Watch: Are You Aware of the KEY OCI Mistakes NRIs Make? | Back to India | R2I

3:30 Something everyone should do it. No matter you want to apply for a visa later on, you want to apply for an OCI, it doesn't matter. This is a mandatory process that everyone has to do it. So along the same lines I think when you talked about renunciation say if someone is getting a foreign passport and if there is some delay in getting that passport right can someone travel like you know what are some of the information or like some insights that you would give if for whatever reason they have to travel like how do how do how should they plan and what are the things that you can suggest from your own experience. Yeah. So that's a very great question Avin because many people face this situation. since the citizenship process is going on it takes a bit of a time they don't they can't travel outside the country to India and they have to delay already a lot their travel. So as soon as they become citizen the first thing they

4:31 Should do it is like apply for renunciation along with it they can apply for a visa. it can be e visa, it can be tourist visa, it can be like paper visa, entry visa for Indian origin. So there are multiple types of visas which Indians can apply for depending on the like duration of their travel and the purpose of their travel. So this is one thing that first renunciation and along with it apply for apply for a e visa if they have to travel like really quick within 24 hours and they are not planning to stay longer than 6 months in India. so that's the that's the one thing that can be done. otherwise like if you have some time to travel like if you can travel after four or 5 weeks then I would definitely suggest as soon as you are done with the renunciation apply for an OCI and then postpone your if you can postpone your travel for maybe

5:32 Five 6 weeks

5:34 >> got it and then maybe let's talk a little bit about the OCI itself right I think there are certain rules in terms of updating when you have your passport update especially if you're minor or if you are above certain age maybe for our audience if you can like educate or help them understand like you know what are some of those requirements so that they're aware of these requirements >> 100% so like there is one very recent actually it's not very recent there was one rule passed in 2021 by the Indian government which made OCI process very very simpler the rule is that like before it used to be like you have to renew the OCI every 5 years in case of minors as soon as you get your Indian passport sorry US passport renewed but nowadays you don't have to renew the OCI every time you get the new passport you just have to renew the OCI only once in your lifetime at the age of 21 that's all you have to do before

6:35 That the most common question that we get here is like u the passport gets renewed every 5 years for our minor kids so OCI how do we go about it like if it is renewed after 21 years of age. So for that a government has made the process very simple. Now the process is all online for the updation of passport. it can be done through OCI government portal and it's completely free of cost. It's completely paperless which means it's completely online. You just have to all you have to do is just update your new passport photo signature or thumb impression in case of minors and then your new u new passport copy and that's all you have to do within 30 to 45 days you will get a confirmation if it has taken into record or not but even then you don't have to wait for that record to be updated as soon as you do that process after you get the u the foreign

7:36 Passport you can simply travel with the acknowledgement receipt that you get it right away after the updation process. You don't have to wait for 45 days to get it updated in the records. >> Got it. And how important is to update the OCI as soon as you have a passport renewed for minors, right? especially like after every 5 years. So it's a mandatory or it's a recommended. So just trying to understand and >> no it's mandatory. Yeah, it's a mandatory process Ainina. not able to board the flight and u because of this that they have not updated the their passport on the online portal. However, there are few cases also where people have been allowed to travel without even updating.

8:29 But we don't recommend doing that taking that risk because you are traveling internationally, you have travel plans. What if if the immigration officer does not allow you just because of this simple step that you did not taken care of? I definitely recommend to do this process before you travel so that like you have a peace of mind also like it's very quick. It's it doesn't take a lot of time. And just to confirm so at when they turn age 21 that's when you have to get a new OCI. it's not just updating this in the online. so you need to get a new OCI issued once the minor became 21. >> So it's not a new OCI ain it's a renewal of OCI >> and it's not it's not at the right at the age of 21. So here is the tricky part. like let's say the kid is now 21 but his passport is yet to expire in when he turn turns like 24 or 25

9:30 Years of age. So he doesn't have to renew his OCI as soon as he turns 21. He can renew his OCI card once he has the new passport at the age of 24 or 25 whatever. But yeah, date is necessary. They have to update the passport information as I already mentioned. U and why is it important is because over the period of time our fish face changes a lot especially in cases of minors. many other circumstances also changes because of that and you should have you should renew update your OCI card so that you have the updated records and immigration officer can identify you that it that it's your OCI card.

