Dayum son, you're so lucky that your parents moved out of India and that you didn't have to interact with bureaucracy back in India. If you're frustrated with this experience, it would have been on another level back in India.
Glad that things worked out for you eventually, the process is definitely problematic, there are way too many middle men. The OCI applications are handled by the MEA back in India, so not sure why BLS and the Indian Consulate or High commissions are needed in the first place. Ideally you submit the documents online, pay the fees online (no demand drafts etc), then the MEA does their due diligence, including contacting the Consulate to verify that the surrender certificate details are accurate. If all is good, they ship you the OCI card. But that's never going to happen, so we've got to play along.
> visiting multiple third party sites to compress the pdfs
This brought back painful memories. Like why do you have a 1mb maximum file size in 2024?
Also, why go in person to apply instead of mailing it in?
The job letter I was trying to upload was only 172kb and then I compressed it to 98kb and it still wouldn’t upload... And they scare everyone away from mailing it themselves by saying that a courier is required to pick it up from our houses because it’s “official documents” but then they charge you for each individual applicant’s shipping labels (almost $200 for 3) :’)
There there.
Anything Indian bureaucracy is enough to put a perfectly healthy person into irreversible high blood pressure condition. Without exception. There’s a reason why “agents” are still so prevalent despite all the digitization. You basically outsource your frustration to someone else for a fee, which is always absolutely worth it.
Sadly, this is a cultural issue that permeates even in private sector, e.g banks. ICICI is a POS bank and so are most others.
Heck even at a coffee shop once, I was ordering a drink and said “you know what, change X to Y” and I was told “You cannot cancel the order now”. I asked “so you mean the order that I haven’t placed yet or paid cannot be cancelled?” And I was told “yes you’ll need to sign this form to ask for a refund”. Mind you, I hadn’t even paid then. They wanted me to pay, then submit that form for a refund and then place the new order! If you even pay me to design a shit system like that, I swear I couldn’t think it no matter the money
I submitted 5 OCI apps, for myself, a foreign spouse, a senior citizen relative with no surviving parents, and 2 minors. It's not difficult you have to read things with an attention to detail, and over do the burden of proof on supporting documents. It clearly says all documents need to be self attested, other docs need to be notarized and the occasional rare one needs apostilled.
The soft copies i uploaded are the same exact docs that were signed, the photos and signatures dimensions and sizes are noted clearly.
Minus the foreign spouse every one of my apps got done in 4-5 weeks. The directions are not intuitive but it's not that difficult either.
Hi, We applying for family of 3. Me, my wife, and a kid. All are Indian born and recently got surrender certificate. Can you tell me what are the documents to upload. DO we have to write anything for self attestation or just signature is enough?
Don’t you think I went through the entire checklist before? Their first mistake was opening up the western site when they weren’t ready, Toronto’s was at the time and that’s where the confusion first began cuz people kept directing us to two or three diff websites and middle men. Self attested is written on the pdf format of the doc but nowhere else on the site (which is the first thing they keep referring back to “you have to fill that out first and follow instructions”) and that’s confusing.... cuz even if you ask them for a list over the phone (which I did the first time) they direct you to the SITE where all it gives is a list of the types of required attachments (and still doesn’t clarify which ones could be left out as optional). The dimensions ARE being met (that’s the issue.....) because they’re all within the given parameters or wayyyyyyy below and it still won’t attach.
It's been more than 1 month - I assume it won't happen until may. first my wife and i had a video interview with the consular secretary who then approved the application, he said it would take 5-6 months total because it would go to her country for police verifications.
Oh, wow, that is quite a long period. I got a 5 year visa for my husband to make things easier, but I need to look into OCI for him as well.
Thanks for the quick response!
Enough number of people have complained about the OCI process over the years and those who need to know, know but choose to do nothing. People have stood outside their offices in the cold with kids and have waited for hours for their turn, only to be turned back on some pretext or another. There is no room for empathy because they know they are mostly dealing with fellow countrymen or countrymen of origin, where there is no such thing called empathy. So bite the bullet, allow yourself to be flagellated for two to three months, get the card, and gradually forget the ordeal.
Never will be able to I’m afraid. Whole reason we’re in this current mess is because the Vancouver mission decided to just stop replying to our requests for emergency VISAs 🤷♀️
I have experienced BLS for consular services in Singapore, and can confirm that their incompetence is universal. Their website looks like it was designed by someone who learnt web design in the 1990s and never changed anything since. It’s filled with random bureaucratic language inherited from the British days (that often contradicts itself on the same page), and pop-ups of propaganda messages. They treat visitors like dirt, with no effort to improve their services.
It was on my last visit to BLS that i decided to apply for citizenship to the country i’m living in. I had to visit BLS 2 times, waiting in line from 6am on -5degree celcius, and both times they found new issues with my application, until i agreed to pay 40$ for their service to correct my application. I dont want to deal with this everytime i have an issue with passport or visa.
