Travelling to India on Indian Passport

[kimgadi]

Friends, I saw multiple threads on the topic but there is no absolute clarity. My situation is as below. My naturalisation application is approved and I will soon be applying for British passport but I have to make a travel to India soon. I may or may not get my British passport before travel. Some of the people have suggested to follow below steps if travelling within 90 days grace period.

1. Use your Indian Passport while travelling from UK to India
2. On return journey, use Indian passport along with BRP at India immigration
3. In UK use UK passport for entry

My questions are as below.

1. As per latest guideline from home office the BRP is to be returned within 5 days of receiving naturalisation so one will not have BRP
2. Assuming that one retains BRP and can safely follow upto step 2 above, how can one enter UK if one doesnt have UK passport yet. Will UK authorities allow entry on the basis of naturalisation certificate
3. If one does return BRP, then can a British Naturalisation Certificate and Indian Passport be used while clearing Indian immigration.

Any first hand recent experience is much appreciated.

[CR001]

Have you attended your ceremony yet?

How will the airline know you have a valid visa (ILR) if you don't have a BRP?

[kimgadi]

CR001: I am attending ceremony next week.Actually I also had that question basically as per new guideline if one submits BRP to home office. So basically only document which can be shown while leaving from India is the British naturalisation certificate. I am not sure if that will be acceptable or not at Indian immigration and UK immigration.

I have following options

1. Option 1: retain my BRP and use that along with Indian Passport at Indian immigration and use Naturalisation certificate at the time of entry to UK

2. Option 2: Surrender BRP and use Naturalisation certificate along with Indian Passport at Indian immigration and use Naturalisation certificate at the time of entry to UK.

3. In case I receive my British Passport before travel then I can use the same at the time of entry to UK.

Please provide your valuable inputs on the same.

[CR001]

A naturalisation certificate is just a piece of paper to an airline. It likely won't be accepted at all.

How long are you going to India for and when do you plan on traveling?

Potential £1000 fine if BRP is not returned.

[kimgadi]

A naturalisation certificate is just a piece of paper to an airline. It likely won't be accepted at all.

How long are you going to India for and when do you plan on traveling?

Potential £1000 fine if BRP is not returned.

Yes so basically travelling with Indian passport + BRP is out of question. Assuming I get a British Passport before travel then I will need Indian Visa and for applying for visa a passport surrender certificate is required. I dont think I have enough time for the same.

I am travelling in 3rd week of Apr-16.

Other option that I can think of is to postpone the citizen ceremony and take the same in May-16 but at the same time I dont want to delay the whole process of ceremony and British Passport

[CR001]

It is your choice. Depends on how risk adverse you are but still unlikely an airline will allow you to fly with just your naturalisation certificate (which could have been printed at home as it is only a piece of paper).

Current passport waiting times appear to be 2-3 weeks.

[kimgadi]

It is your choice. Depends on how risk adverse you are but still unlikely an airline will allow you to fly with just your naturalisation certificate (which could have been printed at home as it is only a piece of paper).

Current passport waiting times appear to be 2-3 weeks.

Thanks CR001. This is what I have decided. Apply for UK passport which will take 2-3 weeks. Apply for Indian passport surrender in parallel which will also r=take 2-3 weeks. Then apply for Indian visa on UK passport...This looks workable

[CR001]

I think you need your British passport to surrender your Indian passport / OCI process. You also have to send your Indian passport with your British Citizenship application.

You have 90 days grace period to travel on your Indian passport from the date you attend your ceremony. So perhaps return BRP, then apply for British passport, travel to India for your holiday and surrender on return etc.

[kimgadi]

I think you need your British passport to surrender your Indian passport / OCI process. You also have to send your Indian passport with your British Citizenship application.

You have 90 days grace period to travel on your Indian passport from the date you attend your ceremony. So perhaps return BRP, then apply for British passport, travel to India for your holiday and surrender on return etc.

I have checked on VFS site and as per that the Surrender process can be initiated even before getting Uk passport. So I will apply for British passport. They will send Indian passport back in few days and then I will apply for Indian Passport Surrender.

Are you suggesting that I get my Uk passport done before travel, enter India using Indian passport and then use British passport for my return back from India?

[CR001]

You would show both passports on departure from India as your British passport is proof of right to enter.

You leave and enter the UK on your British passport.

You enter and leave India on your Indian passport as long as you are within the 90 day grace period.

[kimgadi]

You would show both passports on departure from India as your British passport is proof of right to enter.

