Renunciation of Indian Citizenship

[bharatuppala]

Hi all,

At my surrender appointment this morning I was told that renunciation process is suspended and is no longer needed for OCI. He says the decision was taken last Friday.

Can anyone confirm??

[sathyauk]

Hi all,

At my surrender appointment this morning I was told that renunciation process is suspended and is no longer needed for OCI. He says the decision was taken last Friday.

Can anyone confirm??

You are right. I checked with Birmingham VFS, they confirmed RC is suspended for time being and for OCI they dont need RC

[Zrl100]

Hi bharatuppala,
I'm due to get my first UK Passport delivered in a few days & would've needed to do this surrender & renunciation process in order to apply for oci card after.
So what is the process now? Do you still have to pay/apply for the RC process or that whole thing has been deleted as a step during the application process? Excuse my ignorance...but I'm only just beginning to look into doing this. Any guidance would be helpful. Cheers!

[sathyauk]

Hi Zrl100,
The rule was introduced back in Sep2023, after that many minor children are affected due to this rule, so Indian commission has decided to suspend RC currently, so don't need to apply or pay for RC.

1. Surrender you Indian passport
2. Once you get your surrender certificate you can straight away apply for OCI

[bharatuppala]

Thank you. I also emailed HCI London for confirmation and waiting for their response.

Hi all,

At my surrender appointment this morning I was told that renunciation process is suspended and is no longer needed for OCI. He says the decision was taken last Friday.

Can anyone confirm??

You are right. I checked with Birmingham VFS, they confirmed RC is suspended for time being and for OCI they dont need RC

[bharatuppala]

If an applicant has already been issued a naturalisation certificate/ passport by another country, the applicant loses his Indian Citizenship with immediate effect and hence is ineligible to apply for Renunciation of Indian Citizenship under Section 8 of the Indian Citizenship Act

Reference: https://www.hcilondon.gov.in/page/surre ... -passport/

[Zrl100]

Thanks bharatuppala,
I read the entire webpage
It's very confusing (as usual).
Your pasted text above is shown at the beginning of that webpage but with no date to show or say "process amended" or anything like that?

Then if you read further down the page, the entire process for applying for surrender & renunciation is listed below as was the case previously.

No one ever applies for RC before getting a foreign passport/naturalisation certificate before anyway. But yet people were required to go thru that RC step since it's introduction Sep 2023. So the step was invalid all along?? Doesn't make sense! Then why make people go thru it, right! All the Indian embassy London, cgi Birmingham & vfs web pages...none of them have been amended to reflect the new change. I mean this is a huge change in process, there'll be alot of people like us worldwide getting affected.

Did you pay for the RC process already online by any chance?

[sathyauk]

Hi Zrl100,
I paid and received RC but my RC needs correction, so I went to VFS yesterday for correction, I was told that RC is not needed for OCI. They may bring in the future but currently RC process is suspended.

I know this will confuse everyone, but I double checked with VFS Birmingham, it is confirmed that RC is not needed now

Thanks,
Sathya

[rmarck]

I also had similar experience yesterday. I completed my online application, paid fees and went for the appointment yesterday, and was told that the Renuciation process is suspended. Seems like Surrender certificate is enough for OCI application. I sent an email to VFS-Goswell and got the response that HCI authorities have advised them about the change yesterday. I am bit confused.. there is no such information available anywhere else.

[thunderbird0910]

While the HCILondon has not made it very clear. The CGI Birmingham has clearly mentioned now in the renunication section https://cgibirmingham.gov.in/page/display/353

Text from the page.

If an applicant has already been issued a naturalisation certificate/passport by another country, the applicant loses his Indian Citizenship with immediate effect and hence is ineligible to apply for Renunciation of Indian Citizenship under Section 8 of the Indian Citizenship Act.

As per the latest guidelines, Renunciation is no longer a mandatory document for applying OCI