10:17 >> Got it. So maybe can you provide some

10:20 Insights about like once someone become a foreign national like are there certain reports that they have to update whether it's the Aadhaar card, PAN card or some of the information you know abroad or in India anything that you can share from your experience that they need to. >> Yeah. Yeah. So as soon as the you become the foreign national first thing I already mentioned renunciation of Indian passport or surrender of your Indian citizenship. second thing will be to update your residential status on the income tax portal for the PAN card. that then the third thing as soon as you visit India you can update the status for your Aadhaar card as well. fourth thing is like it has been recently added this requirement has been recently added for the OCI as well that you need to surrender your voter card and your ration card if you had any. If you didn't had any ration card or voting voter card then you just simply have to give them an

11:22 Undertaking that I I never had it and I if I had it I would have surrendered it. That's all. But yeah, these four things everyone should do it. as soon as they become the foreign national. >> Got it. So just to confirm for my own understanding. So does Aadhaar card like differentiate if you're Indian national versus a foreign national? Like it's a database so you have to disclose like once you become a foreign nation and update it. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Got it. So let's talk about I think the

11:51 Visa process that you kind of suggested right. So if someone was on a short notice to travel to India, I think they have the option of e visa and this is very common across like you know families with young kids right with the newborns and so on. So like the people travel and then you know maybe with e visa but they want to convert to OCI. So maybe you can talk briefly like in terms of converting in abroad or like you know they need to come back within 180 days or something that they have to do abroad. So anything that you can share on that? >> Yeah. So we we also get a lot of questions regarding the question that you have asked. and it it is very it is really common that people travel on e visa since it's very quick and it's easy process. It's all online. and like sometimes in situation that you need to travel asap.

12:47 So people do travel on e visa although they there there could be a change of plan or there could be a plan beforehand as well that they are returning to India permanently or there are chances u like because you are returning to India you have lot of things going on. you may not have a lot of time to in hand to apply for an OCI or maybe apply for a paper visa before you travel. hence you choose to apply for a e visa for obvious reasons. So e that's not a problem. You can visit on an e visa. Although e visas are on e visas you are allowed to stay only up to 180 days in India. post 180 days you have two options. Either you travel outside India to any nearby country maybe Nepal, Bhutan, anywhere outside India like Sri Lanka, Dubai, anywhere you just travel outside India and enter back on the same e visa and the 180day period will again

13:48 Start from there. that's one option. although we have seen a lot of cases where that with minor kids it's not always possible to travel outside India within the period of 6 months. So then by nature e visas are non-convertible and non-extendable. So that shouldn't be your first choice if you are planning to stay longer than 6 months. But just in case if you have already traveled and now you have decided to stay there for longer than 6 months and you cannot travel outside India and get that period extended then you can even do it from India itself through an FRRO office in India. the process is mostly online.

14:34 Basically how you do it is like you apply online on the FR through the FRO portal and you get that E visa converted to X1 visa which is also called entry visa. entry visa is basically available only for Indian origin people who are who whose parents are from India or who themselves are from India had Indian passport beforehand or their grand great grandparents or grandparents were from India. So all of these people who are Indian origin can apply for an entry visa which is also called X1 visa through online portal of FRRO office. you simply apply for an application although there will be some penalty charged for this conversion because e visas are technically non-convertible and non-extendable but if you choose to extend it or convert it to X1 visa there will be some amount of penalty and some amount of fees but you can very well

15:35 Convert it to X1 or entry visa within or from by staying within India and it's online we have also seen few cases where PE applicant or their guardians may have been called for to in person at the FRO office. So be prepared for that as well. >> Got it. So let's switch gears a little

15:59 Bit. So for families who are planning to move back to India for good. you know some of these documents has to be EPO style, right? I think you know for maybe something that they have to use in the future like the birth certificates or some other records. So from your experience let's talk about in the scenario of family moving back what are the documents that needs to be aostiled and when is it required that's one aspect and also if they are living in India or in abroad like you know what's the best way to get these documents apostile for different reasons like banks or for other reasons. So maybe you can talk about those two things. I think that would be helpful. >> Yeah sure. So first of all let me clear this for regarding apostile.

16:45 People confuse apostile with the notorization. very often apostile is not notoriization. apostile is authentication of the document by the issuing authority. So let's say if you were born in US and your birth certificate was issued in US then you have to get the document apostile or authenticated by the secretary of the state department in the US. so previously this apostile requirement is only was only required when people were applying for OCI from India. but now the we have seen a recent change from December 2024 that now all the US applicants whoever have their certificates issued anywhere outside India like birth certificate or marriage certificate. If the if that is issued outside India, even if it is issued in US itself, then they have to authenticate that document by the secretary of the state department and

17:47 Get it apostile and they have to send the copy of their apostile certificate. So I definitely recommend everyone who is planning to return to India before they leave from here apply for the apostile of the birth certificate if they are born if if they or their kids are born here in the US or let's say Canada, UK, wherever they are moving from. Second document, second most important document that needs a post type will be the marriage certificate. Again that is only required if you are married here in the foreign country. if you were married in the in India and you have a marriage certificate issued in India you don't have to get it apostile. So any document which is issued outside of India you have to get that certificate apostile and that must do thing before you return to India.

