Ceremony + British Passport and OCI Process

[wpongal]

Friends

I am not sure if this is the forum for my new question

a. Upon ceremony for citizenship ; I apply for british passport ( 6-8 weeks timeline)
b. Surrender the BRP
c. Upon successful british passport application - what if I am not in a position to acquire OCI ( which is again 6 - 8 weeks )? - Can I just surrender my indian passport to the indian embassy?

Thanks
wpongal

[alien.uk]

Hi Wpongal - Can you give more details of what is your query here? Are you asking if this is the step wise process to get OCI?

For OCI related queries you may want to check

http://www.immigrationboards.com/other-countries/

[tamilmaran]

[quote="wpongal"]Friends

I am not sure if this is the forum for my new question

a. Upon ceremony for citizenship ; I apply for british passport ( 6-8 weeks timeline)
b. Surrender the BRP
c. Upon successful british passport application - what if I am not in a position to acquire OCI ( which is again 6 - 8 weeks )? - Can I just surrender my indian passport to the indian embassy?

Thanks
wpongal[/quote

As for as my understating goes....
a) On the day of ceremony, you get your certificate of Naturalization.
b) Surender the BRP with in 5 days (failing will result in fines upto £1000 )
c) Apply for British passport
d) Surrender your Indian passport through VFS and get certificate
e) Apply for OCI through VFS with the Passport surrender certificate and your new passport.

I cant find any reason , why cant you acquire your OCI.....

Hope seniors and moderators add more info to this thread.

[wpongal]

Hi,

Thanks

My question really is ..

a. when shall i be in a state where i have no "british passport" or "indian passport"
- during passport surrender or during OCI process or both?
this is because i may have to plan my travels accordingly.

b. is it compulsary to surrender the indian passport after the british passport is acquired?

Many thanks ,
wpongal

[CR001]

I have, again, moved your post to the 'other countries' forum as your questions seems to be specific to the OCI and Indian passport surrendering process.

[secret.simon]

a. when shall i be in a state where i have no "british passport" or "indian passport"
- during passport surrender or during OCI process or both?
this is because i may have to plan my travels accordingly.

When you attend the citizenship ceremony, you become a British citizen, according to British law and your Indian citizenship ceases, as per Indian law.

Indian law allows you to travel upto 90 days after the date of naturalisation on your Indian passport, even though you are no longer an Indian citizen. Any further travel beyond 90 days of naturalisation is subject to a fine when you surrender your Indian passport.

You must surrender your Indian passport within three years of naturalisation or be subject to a fine at the time of surrender.

Your ILR becomes invalid when you become a British citizen and you must surrender your BRP within five days of your citizenship ceremony or risk a £1000 fine.

So, although your Indian passport is valid, your BRP is invalidated and if you were to leave the UK, you may have issues with reentering.

You can apply for a British passport immediately after getting the naturalisation certificate and a passport application typically takes between 4-6 weeks.

b. is it compulsary to surrender the indian passport after the british passport is acquired?

A surrender certificate is a pre-requisite for applying for OCI or an X-visa. So, it is pretty much a pre-requisite for ever revisiting India. Of course, if you have no plans to revisit India in this lifetime, nothing in British law forces you to surrender your Indian passport.

To summarise, the whole process looks something like this;
Naturalisation ceremony > Return BRP > British passport application > passport interview > receive British passport > Surrender Indian passport > Get surrender certificate > Apply for OCI.