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Hi,

I have my appointment for citizenship oath ceremony on 15th May 2012. At the moment, I have an Indian passport and will be travelling to India in Aug 2012.

I was planning to apply for my British passport only after i come back from India in end of Aug 2012 as I am not sure if I will have the time after mid-May 2012 to apply for passport and OCI both.

I have been told by one of my friend that I cannot travel to India on Indian passport after I have taken the citizenship oath even though I will not be applying for my British passport.

Please advise.

anuptosh wrote:Hi,

I have my appointment for citizenship oath ceremony on 15th May 2012. At the moment, I have an Indian passport and will be travelling to India in July 2012.

I was planning to apply for my British passport only after i come back from India in Aug 2012 as I am not sure if I will have the time after mid-May 2012 to apply for passport and OCI both.

I have been told by one of my friend that I cannot travel to India on Indian passport after I have taken the citizenship oath even though I will not be applying for my British passport.

Please advise.

There is a grace period of three months after gaining foreign nationality (not after getting foreign passport!). So you can travel upto three months without attracting penalties. Can the senior members please confirm this?

http://hcilondon.in/renunciation.php (search for the text "grace")

Thanks for your reply -

Searching for grace, i found this explanation - with a three month grace period from the date of acquiring foreign nationality i.e. the date of Naturalisation certificate . I understand this date is the date when i will take the oath / pledge on the ceremony date which is 15th May.

I will be going to India on 10th or 11th Aug and coming back on 1st Sep 2012. Will this be allowed.

I do not have much time to apply for the British passport and OCI after 15th May as my wife and kids will be going to India in mid - July 2012.

Can someone please advise if the above will be an issue, if yes, please advise what best i should do to resolve the problem

Hello Experts, any more advise on the above please.

This is not a British citizenship matter. Your query would be better placed in the other consider section of the forum.

anuptosh wrote: Searching for grace, i found this explanation - with a three month grace period from the date of acquiring foreign nationality i.e. the date of Naturalisation certificate . I understand this date is the date when i will take the oath / pledge on the ceremony date which is 15th May.

I will be going to India on 10th or 11th Aug and coming back on 1st Sep 2012. Will this be allowed.

- Sorry but seems unlikely if you count 3 months from 15th May it comes out to 15th Aug.. so you would not be able to travel to India as your Grace period runs out.. Moreover you would not be able to enter in UK when you come back in Sep as your ILR (assuming you have one now) is supplanted on 15th May when you take oath. So you have no valid travel document to enter UK.

anuptosh wrote: I do not have much time to apply for the British passport and OCI after 15th May as my wife and kids will be going to India in mid - July 2012.

Can someone please advise if the above will be an issue, if yes, please advise what best i should do to resolve the problem

you can apply for British passport and get the visa for India before you or your family travel to India in July. Two months is more than enough to get British passport, surrender Indian passport and getting Indian visitor visa.
you can apply for OCI once you are back from India.

Not Indian so have no idea about the grace period and it's application. But I can tell you that I didn't have any trouble entering the UK with my old passport + ILR after I've become a British citizen a couple of months ago.
(I had to travel for work in short notice, and did not have time to apply for British passport).

mimimt wrote:Not Indian so have no idea about the grace period and it's application. But I can tell you that I didn't have any trouble entering the UK with my old passport + ILR after I've become a British citizen a couple of months ago.
(I had to travel for work in short notice, and did not have time to apply for British passport).

it's not about entering the UK, but about problems with the Indian authorities, hence why this thread should be moved to the other countries section of the forum.

manyaonisland wrote: - Sorry but seems unlikely if you count 3 months from 15th May it comes out to 15th Aug.. so you would not be able to travel to India as your Grace period runs out.. Moreover you would not be able to enter in UK when you come back in Sep as your ILR (assuming you have one now) is supplanted on 15th May when you take oath. So you have no valid travel document to enter UK.

It is true that indefinite leave to remain (or any other immigration "leave") ceases to be valid when a person becomes a British citizen, simply because the person then has the right of abode in the UK and does not require any "leave"(i.e. permission) at all to enter or stay in the country.

It is also true that the Indian passport that would be used to re-enter the UK in September would not be a valid travel document in that its issuing country (India) would not consider it so. The fact that it is still in the holder's possession and has not been physically cancelled does not alter that fact.

Nevertheless, I am not sure if there would be any practical difficulty in entering the UK. As someone has noted above, people who have recently naturalised as British citizens do sometimes enter the UK using their old "leave", and in reality, recently naturalised citizens doing this are not going to be high on the Border Agency's list of people to be watching out for.

One thing to think about though is if the OP wants in the future to get an Indian visa in a British passport or apply for OCI, will the fact that a non-valid passport has been used for travel into India (or, in fact, out of India) when the holder was no longer an Indian citizen have adverse consequences. I don't know the answer to that.

And, also as noted above, the main problems arising here are entirely unrelated to British citizenship, so more knowledgeable answers might be available in other parts of the forums.

Thanks everyone foy your answers. But i feel there are varying thoughts here but i may need more clear answers.

