these people take from us the service is appauling.Does anyone monitor/audit the embassy?These people seem to get away with anything but it is us who have to go through all the pain.
I wonder is anyone else is facing a similar problem.

naveensoni

Applying for OCI.

All, I want to apply for OCI and looking for basic OCI query.

1. What Documents are Required for Family Application (2 Adults, 2 kids)
first kid born in india, and second one in UK. Any ex applicant could please share
exact set of documents needed?

2.One of my friend has told by HCI london that for a child's OCI, both parents have to be British
Citizenship Holder, is it true? His child born in UK and never had Indian Passport, whereas Parents
are indian passport holder.

i am very much clear about other aspects of the process like, mode of application, process, fee, time etc.


looking forward for expert advice.

-Thanks
nav

noni

REPLY FROM CATPAT ON CLOSED THREAD
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You should find everything you need to know here http://hcilondon.in/oci.php

sumuka

We submitted our applications on 7th April 2010 at HCI London and after three visits they were finally accepted (on one visit we were told to bring an original document and next time when we took it another person said it was not required). Shows how incompetent the staff are.

Finally the online status showed "photo / signature scanned" on 17th June 2010. Till today the online status is showing "under process" after almost 5 months.

I emailed Dr Shetty 3 times as per the online email address and all three times his reply was "check online" and that there is no other way to find out your status.

Shameful and appalling since they say applications will be completed within 2 months.

I also emailed HCI London twice but they never reply.

catpat123

Your application does seem to be taking a long time, although I think 2 months is a bit optimistic.

My OH has just received his OCI certificate and it took about 4 months in total but the online status didn't even show an acknowledgement number for 1 month after they had received it. Once the status showed that the photo and signature had been scanned it took another week or so before the status showed as granted and a few more days before it said the documents had been received in London.

Even so, I thought it took a long time especially since he was converting from PIO status.

sumuka

Many thanks for your reply catpat. I will wait another two or three weeks and then start panicking.

dreadsoc

Hi Sumuka

Welcome to BE.
I hope your visa is issued soon - the pace they work in the HCI resembles the average worker on strike !!!

Nice to have you on board and I hope you enjoy joining in the forum.

Dread - x

sumuka

Hi Dreadsoc,

Many thanks for the welcome.

The OCI status is usually granted within a week of the photo / signature being scanned so I am a bit worried that our applications have been misplaced or lost.

The worst part is you cannot telephone anyone to check since they do not entertain any telephone enquiries.

noni

Have a look at our Visa Help thread. At the beginning there is an email address for customer relations! and a complaints telephone number. Good luck.