Travelling to India after Naturalisation with Indian passpor

[LandRover]

Hi, I have booked my citizenship ceremony next week. I need to travel to India in the 3rd week of November for my brother’s wedding with a short notice. Initially I had a thought of postponing my citizenship ceremony, but next available date is some where in January 2013. So I have decided to go ahead with the ceremony.

My question is can I travel to India with Indian passport after taking naturalisation certificate? I want to apply for the British passport when I come back. Please advice.

Many thanks,

[Gyfrinachgar]

My question is can I travel to India with Indian passport after taking naturalisation certificate? I want to apply for the British passport when I come back.

As far as I know the Indian governement doesn't allow dual citizenships, so technically you loose it when you become a British. However, I doubt that the British government updates the Indian government about the date you take your ceremony. So shortly after the ceremony, the Indian border authorities simply have no way of knowing that you have received the certificate. Therefore, I am pretty sure you are fine. I would personally take the chance and travel, but then again, I am not an expert on that.

[nmehta]

I think there is a 3 months grace period from the date of naturalisation in which you can travel to India on Indian passport. After this period they would expect you to surrender Indian Passport.

But again this is what I vaguely recollect reading from a previous thread in this forum. You will have to get this confirmed or just search the forum - I am sure this has been discussed previously.

[vij_sp_1980]

The Government of India has prescribed imposition of penalty on a graded scale, depending on the number of trips made on the Indian passport, renewal of Indian passport after acquiring foreign nationality and Retention of Indian Passport for more than 3 years after acquiring foreign nationality, for the violation of Passport Rules ranging from a minimum of £145 up to a maximum of £1088

http://hcilondon.in/renunciation.php

[manyaonisland]

there are many threads here on this very forum which has this topic discussed in lengths and breadths. for example here

you do not even have to do the search (obviously you can) as the titles of these threads reflect what is being discussed. Please scroll through the latest discussions and you will get all your answers.

[LandRover]

Thank you all for your valuable suggestions.

[samar0001]

I found this from one of the thread which clearly puts you in danger.

I applied for Citizenship and it was approved and I attended my ceremony in mid June. I had to travel back to my country at the start of July so I didn't have enough time to apply for my British Passport. Therefore I travelled with my country passport with my ILR. When I returned, I filled in a landing card just as before and went through passport control. They looked on the screen and asked why I was travelling on my ILR when I was a British Citizen. I told then I was not aware that this was a problem, but they held me there for over 15 minutes going off to check my passport etc.

Just be careful with using this option to re enter the UK as it does seem to cause border control some concern.

[umittal]

Hi Friends

I am on ILR and going to apply for Naturalization at council office in Swindon on 28th July(4 days from now). I will need to travel to India in Sept 2014 for a week.

Looking at Naturalization waiting times I don't think I will have my Naturalization certificate by then as its taking 2-3 months.

Now my question is

A) If my certificate is not there by then am I subjected to any restriction because I have made the application?
B) If my certificate do arrive by then what is the procedure I should follow for traveling to India?
C) I have gone through the procedure discussed to travel in this forum but all concerned had BP. In case you only have NC and not BP and are within 3 months of NC what procedure should be followed?
D) Is ILR valid after NC?
E) From when Grace period is calculated? i.e When you make your NC application or the day you receive your NC after ceremony?
F) How long it takes to get BP after NC?

Regards
umittal

[akash08]

You are not British citizen till you attend the ceremony and no certificate before that.

Attending ceremony is in your own hand, you can decide when you do that within 90 days of receiving approval.

So, not sure what is your confusion?

You are only going for a week.if there is not enough time to get BP and there wont be, just do not attend the ceremony till you come back.

Btw you will not get your approval before you go to India anyway.