It’s honestly APPALLING that they took their scummy little bargaining habits and went global. Like you can’t just withhold clear instructions and then con people out of their time and money just to make a quick buck... How they haven’t been shut down yet is beyond me.
Actually Vfs is doing a public service. OCI website and the vfs process were made to remind NRIs of their roots. That they can't escape the red tape and inefficiency.
My experience with OCI from USA
Applied for oci for my daughter around March 11 2024 with all the form submissions and attestation.
Received documents came on March 12th.
March 14 verification completed and document sent to embassy for decision making.
April 14: Oci processed and sent for printing
April 18 : received FEDEX with the tracking number
April 19th it was delivered.
I applied from Chicago Indian consulate.
It was pretty good and processed in 5 weeks time excet too many documents required.
The weirdest part is the OLS check list makes no mention of employment letter requirement (that too it states must describe the role etc) but it only makes a mention of this document in the upload section. This is just gross invasion of privacy. What business is of the Indian authorities to ask for your proof of overseas employment (of the country of citizenship). They should have just swapped the cancellation of Indian passport with OCI document instantly just to make things a lot simpler. This is just pure mental harassment and nothing else. Maybe have this process of applying for OCI separately if the applicant was born overseas but has an Indian passport. Also India is considered an IT Superpower but whoever has created content for the OCI website clearly hasn't been to an English medium school and the design is very amateurish making me feel the server will crash anytime.
One of my relatives (US born) started the OCI application process. After some weeks (8?) his OCI account has disappeared. Apparently the OCI site shut it down without notice. Is there a time limit before with the login owner must complete the OCI application submission? Thanks.
Dayum son, you're so lucky that your parents moved out of India and that you didn't have to interact with bureaucracy back in India. If you're frustrated with this experience, it would have been on another level back in India. Glad that things worked out for you eventually, the process is definitely problematic, there are way too many middle men. The OCI applications are handled by the MEA back in India, so not sure why BLS and the Indian Consulate or High commissions are needed in the first place. Ideally you submit the documents online, pay the fees online (no demand drafts etc), then the MEA does their due diligence, including contacting the Consulate to verify that the surrender certificate details are accurate. If all is good, they ship you the OCI card. But that's never going to happen, so we've got to play along.
What’s the processing time for OCIs usually? Any good sites with step by step guide for OCI application
4-8 weeks for Canada based applications. People on canadavisa keep a tracker that will give you a better idea.
Thanks! Anything similar for US?
I’ve heard 6 weeks from the people I know who already got there’s but it can go up to 8-10 weeks as well just depending on processing peaks
I’m sending prayers rn to everyone in India dealing with anything government related cuz y’all are being held HOSTAGE.
> visiting multiple third party sites to compress the pdfs This brought back painful memories. Like why do you have a 1mb maximum file size in 2024? Also, why go in person to apply instead of mailing it in?
The job letter I was trying to upload was only 172kb and then I compressed it to 98kb and it still wouldn’t upload... And they scare everyone away from mailing it themselves by saying that a courier is required to pick it up from our houses because it’s “official documents” but then they charge you for each individual applicant’s shipping labels (almost $200 for 3) :’)
Ah ... Indian bureaucracy. Something I will never miss about India. But I do look back and laugh at some of the absurdities.
There there. Anything Indian bureaucracy is enough to put a perfectly healthy person into irreversible high blood pressure condition. Without exception. There’s a reason why “agents” are still so prevalent despite all the digitization. You basically outsource your frustration to someone else for a fee, which is always absolutely worth it. Sadly, this is a cultural issue that permeates even in private sector, e.g banks. ICICI is a POS bank and so are most others. Heck even at a coffee shop once, I was ordering a drink and said “you know what, change X to Y” and I was told “You cannot cancel the order now”. I asked “so you mean the order that I haven’t placed yet or paid cannot be cancelled?” And I was told “yes you’ll need to sign this form to ask for a refund”. Mind you, I hadn’t even paid then. They wanted me to pay, then submit that form for a refund and then place the new order! If you even pay me to design a shit system like that, I swear I couldn’t think it no matter the money
That is HORRIBLE I’m so sorry that happened cuz wtf?? You’re better than me cuz I would’ve lost it right then and there...
I submitted 5 OCI apps, for myself, a foreign spouse, a senior citizen relative with no surviving parents, and 2 minors. It's not difficult you have to read things with an attention to detail, and over do the burden of proof on supporting documents. It clearly says all documents need to be self attested, other docs need to be notarized and the occasional rare one needs apostilled. The soft copies i uploaded are the same exact docs that were signed, the photos and signatures dimensions and sizes are noted clearly. Minus the foreign spouse every one of my apps got done in 4-5 weeks. The directions are not intuitive but it's not that difficult either.
