Now, I am through the first two steps so updating the post with Step 1 and 2, with my personal experience:
Step 1: Surrender of Indian Passport
1. Register online here -
https://portal3.passportindia.gov.in/Online/index.html
2. Complete and Submit the application
3. Printout the completed form
4. Visit Application Processing Centre - appointment with VFS with the below documents (documents must be in the order as given here
https://visa.vfsglobal.com/one-pager/in ... CKLIST.pdf and all the photocopies must be self attested):
- Appointment Letter confirmation
- Online Application form (Applicant should sign in the box provided under the photograph on the front page and at the end of the application.
- Indian Passport Original - Will be Retained and it will be cancelled and delivered along with the passport surrender certificate. Pay for secure delivery at the VFS counter or give Royal Mail return envelope?
- Indian Passport photocopy – Photo page, address page and all the used pages and must be self-attested (all Indian passports)
- Naturalisation Certificate Original - Checked and returned at the VFS counter
- Naturalisation Certificate photocopy - self-attested
- British Passport Original - Checked and returned at the VFS counter
- British Passport photocopy – Main page only self-attested
OR A declaration from the applicant stating “My UK passport is under process” [If the applicant’s British (or foreign) passport is under process].
- UK address proof (do they need it? Has anyone been asked for this? unsure step?
- Online payment receipt if paid online. Never seen anyone being asked? Anyone can confirm please??
Step 2: Renunciation of Indian Citizenship
1. Complete the online form here -
https://indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in/Renounce
2. Upload required documents - India Passport (current and any old, all in one document), and address proof.
3. Pay the required fee
4. Book an appointment with nearby India Mission to sign the declaration form / sign the form for witnessing
5. You are required to submit your signed form and relevant documents at a VFS office. You don't need an appointment with VFS to submit the form and documents if doing on the same day. If you are not submitting documents on the same day then you need to take an appointment and then submit the signed form and documents.
Documents required for Renunciation application (submitting at VFS and make sure all the photocopies are self attested):
1. Appointment confirmation (the one you needed for consulate office)
2. Signed form
3. 2"x2" photo (take two, just in case)
4. Photocopies of the Front and back pages of all Indian passports you have (no need of the internal pages for this one)
5. Naturalisation certificate (original to show and photocopy to submit)
6. Foreign passport (original to show and photocopy of front page to submit (only the page with your details one)
7. UK address proof
8. Surrender certificate (I did not have it as I did both step 1 and 2 together, but in general you will have it after step 1)
9. Payment receipt
10. Renunciation Declaration Form (
https://visa.vfsglobal.com/one-pager/in ... ration.pdf)
Note 1 - Step 1 and Step 2 - Online forms can be done together but Step 1 certificate must be attained before going to Step 2 appointment.
Note 2 - If you have completed step 1 and have received the surrender certificate, you can fill the OCI forms, upload the surrender certificate and then take appointment for step 2 with the consulate office, and also take one appointment with vfs to submit OCI application. You can then submit both step 2 and step 3 documents altogether in the same appointment. This is what I was told by the VFS staff.
Note 3 - If you are submitting more than one candidate's documents then each candidate should have one copy of the appointment letter with their documents, even if you have taken appointment as a family, otherwise VFS will charge 50p per page photocopy charge to do it for you. I only took one copy for the family appointment, but VFS asked one copy for each candidate and charged me for photocopying it to put with each applicant's document sets.
Note 4 - The consulate services work on 'as it come', which mean, once the consulate or their PA has enough applications to sign, they will sign and stamp them in bulk. assume 1 to 2 hours for the entire process. They will collect your passports, form and if any other document required and then will ask you to wait. Once they have enough applications, they will be signed and stamped quickly and returned to you. They will ask you to go to VFS office to drop your documents. In VFS office, there will be a queue as lot of people will be coming from consulate office to drop off (without appointment). Expect it to be couple of hours process again but may be quicker if VFS has enough staff. So if you are taking another appointment for the same day at VFS, consider these timings. Generally, consulate office finishes everything by 12 noon.
Note 5 - You can take Royal Mail return postage but VFS will ask you to sign a declaration for each application that they will not be responsible for anything once the documents are dispatched from their office and we will then need to liaise with Royal Mail for any delays or lost parcels. If you take their courier service then they will do next day service. Royal mail cost for each postage is £9 and VFS cost is £15 (at the time of writing this). You can choose which one to go for. I took my own Royal Mail return postages for all of us.
I am now waiting for surrender certificate which is required for Step 3. Once I am through it, I will update the thread with my experience.
positiveme wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 10:49 am
UPDATED link for renouncing website:
positiveme wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 1:03 pm
Hi all
Could I please use your expertise to check if I got this right, to do the whole process correctly and rightly, please?
I am now working on surrendering Indian passport, renounce the Indian citizenship and then go for OCI. After reading various posts here, I have found the below process/steps to follow. If you could please update/correct or edit these from your knowledge, and experience, this will help me and anyone who needs it in future, from one single post than many to go through.
Step 1: Surrender of Indian Passport
1. Register online here -
https://portal3.passportindia.gov.in/Online/index.html
2. Complete and Submit the application
3. Printout the completed form
4. Visit Application Processing Centre - appointment with VFS with the below documents (documents must be in the order as given here
https://visa.vfsglobal.com/one-pager/in ... CKLIST.pdf):
- Appointment Letter confirmation
- Online Application form (Applicant should sign in the box provided under the photograph on the front page and at the end of the application.
- Indian Passport Original - Will be Retained and it will be cancelled and delivered along with the passport surrender certificate. Pay for secure delivery at the VFS counter or give Royal Mail return envelope?
- Indian Passport photocopy – Photo page, address page and all the used pages and must be self-attested (only current passport)
- Naturalisation Certificate Original - Checked and returned at the VFS counter
- Naturalisation Certificate photocopy - self-attested
- British Passport Original - Checked and returned at the VFS counter
- British Passport photocopy – Main page only self-attested
OR A declaration from the applicant stating “My UK passport is under process” [If the applicant’s British (or foreign) passport is under process].
- UK address proof (do they need it? Has anyone been asked for this? unsure step?
- Online payment receipt if paid online. Never seen anyone being asked? Anyone can confirm please??
Step 2: Renunciation of Indian Citizenship
1. Complete the online form here -
https://indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in/Renounce
2. Upload required documents - India Passport, address proof (have I missed anything?)
3. Pay the required fee
4. Book an appointment with nearby India Mission to sign the declaration form / sign the form for witnessing
5. Then book an appointment with VFS to submit the form for processing Renunciation Certificate.
Note - Step 1 and Step 2 - Online forms can be done together but Step 1 certificate must be attained before going to Step 2 appointment.
Step 3: OCI
1. Follow OCI steps (I will update once I have collected them all), after getting certificate from Step 2.
2. If needs to travel to India before getting OCI, one can get eVisa by using certificate from Step 1.
Many Thanks in advance and for all the info that is already provided on this wonderful forum.