OCI application on grandparent basis

Hello,

First off - I've spent many hours reading this forum, it is a great source of knowledge. I hope someone will be able to clarify my position on applying for OCI.

My situation
My grandparents (on father's side) were both born in India (in the 1930s). They moved to Kenya and surrendered Indian passports in exchange for British passports (in the 1950s). My father was born in Kenya. The whole family moved to the UK in the 1970s. My parents got married in the UK in the 1980s. I was born in the UK. My grandfather passed away a few years ago. I want to apply for OCI on the basis of my grandparents' Indian origin.

Documents
This is a list of the documents I intend to provide along with the OCI application form:

• My UK passport

• My father's UK passport

• My grandmother's UK passport

• My grandfather's death certificate

• My birth certificate

• My father's birth certificate (Kenyan, has the word 'cancelled' written across it, not sure why)

• My grandmother's birth certificate in the form of an affidavit from Kenya (Commissioner for Oaths)

• A letter in response to my grandmother's application for registration as a citizen of India, stating that she was domiciled in India, was born in India and was therefore already an Indian Citizen (Commissioner for the Govt of India in British East Africa and Central Africa)

Documents I do not possess
For one reason or another, the following documents are not in our family's possession:

• My grandmother's Indian passport

• My grandmother's Indian passport surrender certificate

My questions
1. Are the documents I have enough to prove my grandmother's Indian origin? I know I will not be able to provide a copy of her Indian passport or surrender certificate. Many people are talking about a notarised affidavit in lieu of these documents, but point 9 on the FAQ: http://mha1.nic.in/pdfs/oci-faq.pdf indicates 'any other proof' can be provided. Will the documents I provide be sufficient?

2. HCI / CGI websites state that an application can be made on the basis of one grandparent only, if a death certificate is provided for the other grandparent. Does this mean I will not need to provide any further documents for my grandfather, aside from his death certificate?

3. Do I need any more documents not mentioned above?

Many thanks in advance for your help - it is much appreciated.

Hi

I am in a similar situation to you background wise and have just applied for the OCI card a few weeks back so have also been doing lots of research!

Firstly, you can apply on the basis of just one grandparent and as you have more documents (and no passport for the granddad) I would do it based on your Grandma. If you had your grandfathers passport it would have been straightforward.

An Indian passport is by far the easiest however you like myself did not have this as my grandparents had long disposed of this. I obtained an affidavit from India stating my granddad was born there etc as well as his education leaving documents and certified by a local attorney. Personally I think you will need something from India e.g. affidavit for your grandmother, it is not clear from their requirements online whether your Kenyan issued affidavit would be accepted, but given how picky they are, leads me to believe they wont accept it. (no one really knows for definite until you apply as they do not answer emails clearly).

If you can obtain an Indian affidavit and education documents from India these are accepted as they mention.

I will update in the coming weeks/months how my application goes.

Thanks for your reply. I might pay Bharat Welfare Trust a visit (and a donation) to confirm what I need to do.

I'll post back here...

It's been a while. It takes a while

Bharat Welfare Trust advised that because we no longer have my grandmother's old Indian passport, nor do we hold a surrender certificate, we need to obtain approval to apply for the latter by visiting the Consulate General of India.

So, a trip to Birmingham with all my grandmother's documents (and also her Naturalisation Certificate and Marriage Certificate, which I didn't mention in my first post but they took photocopies of those too). After a few hours in the CGI centre (which feels like actually being in India), I walked out with a stamped set of photocopies of those documents. This is considered an 'approval' for the surrender certificate application, which can be submitted at the Visa Centre in Edgbaston or Peepul Centre in Leicester. Note - we don't have the surrender certificate yet! But now we have enough to send the application off, without having an old Indian passport to hand.

The approval came with a caveat. We only hold the current valid UK passport for my grandmother - previous expired passports have been destroyed upon return. The CGI asked for photocopies of these old passports; which we do not have, so she needs to write and sign a declaration to confirm all expired passports have been destroyed. This will need to be attached with the surrender certificate application form. Advice to anyone reading - keep all your old passports!

I will continue to keep this thread updated.

Quick update.

We posted the application for my grandmother's surrender certificate through Peepul Centre and received the certificate posted direct to our house promptly (turnaround was about 2 weeks).

Now armed with all necessary documentation we visited Bharat Welfare Trust; they took photos of each of us, photocopied our documents and asked us to fill out a form designed for them to create an online application on our behalf. When the applications are ready for collection, you can pick these up and verify the information has been input correctly (keep taking your documents every visit!). Be warned - this part of the process has taken around 2 months, BWT require regular chasing.

We now have the application forms ready to sign and take to CGI Birmingham. This should be the last step before receiving the OCI.

I will keep you posted...

More complications. The full name on my father's passport is not a precise match to that on his birth certificate - due to the suffix 'bhai'. Most of you will be aware that 'bhai' is a common (almost universal) suffix to Indian names - translation: brother. A wasted visited to Birmingham CGI confirmed this was going to be a problem, they would not accept the application.

CGI said we needed to get an affidavit to certify the two 'different' names refer to the same person. Don't waste money on a notary - go to a solicitor who will charge around £20 for the stamped document.

Now, back to Birmingham again to submit the applications. Make sure you take the fees in cash - they will not accept cheque / credit card / any other modern form of payment. I am pleased to say the applications have now been submitted! We have a reference number to check status online and the OCIs should be ready within 6-8 weeks.

Date Of Acknowledgment 22-DEC-2014
Registration Status at Mission BIRMINGHAM
Documents Printing Status PROCESSED On 06-FEB-2015
Dispatched From MOIA (OCI ) NEW DELHI On 09-FEB-2015
Document received At BIRMINGHAM On 12-FEB-2015

Passports received at Birmingham on 24-FEB-2015
Passports received at home on 03-MAR-2015

The journey is over! I hope this post helps anyone thinking of starting the OCI process. Give yourself plenty of time.

Congratulations.