Indian Samurai इंडियन सामुराई

After ten years of adventures visa-related, the time to end this story of annual meetings, endless trips, rule changes, frustration, had finally come. In short, I completed in August two years of marriage, which gave me the right to apply to become an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), some kind of lifelong visa allowing me to live and work in India. Lifelong if you please! Well, at least as long as my marriage stands. Because it is the fact that I am married to an Indian person that gave (earned??!) me the right to this illustrious honor.

To put it simply, after two years of marriage, I could finally apply for an OCI. You know me, I was well ready on the D-Day – i.e. the day of my anniversary. But I had to wait till I had a few hours free in my calendar to go to the Foreign Registration Office in Delhi six days later. With the following papers (mentioned in this document / more information on the official website, where we also need to apply and upload documents):

1. My passport (with my current visa and my registration to the FRRO) / also to be uploaded on the site
2. My husband's passport / also to be uploaded on the site
3. Our marriage certificate / also to be uploaded on the site
4. A photo of myself and one of my signature / also to be uploaded on the site
5. Our lease (not mentioned, but just in case, and it proved required)
6. An 'indemnity bond' certified by a notary with a 100-rupee stamp (also not mentioned but I had often heard about it, so just in case, and by the way they kept it) / see an example of this document here
   
7. A DD (Demand Draft) of 15,000 rupees to be drawn at 'Pay and Accounts Officer (Secretariat), Ministry of Home Affairs' payable at New Delhi
8. The print-out of the form we have to fill up online

I will not spend time on how the office made fun of me when he checked my marriage date and my filing date – ‘you are not wasting time’! I’m not THAT eager to get the OCI, you see, it’s not the Holy Grail or anything, but I have heard that it takes more than three months and my visa expires in five and frankly if I could avoid going back to the Gurgaon FRRO...

When he was done laughing, he, in all seriousness, informed be about a (not so) funny rule: one must have lived for more than eight months in a city to apply (not six or twelve, no, eight). Obviously, this is mentioned nowhere on the site and obviously, I am far from it, having three months to complete. 24 months that I have been waiting and this jocker comes up with this crazy rule! I could cry. Maybe that’s why, seeing my face – or maybe I got a bit upset and yelling and shouting, I can’t remember – the officer accepted my file not without warning me “if it is rejected it won't be my fault”.

I then had to upload the passport of my husband under the ‘Proof of Indian Citizenship’. And finally I leave with a file number in my pocket!

But it would have been too easy wouldn’t it?

Two weeks later I get an email asking me to resubmit my marriage certificate. And when I comply, they explain to me that the words ‘marriage certificate registered under Special Marriage Act, 1954’ are missing on my certificate made in Mumbai. And then, the fun part begins.

a. We go to the Marriage Court of Gurgaon to register our marriage again. It’s illegal.

b. We try to find an agent who could get our certificate modified in Mumbai. The Bandra court replies that it is the standard certificate there and they won't change it. But maybe we can have them sign an affidavit. Except that the guy who married us has just be transferred and his replacement is on leave. And on that the agent stops picking up the phone.

c. We are still left with the option to re-register our marriage by getting married again, as per lawyers’ advice. But not in Gurgaon because the system has changed and one can no longer corrupt them. No, we would have to go to Ghaziabad and go take pictures at the temple and pay 15 000 rupees. I would do it for the experience you can imagine, except that it seemed a little too crazy... And I could really picture the scene where my marriage would be registered in 2016 and not in 2014 and I would have to wait another two years to apply (even though I was assured that antedating the document would not be a problem).

d. In despair, I thought I would send my favorite Indian plead our case in Mumbai.

e. And then finally, after three months of efforts and stress, I gave up. They can go to hell with their OCI...

Two days later, I'm not lying, I received a message stating that my application was approved and I had to send a new DD (the former having expired). I could not believe it. But the next day an officer showed up at my place – a normal procedure where they check that I live here where I say I live. And three days later I was officially an (Overseas) Indian Citizen!

If you are a foreigner holding an employment visa and working in Gurgaon, this message is for you!

How to get your registration in 4 steps (and only one trip).

First of all you need to know that you have to register yourself, within 15 days of arrival. If not you may (or may not) have to pay a fine.

To register yourself, you need to go to Mini-Secretariat near Rajiv Chowk, in Gurgaon. Go there early. It opens a 9:30 and they take papers up till 1 PM but you may want to be there at 9. But be careful, don’t go just like that!

1. Go on this website and fill up the form: http://indianfrro.gov.in/frro/

Have the following documents ready for upload (when you finish with the form):

• Photo
• Lease agreement (or any address proof)
• Visa
• Passport
• Contract, letter of employment (stating the date of starting and finishing – so you need to add one letter with these dates in case your contract does not have an end)
• Request letter on letter head: Request letter.doc
  
• Undertaking letter on letter head: Undertaking.docx
  

2. Then you will get an appointment and you need to go on that day (or any later day) (yourself) with:

• 2 prints of the form
• 2 sets of all the above mentioned documents
• 4 photographs (as per their specifications)
• PLUS these 2 certificates (of monthly: MONTHLY SALARY CERTIFICATE .pdf and yearly salary breakup: ANNUAL SALARY CERTIFICATE_0.pdf)
  

3. Once you are there, they will tell you to make a payment (I had to pay 1,990 rupees).

Now here is how you make the payment: 

Practically, you go out of the building, ask for an internet café, cross the ward where all the lawyers sit, get to the internet café, make a payment online (insist if he says it is not possible), print a challan and go back to the FRRO office. Alternatively, you can run around like a mad chicken, go to a State Bank of India with your challan, only to realise you don’t have to. Unless you do a cash payment.

4. Once you are back in the FRRO you show your papers to the guy. Then to another guy. Then back to the first guy to get a token number. Then wait. Then give your papers, sign and give to the second guy to sign. And get the hell out of there! (And carry this document whenever you travel abroad).

The tourist visa:

1.     Validity: 6 months or 1 year

2.     Important: you can’t stay more than 90 days with a 1 year tourist visa!

3.     Entries: simple, double or multiple. But be careful, once you leave India, you need to wait 2 months before you are allowed to come back! (you can get a derogation from the local Indian authorities though). Apparently this rule has been lifted in December 2012 (see this site). The best is to check what is written at the bottom of the visa...

4.     Extension: can not be extended nor exchanged in India. But it is possible to extend it in another third country

 

The business visa:

 

1.     Validity: 3 months to 1 year

2.     Entries: simple, double or multiple

3.     Extension: can not be extended nor exchanged in India

4.     Important: You can’t stay more than 30 days with this visa in India!

 

The employment visa:

 

1.     Validity: 6 months or 1 year

2.     Entries: multiple

3.     Important : Can only be obtained in your country of origin, not in India

4.     Extension: You can extend it 4 times, every year, in India; after that you have to go to your home country and get a new visa (to sum up you can stay maximum 5 years in India with a visa)

5.     Condition to fulfil to be eligible: earning minimum 100 000 rupees (about 1 500 euros) per month except for ethnic cooks and translators

6.     For any change in location (moving to another city), of position (within the same company), of company, you will have to go back to your country of origin and get a new visa

7.     There is a possibility to change visa (from employment to tourist) in a third country

Important: Anyone staying more than 6 months in India has to register to the local Foreign Registration Office.

There are also other visas: journalist, student, spouse, yoga, medical etc. but I am not too aware…

 

Sources:

In India (Mumbai) : http://www.immigrationindia.nic.in/

In your country: local website of VFS Global

http://goindia.about.com/b/2012/12/03/2-month-gap-on-indian-tourist-visas-removed.htm