You leave and enter the UK on your British passport.

You enter and leave India on your Indian passport as long as you are within the 90 day grace period.

Many thanks CR001. That makes things pretty clear. To keep things simple, In all immigration forms I will mention citizenship as British. your views?

I dont have words to thank you for your prompt and very useful advice.

[CR001]

Makes sense yes as you automatically lose your Indian citizenship when you have attended your ceremony.

[alien.uk]

Cancel your ceremony scheduled next week and book a new ceremony date after your Indian trip , if this is a viable option.
Use your BRP entry into UK after India Vacation - BAU process.

[kimgadi]

Cancel your ceremony scheduled next week and book a new ceremony date after your Indian trip , if this is a viable option.
Use your BRP entry into UK after India Vacation - BAU process.

Thanks alien.uk, Yes that is one of the viable options and I thought about this. Actually as we all know we already have waited so much to get to this stage so do not want to delay rest of the process. Thanks for your suggestion.

[rosdean]

Dear Friends

My two children became British Citizen 3 months ago and they now live in INDIA. Applied their British Passport from INDIA and just received them last week.

They need to travel to UK to visit me in first week of May and I need to apply OCI for them from India.

Can you please advice the process to follow to get OCI and how long does it take. Can we complete the process before May first week.

Thanks
Rosdean

[zunera mahmood]

Hello friends.
As it's was a indian passport Surrender thread ..I thought I would ask my query too. .Sorry to barge into some one else post ..but maybe somebody can share some light ...

My son got his british passport last year ..but unfortunately we were not able to Surrender his indian passport till now. .so it's been a year now since we have the India passport ...
Plz can anyone tell me what's the procedure and how to do it ...

Thanks and regards
Zunera

[kimgadi]

You can see the details on below link

http://www.vfsglobal.com/India/UK/Surrender.html

Basically you have to fill required forms and book an appointment with your nearest VFS centre,

[Manka10]

You can keep the Indian passport and also use it to travel to India for up to 3 months after naturalisation without attracting any penalties

You need a copy of British passport to surrender the Indian passport so surrender process cannot be initiated before applying and acquiring a British passport

Indian passport surrender only takes a few days and you can have the surrender certificate in a week's time max

OCI application takes 3-4 weeks from start to finish

[tamilmaran]

I too suggest to postpone your ceremony which is scheduled next week and book a new ceremony date after your Indian trip , In my opinion this option would be the best rather than showing two passports .

[kimgadi]

Friends,

This is how I went about to sort out my India travel in a clean, non complicated way. I am sure this will benefit a number of forum members

My naturalisation ceremony was planned for 16-Mar-16 and I had to travel to India on 22-Apr-16. There were multiple options

1. Cancel naturalisation ceremony and follow normal process, travel on Indian passport with BRP card
2. Book a private ceremony for naturalisation, apply for British Passport ASAP, Surrender Indian passport and try to get OCI card before travel
3. Book a private ceremony for naturalisation, apply for British Passport ASAP apply for Indian visa
4. Go for group ceremony for naturalisation and travel to India on Indian passport as Indian government allows to travel on Indian passport for a grace period of 90 days

After considering various suggestions from the form member, this is what I did

1. Attended group ceremony on 16-Mar-16 as I didnt want to pay £120 for private ceremony for I and my wife. having already burnt a lot of money in the ILR/Naturalisation process
2. Applied for British Passport immediately after naturalisation, applied online, it was quick and convenient
3. Got Indian passport and naturalisation certificate back in about one week.
4. Applied for surrender of Indian passport after receiving the passport and naturalisation certifcate back from HM office. It is alright to apply for surrender of Indian passport even before you receive your British passport
5. Kept on checking with HM office about booking passport interview, they will let you book appointment once your passport application has reached certain level of validation and they only know about that
6. Booked appointment well in advance of receiving interview letter, my interview letter was received in about 10 days after date it was issued
7. Got British passport in about a total of 2.5 weeks
8. Applied for online e-visa for India. This was super quick, received visa in less than 24 hours in my email, didnt have to step out from home all online
9. Received my Indian passport surrender certificate back after I had already received Indian visa.

Thanks for advice from foum members, especial thanks to CR001 which helped me to take decisions. The 90 days grace period is bit unclear and when I checked with Indian consulate mentioned that it is only applicable to people who have not yet received their British Passport, if one has a British passport then a visa should be secured for India. Also there was a lot of ambiguity around how to enter UK if I had used Indian passport + BRP route as UK government might not recognise BRP after naturalisation.

