Indian Consulate’s road show in Adelaide

The Indian Consulate and VFS are making efforts to help the Indian community understand visa and OCI application processes better

BY LP AYER

The Indian Consulate-VFS road show came to Adelaide in mid June as part of their country-wide campaign to help members of Indian community understand the processes involved in application for Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and various visa categories, to reduce both delays and complaints.

The caravan had already visited other

The event, which was publicised by the Indian Association on their website, was attended by 60-odd people – a healthy turnout by Adelaide standards major cities and the ‘Adelaide Camp’, as they called it, was the fourth in the series of workshops. The ‘campers’ included Indian Consul General in Sydney Amit Dasgupta, and Australia’s VFS chief Loren D’souza. The event, which was publicised by the Indian Association on their website, was attended by 60-odd people, a healthy turnout by Adelaide standards.

Adelaide is a medium volume centre for VFS. In non-peak times they process around 40 applications a day. This number rises two or three-fold during peak times. It is a fairly full day’s work for Adelaide’s small staff, however with additional requirements of a police clearance and checking of Indian drivers’ licence, their workload is likely to increase.

After the Indian Association president Vikram Madan welcomed the visitors, Amit Dasgupta outlined that the session would cover three areas: various visa categories, emergency visa issue and OCI applications.

An overhead demonstration of the OCI procedures was interspersed with a flood of questions from the participants.

Mr. D’souza, addressing the questions, pointed out that not presenting all the required documents at the first instance and also not crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s on every document were the main reasons for most processing delays. Here are some other tips that came out of this workshop which will be of help to all visa and OCI applicants:

• Applications can only be made online.

• People who do not have computer literacy or access might need help.

• The applicant should provide every document on the checklist and fill in details exactly as they are in the original documents even if there are minor discrepancies.

• Since the applicants’ data are processed at the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in Delhi, with VFS acting only as a gatekeeper, it is vital that all the data are exactly copied as they are in the source documents.

• OCI status is issued only to persons of Indian origin after they acquire overseas citizenship.

• Once one obtains an overseas citizenship, the Indian passport should be surrendered as soon as possible. Not surrendering within three years entails a fine of $390 and a further $390 every subsequent year.

• Surrendering one’s passport after becoming an overseas citizen is imperative as India does not recognise dual citizenship.

• If one needs to make an emergency visit to India after getting foreign citizenship but before obtaining an overseas passport, he/she needs to seek help from that country’s authority and only then Indian consulate can issue an emergency visa.

• Photos for OCI forms and visas must be 2 x 2 inch size (this may vary slightly from Australian passport requirements). Mr. Dasgupta declined any demand for

Mr. D’souza pointed out that not presenting all the required documents at the first instance and also not crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s on every document were the main reasons for most processing delays refund of difference in higher OCI fees paid by earlier applicants. However, he said that the fees will be further reduced from July 1, thanks to the strong Aussie dollar. Another welcome news is that every visa application now has a turn-around time of three days. Mr. Madan highlighted the concerns raised by members of the community over the need to use 1900 number for phone inquiries. Loren pointed out that cost for similar services from other embassies were much higher. He added the ‘metre’ would start ticking only when their staff started answering.

Of the three segments which were supposed to be covered, only the OCI was dealt with as the session went over time. Unlike the Canberra event, which was widely covered in the November issue of Indian Link, Adelaide was a modest affair. Still many valid questions came up during the session and a good deal of useful information was dispensed.