Change of Nationality

[sentient]

Hi all,

I applied for HSMP in the beginning of October 2004, stated my nationality as Indian and sent a photocopy of my Indian passport. In about a month from now I will become an Australian citizen and will have to give up my Indian passport and apply for dual citizenship in India (which can take about 4-5 months and entails getting a new 'Overseas Indian' passport).

My question is should I wait until (if and when) I get an approval letter and explain the situation to the high commission here in Australia or inform the HO about this. I am afraid that if I create any complications it will delay my application further.

Any ideas?

[Vayu]

I don't think it will be a problem. The application for HSMP will be based on you as a person and the skills that you possess, not your nationality. Being a certain nationality is not a criteria of the HSMP, unlike other type of UK visas (eg Working Holiday Visa). I can't see how a change of nationality will affect the overall merit of the application.

As such, if you change nationality during the process, I think it will be a matter of simply contacting the British HC in Canberra (if your application for HSMP has been approved), or contacting the Home Office in the UK (if your application is still being processed) notifying them of your change of circumstance.

Given the current waiting times for HSMP, it seems that you will be getting your Australian nationality before the your HSMP is even considered. So the second you get your hands on your Australian PP (1 month from now+ 10 days for Australian PP processing time) you should send off a fax of a copy of the Australian PP to the Home Office accompanying it with a letter saying that your nationality status has changed and that you wish to apply for the HSMP as an Australian citizen.

In my opinion, given that you Indian Citizenship status will be in limbo until your dual nationality is confirmed, it will be best for the HSMP to be stamped into your soon-to-be Australian PP.

[f2k]

i dont think you have to inform them just yet. thing is i still believe that ones nationality has no influence on whether your application will be successful or not, i could be wrong and you might find that they 'favour'some nationalities more than others.

[Ajay Kumar Singh]

Better contact HO either by calling them, or thru e-mail.

Off Topic: I thought that dual citizenship was implement as soon as it was announced by Atalji and his team, but later investigating more into this I found that it's still not implemented? I checked the Indian HC London website and they also write that this is still not implemented.
http://hcilondon.net/hciserv/FAQIndex?s ... 20Wing#142
Could you enlighten us when it was implemented ?
P.S i'm googling it

[sentient]

I think I will fax a letter to the HO when this happens. I don't think it influences the application but I am worried about the HSMP approval letter being for a certain person of a certain nationality (e.g. they can get your reference number from your name and nationality), so on balance it makes sense to let them know. Besides I don't think they could delay processing my application any more than they have

Thanks for your replies. By the way India has suspended dual citizenship registration: http://www.indianconsulatesydney.org/Pr ... Scheme.pdf

Another bureaucracy, another 300 dollars, another wait...