Other than the main question about travel to and from UK in the grace period of 3 months after I take the oath on 15th May, i have couple of more questions

1. Will be date on the naturalisation certificate be 15th May ( date when i attend the ceremony ) or the date when i got the letter of approval to attend the ceremony

2. Also, another thought is if I try to bring forward my date for the oath ceremony in mid-April 2012, will i then have sufficient time to get the British passport and OCI . From mid-April to mid-July, it is a 3 month duration.

Hi Moderators, as advised by Greenie and Christophe,can you please move this post to a relevant forum where i can get more expert answers to my questions above including the latest ones.

anuptosh wrote:Thanks everyone foy your answers. But i feel there are varying thoughts here but i may need more clear answers.

Other than the main question about travel to and from UK in the grace period of 3 months after I take the oath on 15th May, i have couple of more questions

1. Will be date on the naturalisation certificate be 15th May ( date when i attend the ceremony ) or the date when i got the letter of approval to attend the ceremony

2. Also, another thought is if I try to bring forward my date for the oath ceremony in mid-April 2012, will i then have sufficient time to get the British passport and OCI . From mid-April to mid-July, it is a 3 month duration.

Hi Moderators, as advised by Greenie and Christophe,can you please move this post to a relevant forum where i can get more expert answers to my questions above including the latest ones.

1. The date on your naturalisation certificate will be the date you are taking your oath on so if you are taking your oath on 15th of May then that will be the date on your naturalisation certificate.

2. You can speak with your local authority to bring your date of oath forward. Also you can attend private ceremoney (for which you have to pay extra money) in earlier dates which suits you.

anuptosh wrote: 2. Also, another thought is if I try to bring forward my date for the oath ceremony in mid-April 2012, will i then have sufficient time to get the British passport and OCI . From mid-April to mid-July, it is a 3 month duration.

Recently I applied for British passport for my daughter followed by Indian Visa and so as one of my naturalised friend and it all was done in 5 weeks so i do not understand the concern for having all this done after 15th May and before 15th Jul.. you have 8 weeks which is more than enough... just keep everything ready for British passport application and apply on the next workig day after 15th May. same for Indian visa too. typically it takes 3 weeks to get British passport so plan the Appointment for indian visa accordingly. you can always go for private ceremony but it is not required in this case IMHO.

- Deleted -

manyaonisland wrote:

anuptosh wrote: 2. Also, another thought is if I try to bring forward my date for the oath ceremony in mid-April 2012, will i then have sufficient time to get the British passport and OCI . From mid-April to mid-July, it is a 3 month duration.

Recently I applied for British passport for my daughter followed by Indian Visa and so as one of my naturalised friend and it all was done in 5 weeks so i do not understand the concern for having all this done after 15th May and before 15th Jul.. you have 8 weeks which is more than enough... just keep everything ready for British passport application and apply on the next workig day after 15th May. same for Indian visa too. typically it takes 3 weeks to get British passport so plan the Appointment for indian visa accordingly. you can always go for private ceremony but it is not required in this case IMHO.

Thanks but my concern for applying is not for a minor. It is for me and my wife. Over the last couple of days , i have known few more facts about the application process.

1. For an adult, the max period for the passport is 6 weeks. You will be called for an interview anytime after 2-3 weeks.
2. We will then have to surrender the Indian PP before applying for OCI.
3. Receiving the OCI card will take 3 weeks.

So adding all the above, i can expect at least 10 weeks before I have the British PP and OCI with me which is not before 22nd June 2012.

Also, i have been told by the council that I can only collect the naturalisation certificate in 3 months from the date on the letter which is 21 Feb 2012, so the certificate expires on 22nd May 2012. I cannot even postpone the ceremony to mid-June 2012 so that I am well within the 3 months grace period.

If I opt for a private ceremony to collect the certificate, it will cost £80 per adult which is quite a lot of money.

I am quite confused as to what is the best way forward for me to not attract penalties and also shell out least money in this process so that I can travel to India in mid Aug and come back in the end of Aug ( my wife and kids travel in mid - July and come back with me in end of Aug 2012 )

I request to assist me with planning the above.

anuptosh wrote: 2. We will then have to surrender the Indian PP before applying for OCI.
3. Receiving the OCI card will take 3 weeks.

Why do you want to Get the OCI at this moment?
Once you get your naturalization certificate apply for British passport and during that time surrender the Indian passport. Once you get the British passport apply for Indian Visitor Visa using British passport.

(by this time you will also have surrender certificate for Indian passport which you can use while applying for visa)

then go to India and after you return back apply for OCI.

anuptosh wrote: So adding all the above, i can expect at least 10 weeks before I have the British PP and OCI with me which is not before 22nd June 2012.

What is the significance of 22nd June 2012?

anuptosh wrote: Also, i have been told by the council that I can only collect the naturalisation certificate in 3 months from the date on the letter which is 21 Feb 2012, so the certificate expires on 22nd May 2012. I cannot even postpone the ceremony to mid-June 2012 so that I am well within the 3 months grace period.

Again it is not clear why you want to postpone the ceremony? the intention should be to get it done ASAP. your current date (15th May) is well within the time frame. so actually you can make a British passport application on 15th May immediately after the ceremony.