Guidance on Indian passport surrender and OCI

[kratho11]

Hi,

I've recently completed my British Citizenhip and attending ceremony in a week's time.
However my wife is Indian and is working in Govt job in india and also im relocating to India due to family reason in Oct/November 2025 but managed to continue my job with my company in India (internal transfer).

Hence looking for some guidance on below:

1. Can you do surrender of indian passport and apply for oci from India
2. If yes to point 1, then i will need a business visa or tourist visa ?
3. if no, then is it better to surrender india passport in UK and apply for OCI from India
4. When surrendering indian passport, i can see foreign passport is not mandatory. Can i still apply if i dont have british passport ? is this too risky ?
5. Can OCI application be rejected ? if yes, under what curcumstances ?
6. We dont have kids yet, but when we do have, will they have the option to apply for indian or british passport. Am i correct ?
7. Are there any other challenges you can foresee or any provide guidance on ?

Any help or guidance on above would be really appreciated.
Thanks.

[sathyauk]

Hi,

I've recently completed my British Citizenhip and attending ceremony in a week's time.
However my wife is Indian and is working in Govt job in india and also im relocating to India due to family reason in Oct/November 2025 but managed to continue my job with my company in India (internal transfer).

Hence looking for some guidance on below:

1. Can you do surrender of indian passport and apply for oci from IndiaYes you can but process may take time
2. If yes to point 1, then i will need a business visa or tourist visa ?You need business visa or work visa
3. if no, then is it better to surrender india passport in UK and apply for OCI from IndiaBest option to surrender and get OCI in UK
4. When surrendering indian passport, i can see foreign passport is not mandatory. Can i still apply if i dont have british passport ? is this too risky ? When applying for british passport you need Indian passport for identification and while surrendering Indian passport you need british passport
5. Can OCI application be rejected ? if yes, under what curcumstances ? it will not be rejected, if you provide all the relevant information correctly
6. We dont have kids yet, but when we do have, will they have the option to apply for indian or british passport. Am i correct ?Your kids will be british by birth. Both parents need to Indian citizen for kids to be Indian
7. Are there any other challenges you can foresee or any provide guidance on ? The process for surredering and OCI is simple

Any help or guidance on above would be really appreciated.
Thanks.

[kratho11]

Thanks for the feedback @sathyauk.

Regarding point 6, from what I've also researched is

1. If one of the parent is indian and the other is a legal resident then child born in Indian will be indian. Does this hold true ?
2.if yes to point 1, then do we need to do anything specific to register them as indian citizen
3. If yes to point 1, then in future they could renounce indian citizenship before they turn 18 and become British citizen.

Thanks in advance

[secret.simon]

To build on the answer above about the citizenship of the children, children born to you in India will be both British citizens by descent and Indian citizens automatically because one of the parents is Indian and the child is born in India. They would then have to choose at the age of 18 which citizenship they wish to retain.

However,
(a) Note that the children born to you in India will be British citizens by descent and their children (your grandchildren) born outside the UK will not be British citizens automatically. For your grandchildren to be born British citizens, they (your grandchildren) would need to be born in the UK.

British citizenship can be passed on automatically only one generation outside the UK.

(b) To the best of my knowledge (and I don't know if Indian law has changed on this point), if your children acquire a British passport, their Indian citizenship is revoked.

What they can have is an Indian passport with a CoE-RoA (Certificate of Entitlement-Right of Abode) stamped into it. But that would also mean that their status when traveling outside the UK and India is that of a solely Indian citizen and they will not benefit from the visa-free status of a British citizen.

Alternatively of course, they can live in India as a solely British citizen with OCI.