OVERSEAS CITIZENS OF INDIA
Starting from Nov-2020, Govt. of India changed their partner to process OCI cards for people applying from USA. This is a new service, and not many internet sources describing the whole process.
I have recently applied OCI card for my daughter, who born in USA.
Here are the steps that, I have followed to apply OCI card,
- Apply birth certificate.
- Apply US passport
- Register with Indian Govt web site, and uploaded required documents.
- Register with VFS global, filling details along with reference number shared in Govt web site after uploading all documents.
- Pay Fees in VFS Global web site.
- Once application is completed in VFS global web site, it will send the application along with document checklist to be sent to registered email.
- Gather all documents given in check list and print FedEx labels (incase chosen), and go to FedEx to drop.
Step 1 Birth Certificate For the first step, to apply birth certificate, you can get it in two ways.
a. Apply online ( it took 21 business days for me in TX)
b. Go to county office and collect ( walk in, mostly in an hour, please call before you go, it depends on state)
Step 2 US Passport Once birth certificate is arrived, we can start applying US passport. You can go to USPS with all needed documents, and submit passport application. In current situations, USPS needs appointments before you go. You can search near by USPS and, see if it offers photo service as well. If you can find USPS with photo service, you can just go with documents and they will take a picture and submit application. It may take up to 3 weeks.
Step 3 Register for OCI in Indian Gov web site This step, you can go to https://ociservices.gov.in/ and apply for new OCI, it starts with an application form, then picture, signature and documents.
Application It will ask some information like name, passport number etc.
Picture In this step we just need to upload picture taken from your camera, but any way we need to submit photo copies in later steps, so better to take hard copies of picture (you can get at CVS / Walgreen), and take picture of it and upload.
Signature For minor, figure print is needed, have it on a white paper and take a picture will suffice. Both picture and signatures uploads need to meet certain requirements, you can get required pixels when we open it in paint.
Once application is completed here, it will share a reference number save it for using it later steps. Later at any time, you can upload the documents with this reference number.
Documents Some of documents needed to upload are like passport, parents passport and VISA, parents marriage certificate, address proof (these all are for new OCI for new born in USA), and lastly parental authorization form, which should be notarized before uploading.
Step 4 Register with VFS Global In this step, we need to go VFS Global website, and create an account, and start a new application, You need to fill all information along with web reference given in step 3. In this step, it will ask you state to pick right center.
Step 5 Pay fees It will show how much is the fees based your shipping methods, you can pay fees. Once fees are paid you can download application, you should auto-generated email with application in attachments. It also contains checklist of documents needs to be summited and procedure to following from here.
Step 6 Notarize OCI application We need to notarize OCI application(which contain photo and signature of baby) before we submit the documents.
Step 7 Visit Fed-ex If you select this shipping method, you need to visit Fed-ex, will all check-list shared by vfs global along with fed-ex label's shared by vfs global. you can download these labels, anytime if login. You need both sending label and return label.
Make sure all documents are self attested. Only documents to be notarized are Parental authorization form and OCI application form (You need to sign while doing notarized). You may also need to submit passport of the child which should sent back to you in couple of days.
Please add a comment, if you need a clarification in any of these steps. Also let me know, if you see anything needs to be added / updated.
Note These steps are based on my experience only, you have to visit official documentation before applying.
Thank you.
