Tips from the Indian Consulate on Getting Home to India

A Public Service Message from Lassi with Lavina

  [dropcap]T[/dropcap]raveling home to India is always a delight but sometimes it involves the dreaded paperwork of renewing passports, visas and OCI cards and there’s the old belief that you need to know someone at the Indian Consulate to get things to move quickly and efficiently. Well, the good news is that it’s not so. Indeed, it’s the digital age and most things are paper free, and hopefully hassle-free. The new CG Srikant Binaya Pradhan had his first press conference with local Indian-American media at the Indian Consulate to help communicate important new factors about Indian visas, passports and OCI to the larger Indian community. He said, “Generally, you get an electronic visa to go to India within 48 hours. Last year, 90% of the visas the government issued electronically, which means people didn’t have to come to the Indian consulate. They simply applied online, paid online, submitted documents online.”

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]onsulate members also cautioned against certain travel agents who have overcharged applicants for assistance in getting Consular services (OCI, Visa, passport, Emergency Certificate, etc.). Often the fee charged is manifold higher than the fees stipulated by the Consulate for a particular Consular service and in many cases, false and baseless assurances of expeditious delivery of Consular services have also been given by such agents. Details of fees charged by the Consulate for various Consular services are available at Annexure I. It may be noted that no additional fee is charged by the Consulate or VFS. The Consulate has also come across fake documents pertaining to identity, residential address, utility bills, etc. submitted by agents on applicants’ behalf, often without the knowledge of the applicants. This not only causes undue avoidable delay but is also a violation of prescribed Indian rules and puts the applicants on wrong side of the law in the US. It has also been brought to the Consulate’s notice that a number of fake E-visa websites, claiming to provide E-visas services, are active on the internet. In order to mislead the applicants, some of these websites have created images and home page templates mimicking the Government of India’s websites. List of such websites may be seen at https://www.indiainnewyork.gov.in/pdf/fake_visa_website_28apr2023_NF.pdf. It is advised that the correct website for E-visa is https://indianvisaonline.gov.in. Applicants are requested not to apply on any other website for E-visa services.

An Open House for Everyone

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or those wishing to meet Consular officers for questions regarding any house concerns, The Consulate organizes an Open House on first Wednesday (10 am to 1 pm) and third Wednesday (2 pm to 5 pm) of every month. Applicants can walk in without prior appointment and meet the Consular Officers for any query they may have regarding Consular services. Applicants are, therefore, requested to exercise extreme caution and avail the services directly through the following sources: a) Consulate’s website (https://www.indiainnewyork.gov.in) –For Miscellaneous Services, PCC for non-Indian passport holders and Emergency Travel Documents. b) VFS Global website (https://visa.vfsglobal.com/usa/en/ind/), which is the authorized service provider for CGI New York – for all Visa, Passport, OCI, GEP, PCC for Indian passport holder and Renunciation of Indian citizenship.