How to surrender when passport is lost?

[ppothuraju]

It looks like my son Indian passport is now missing. IPS says it posted, Royal Mail have no idea where it is. We received only this birth certificate back, not passport. Can't understand why IPS send each evidence separately.

Experts, can I know what to do now? Do I need to register at police the lost of passport? What evidence should be provided to surrender certificate and later for OCI in lost passport scenario.

Thanks.

[ban.s]

Can't understand why IPS send each evidence separately.

Did IPS confirm that passport and birth certificates were sent separately?
Did you opt for secure delivery or normal delivery?

[ppothuraju]

Can't understand why IPS send each evidence separately.

Did IPS confirm that passport and birth certificates were sent separately?
Did you opt for secure delivery or normal delivery?

When I first called IPS on this, they said sometimes they do sent documents separetly and asked to wait for another 3 more days. After 3 days when I called they confirmed me the date documents are posted and asked to enquire with PO. PO have a stock answer if they receive it they will deliver to us.

I don't think I opted for any delivery type, may be I missed it.

[ban.s]

If you have received a posting reference from IPS, then you can use that reference to make a police report. Police however may ask you to wait for a certain period before they consider the mail as "lost" as opposed to mail in "transit"/"awaiting delivery".

For surrender certificate one must surrender a passport! As you don't have a passport, you need to first report a loss of passport to HCI. Your case is unique as you won't be needing a duplicate passport. There is no published procedure for cases like yours. So I would suggest you to contact HCI directly and ask for specific advice.

[ppothuraju]

Further update in my case, I am still chasing IPS and Royal Mail on missing passport. None of them answering properly, started official complaint process.

Meanwhile, unable to reach London or Birmingham Indian embassy niether through email or telephone. However VFS customer care replied back. They replied saying that I can declare a NOTRY PUBLIC that passport is lost in transition. However its upto consulate to consider the NOTRY PUBLIC or not . No information on any consulate website regarding this.

They advised to log a complaint with police and provide reference number. These days police are not registering the loss passport complaints, however the police gave me a calling number on their letter head so that consulate can call them (looks to be ok as per HCL website).

We are planning to travel India, and time is less so can't wait for IPS or Royal mail to complete the complaint process. Hence I am planning to apply for Surrender certificate on Wednesday with NOTRY PUBLIC, figures crossed.

[ppothuraju]

To update my case, all my family applied together for Surrender Certificate on 25/04/2013. Excluding my elder one whose passport is lost we all received our SC on 08/05/2013 [9-10 woring days].

We are stilling waiting for a reponse on my son's case. Embassy does not reply and VFS is asking to wait until 3 weeks before quering on status.

[ppothuraju]

Many days have been passed by, all things have now been fine with us. But just posting this message as this may help someone.

One fine day after 47 days for first applying for surrender certificate we recevied our son's surrender certificate. This is different from normal surrender certifcate. The certificate is hand written and clearly states that the passport is deemed to be lost.

However, the twist is the handwritten certificate have mis-spelled the surname which took another week to be corrected and re-issued once applied again (NO fee for this) indicating the mistake.

We took visiting visa for him to visit India. We are back now and applying for this OCI.

So the Moral of the story is:
1. You do get Surrender Certificate when your passport is lost by providing required documentation.
2. It takes more time than regular timescales
3. The certificate will be different from that of normal surrender certificate and will be hand-written (normal certificate is computer output).