I hope above helps. any specific queires, happy to answer

Cheers

[cfdman]

Thats probably the cleanest way to deal, though not the least expensive.

The least-expensive would have been postponing your ceremony until you complete the trip, thus retain the Indian passport + BRP whilst travelling. Would have saved you few £'s in applying for Indian e-Visa.

Neverthless, what you did seems quite clean and safe.
I would be wary of carrying both Indian and British passport, whilst travelling to India even within the 90 days grace period.

[TargetTier1]

Thanks for the useful info.

Friends,

This is how I went about to sort out my India travel in a clean, non complicated way. I am sure this will benefit a number of forum members

My naturalisation ceremony was planned for 16-Mar-16 and I had to travel to India on 22-Apr-16. There were multiple options

1. Cancel naturalisation ceremony and follow normal process, travel on Indian passport with BRP card
2. Book a private ceremony for naturalisation, apply for British Passport ASAP, Surrender Indian passport and try to get OCI card before travel
3. Book a private ceremony for naturalisation, apply for British Passport ASAP apply for Indian visa
4. Go for group ceremony for naturalisation and travel to India on Indian passport as Indian government allows to travel on Indian passport for a grace period of 90 days

After considering various suggestions from the form member, this is what I did

1. Attended group ceremony on 16-Mar-16 as I didnt want to pay £120 for private ceremony for I and my wife. having already burnt a lot of money in the ILR/Naturalisation process
2. Applied for British Passport immediately after naturalisation, applied online, it was quick and convenient
3. Got Indian passport and naturalisation certificate back in about one week.
4. Applied for surrender of Indian passport after receiving the passport and naturalisation certifcate back from HM office. It is alright to apply for surrender of Indian passport even before you receive your British passport
5. Kept on checking with HM office about booking passport interview, they will let you book appointment once your passport application has reached certain level of validation and they only know about that
6. Booked appointment well in advance of receiving interview letter, my interview letter was received in about 10 days after date it was issued
7. Got British passport in about a total of 2.5 weeks
8. Applied for online e-visa for India. This was super quick, received visa in less than 24 hours in my email, didnt have to step out from home all online
9. Received my Indian passport surrender certificate back after I had already received Indian visa.

Thanks for advice from foum members, especial thanks to CR001 which helped me to take decisions. The 90 days grace period is bit unclear and when I checked with Indian consulate mentioned that it is only applicable to people who have not yet received their British Passport, if one has a British passport then a visa should be secured for India. Also there was a lot of ambiguity around how to enter UK if I had used Indian passport + BRP route as UK government might not recognise BRP after naturalisation.

I hope above helps. any specific queires, happy to answer

Cheers

[kimgadi]

Thats probably the cleanest way to deal, though not the least expensive.

The least-expensive would have been postponing your ceremony until you complete the trip, thus retain the Indian passport + BRP whilst travelling. Would have saved you few £'s in applying for Indian e-Visa.

Neverthless, what you did seems quite clean and safe.
I would be wary of carrying both Indian and British passport, whilst travelling to India even within the 90 days grace period.

you are right cfdman, but actually the cost of visa is just £40 for one month single visa, which is not insignificant but is very less as compared to what we paid to UKBA. In my case it is an official visit so my company should be able to reimburse for the same. Also I was not very keen to postpone the oath ceremony considering we already waiting so long to reach this stage.

[Raj5]

You would show both passports on departure from India as your British passport is proof of right to enter.

You leave and enter the UK on your British passport.

You enter and leave India on your Indian passport as long as you are within the 90 day grace period.

Thank you for very useful information. I received naturalization certificate on the 19th July, so I take it for 90 days from the 19th July I can use my Indian passport for going to India and I do not need an Indian visa for this 90 day period. All I need to to is keep my British passport and the Indian passport with me. If Indian authorities at the Indian passport ask why there is no stamp on my Indian passport, then I show them my naturalization certificate and the British passport. Please confirm if it would be a right way to go down to.

[worldpeace]

Hi,

We have got our Citizenship approval letters yesterday, but need to go to India twice in November end and hence wanted to explore if postponing the ceremony if we could make use of the 90 days grace period.
If we attend the ceremony around 10th of September, we get till Dec 1st week at least free access to Indian without any Visa or OCI. The OCI process might take 4 months of time or more, so we wanted to start that in Dec after we return.

Would it be sensible to go this way?

Could someone please clarify if the Grace period of 90 days allows a single visit to India, or would it be a multiple entry path for that duration?

Thanks