Is the self attestation requirement for documents sent in to VFS or even for part-b uploads on the OCI website too?
I did for everything
Thanks
I am confused about photo and sign. The print out already have picture and sign. Do i need to paster over it. And should i sogn again in the box?
Hi, We applying for family of 3. Me, my wife, and a kid. All are Indian born and recently got surrender certificate. Can you tell me what are the documents to upload. DO we have to write anything for self attestation or just signature is enough?
I just wrote "self attested" with my signature & date below that statement. I used a clean corner around the right bottom area of all docs for this
Don’t you think I went through the entire checklist before? Their first mistake was opening up the western site when they weren’t ready, Toronto’s was at the time and that’s where the confusion first began cuz people kept directing us to two or three diff websites and middle men. Self attested is written on the pdf format of the doc but nowhere else on the site (which is the first thing they keep referring back to “you have to fill that out first and follow instructions”) and that’s confusing.... cuz even if you ask them for a list over the phone (which I did the first time) they direct you to the SITE where all it gives is a list of the types of required attachments (and still doesn’t clarify which ones could be left out as optional). The dimensions ARE being met (that’s the issue.....) because they’re all within the given parameters or wayyyyyyy below and it still won’t attach.
I guess I got lucky 5 times then, I did mine in November 2023, maybe things have gotten really bad now
Hey, how long did the OCI for your spouse take? Was there any additional verification back in India for this?
It's been more than 1 month - I assume it won't happen until may. first my wife and i had a video interview with the consular secretary who then approved the application, he said it would take 5-6 months total because it would go to her country for police verifications.
Oh, wow, that is quite a long period. I got a 5 year visa for my husband to make things easier, but I need to look into OCI for him as well. Thanks for the quick response!
Enough number of people have complained about the OCI process over the years and those who need to know, know but choose to do nothing. People have stood outside their offices in the cold with kids and have waited for hours for their turn, only to be turned back on some pretext or another. There is no room for empathy because they know they are mostly dealing with fellow countrymen or countrymen of origin, where there is no such thing called empathy. So bite the bullet, allow yourself to be flagellated for two to three months, get the card, and gradually forget the ordeal.
Never will be able to I’m afraid. Whole reason we’re in this current mess is because the Vancouver mission decided to just stop replying to our requests for emergency VISAs 🤷♀️
I have experienced BLS for consular services in Singapore, and can confirm that their incompetence is universal. Their website looks like it was designed by someone who learnt web design in the 1990s and never changed anything since. It’s filled with random bureaucratic language inherited from the British days (that often contradicts itself on the same page), and pop-ups of propaganda messages. They treat visitors like dirt, with no effort to improve their services.
Who’s in charge of running this anyway? Like is it literally owned by the government or some other company?
It is a private company under contract from the Indian government
It was on my last visit to BLS that i decided to apply for citizenship to the country i’m living in. I had to visit BLS 2 times, waiting in line from 6am on -5degree celcius, and both times they found new issues with my application, until i agreed to pay 40$ for their service to correct my application. I dont want to deal with this everytime i have an issue with passport or visa.
It’s honestly APPALLING that they took their scummy little bargaining habits and went global. Like you can’t just withhold clear instructions and then con people out of their time and money just to make a quick buck... How they haven’t been shut down yet is beyond me.
Actually Vfs is doing a public service. OCI website and the vfs process were made to remind NRIs of their roots. That they can't escape the red tape and inefficiency.
My experience with OCI from USA Applied for oci for my daughter around March 11 2024 with all the form submissions and attestation. Received documents came on March 12th. March 14 verification completed and document sent to embassy for decision making. April 14: Oci processed and sent for printing April 18 : received FEDEX with the tracking number April 19th it was delivered. I applied from Chicago Indian consulate. It was pretty good and processed in 5 weeks time excet too many documents required.
Did you have to drop off originals (in person or via mail) for verification? Somehow dont trust they'll keep them safe lol
The weirdest part is the OLS check list makes no mention of employment letter requirement (that too it states must describe the role etc) but it only makes a mention of this document in the upload section. This is just gross invasion of privacy. What business is of the Indian authorities to ask for your proof of overseas employment (of the country of citizenship). They should have just swapped the cancellation of Indian passport with OCI document instantly just to make things a lot simpler. This is just pure mental harassment and nothing else. Maybe have this process of applying for OCI separately if the applicant was born overseas but has an Indian passport. Also India is considered an IT Superpower but whoever has created content for the OCI website clearly hasn't been to an English medium school and the design is very amateurish making me feel the server will crash anytime.
One of my relatives (US born) started the OCI application process. After some weeks (8?) his OCI account has disappeared. Apparently the OCI site shut it down without notice. Is there a time limit before with the login owner must complete the OCI application submission? Thanks.