18:44 >> So now let's go back a little bit on the OCI. So from your experience what are some of the common mistakes that people do when applying for OCI or for e visa? So maybe you know top five things that they typically make a mistake. So so that people will be aware of it when they're filling these applications or anything. >> So very interestingly there is one very common mistake that we have seen is with the date issue. Although like because you know in India we we write the dates as per DD mm Y format. Here in the US the format is little different. It's MMD Y. After living here for a very long long period of time here in the US you tend to write the date in the format like MMDD and Y. Although people should be aware of it that since you are using some Indian websites and Indian documents and Indian embassy, you should always write the format the date format should be ddmm by

19:46 That is one thing that we have seen a lot of people making mistakes with. The second common mistake that we have seen is regarding the name issue. So people don't realize that they have a name in that that will it will be treated treated as a change in name if it is even a slightly different name. So let's say in cases of women they change their surnames very often after marriage. So that's first thing that is considered as name change. So either you have a marriage certificate and that can prove that you have taken your spouse's surname that will prove otherwise like if you if you haven't changed because of the marriage reasons then maybe it is it's a slightly different name like let's say for example my name is Priyanka Ben Agarad and I choose when I took the US citizenship since the name change is very easy to do here you just

20:47 Whenever you are applying for a US passport or naturalization, you just simply have to tick one thing and you just remove the ben from your name and your now your name would be Priyanka Kandui in all your future documents like naturalization, citizen from here. They don't think that it's a name change but it is a name change and when you are filling up the OCI application be sure of it that you select that you have changed the name recently and you have to provide the supporting documents like the notorized name change affidavit or a court order or something like that to prove that that you have changed the names. So this is the second most common mistake that you we have seen. the

21:48 Third thing is like again regarding the name change. but it it may not be you that you have changed the name. It could be like your father's name, mother's name, spouse name etc. they may have different names on the different documents like Indian passport may have your name as Ainina P or your last name and you have removed the P initials from there. So that can be the that will be counted as a name change. So you must have a name change affidavit for whoever on the application there are mismatch in the names. >> Got it. Okay.

22:27 >> So I think that sounds great. maybe kind of switching gears again. so typically a lot of people who have been living abroad they're trying to sell a house or a property or do some financial transaction right I think they do like a GPA and some of those so maybe from your experience like what are the things that they need to be aware of right I think you know some of these documents are required you know any suggestions any tips hey you know follow this this is a good practice or anything that you can recommend from your perspective >> yeah yeah So again like if you are an Indian citizen or a foreign citizen and you would like to carry any kind of a financial transaction maybe it's something like you have got some inheritance property or it may be like you are buying or selling something as you mentioned you it could be like some previous investments in stocks or mutual funds etc insurance etc. then you must have your PAN card. and

23:28 It must be it must have a status updated like if you are a resident or not non-resident. It's very easy to do. It's an it's a completely online portal. you can just visit the income tax portal and just change your status. It's very simple to do it. So first thing is the PAN card. second thing you must have is like if you have acquired the foreign citizenship then you you must have an OCI card to carry forward any financial transaction. If you have not yet done the acquired any foreign citizenship and you are still in Indian origin you don't need an OCI. third thing you would need is the NRO bank accounts. That is something like which is very common to have it and or everybody knows about it but we have seen a lot of people still using their domestic account instead of NERO account so which is a criminal offense and it's not at all

24:29 Recommended you may get into FEMA and all of that if you don't have an RNR account and if you even after changing your residential status being NR or resident you don't have the NRO account and you're still using your domestic account, savings account. >> Okay, got it. >> Regarding an RNRO also I would like to explain it a little bit like it's very easy to apply from the country where you are living at. You don't have to visit any branch. You don't have to visit India for that. You can do it wherever you are from. There are so many banks all most of them are now having like online process these days like KYC is also done online by most of the banks like SDFC's IDFC bank and other banks like ICICIS bank etc.

25:26 So must have an NRO account. >> Got it. And in terms of the GPA it could be a standard format. just curious like the power of attorney. So there is no any specific in the requirement there. >> Cool. so I'm just being mindful of the time. So I just don't want this to be too long. we will cover you know some of the other aspects like the Aadhaar card, PAN card in an upcoming episode. So I'm very very thankful for your time Miss Priyanka for sharing your insights from your experience helping so many NRIs with their OCI renunciation with the e visa extension and so on and you know some of the tidbits I think you know that we have to I mean one thing that I took away at least that I'm not completely aware was that I think renewing the OCI when the miners become after 21 right I think that's an important one that I you know, some of these things that we might not be aware of and I think we just need to be known and I really appreciate you taking the time and talking to us and

26:27 Sharing your insights as we navigate these legal things. >> Thank you. Thank you so much Ain. I really enjoyed it and hope this helps and hope people find this really helpful. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thanks. And we will have the link on how you can reach documentra and the services that they offer for people who are living abroad in the description below. and until next time take care. Thanks again. >> Thank you.