Can we apply for an Indian tourist visa (not entry visa) for our US-born daughter? We both have Indian citizenship and live in the US on a work visa.
Yes, your daughter is a Person of Indian Origin and qualifies for an OCI card [1] You can apply for the OCI online, and it takes about 12 weeks to get it. An OCI card is a multiple entry visa. Your daughter will be able to travel to India as long as itu2019s valid. I just went through this for my daughter, and can try to explain itThe OCI application process is the most complicated process I have ever gone through in my life. Recently they have started making everything online, and of course becausewe are like this only, they have to do everything their own way instead of just copying what every other country in the world does. So, buckle up for some fun. See, the thing is that there are many agencies involved here. OCIs are granted by the Indian Passport office. However, the embassy is actually going to prthe OCI card. And the embassy doesnu2019t want to deal with people anymore (unless thereu2019s an emergency). So, they have picked a private company called Cox and Kingu2019s (CKGS) to be the intermediarySo, the process is thisa) You go to the CKGS website to start an applicationb) Midway through the application, you halt the application, and go to the Indian Passport officeu2019s website and start a new applicationc) You scan and upload a bunch of documents. d) During the process, the website will ask you to sign the document by drawing your signature. DONT SIGN THE DOCUMENT BY DRAWING YOUR SIGNATURE. Because after you have submitted your signature, it tells you that if the applicant is a minor, you need a thumbprint and you shouldnu2019t put the parentu2019s signature. By the time it tells you that, there is no way to go back and unbdo your signature. Why? because we are like this onlye) The Passport office website will give you a softcopy of the application form that you just filled out. Print this form, and keep the soft copy. It also gives you an application number. Keep this numberf) Go back to CKGS website to complete your application. Upload the application form that the Indian Passport office and paste the application number in the correct field to continueg) CKGS will give you a checklist of the documents that they need. Pay good attention to this checklist. Some of the documents need to be scanned and uploaded. For some of the copies, they need hard copies that needs to be sent to them (more on this later). For some documents, they need the document to be notarized copies(more on this later), for others they don,t need notarized copies. I canu2019t understand how they decide what they can notarize and what they canu2019t. Pay attention to what needs to be done to which document because if you make a mistake, CKGS will return your application back to you. By the way, these documents are extensive. For example, you will need to show that you and your wife are married, so you have to pryour marriage certificate. I have no idea what single parents do! h) Reupload all the documents that you uploaded in step c. By the way fill all the information again. Why couldnu2019t CKGS talk to India passport office and get all this information themselves? Because we are like this onlyi) Pay CKGS $300 dollars. This is on the cKGS websitej) Pay CKGS $31.50 courier fees. This is $15.00 to send the documents to CKGS, and $15 for them to send the OCI card back to you. This is also on the CKGS websitek) CKGS will give you a payment reciept for you Print out the payment receipt for both things. CKGS will also give you a prepaid FedEx barcode. Print that outl) Go to the notary to notarize the documents. This is funny. As you might know, notaries notarize documents as u201ctrue copiesu201d, which means that they are basically attesting that the copy is the same as the original. Depending on your jurisdiction, notaries are not allowed to notarize certain documents. For example, in Virginia, notaries cannot notarize birth certificates. What they can do is notarize a statement from you that says that you claim that the copy of the birth certificate is original. If your notary refuses to notarize a document, there is another form that you need to sign and get it notarized.m) Make a neat packet from all the documents that you need to send to them. Go to fedex. Put the documents in the fenvelope and give fthe barcode and they will ship it to CKGS. Note that you are not sending originals yet. Why? Because you have a long way to go! LAso, remember the payment reciepts that you got from CKGS. You have to put the printouts of those payment reciepts in this packet. Where is this packet going? To CKGS. Where did you get the payment recipet from? CKGS. Why do you need to send the reciept back to CKGS instead of them simply looking up the transaction in their database? We are like this only.n) CKGS check the documents and send them to embassyo) Embassy will check the documents and send them to Delhip) Delhi will give their blessing and now you have entered the phase called the OCI Match Up phase. Yay!!! Until now, you were getting ready to apply for OCI. Now you are going to actually apply for OCIq) Go back to CKGS website to start the OCI match up process.r) Now thereu2024 another checklist that says what you need to send them. The checklist lies. It says that you need to send them a Money Order. You donu2019t need to send them a Money Order. I spent 20 minutes on hold with the CKGS call center today to confirm this. This 20 minutes is my gift to yous) You will again pay for fed ex shipping like you did last time, and it will print out a pre-paid fenvelope for you. Pay attention because apparently there is a button somewhere that you can use to tell them that you already paid them $15 for return courier when when you paid courier fees last time. I missed this button and paid $15 extra. Again $15 is my gift to you. If you want to give me $5, ping me, Iu2019ll give you my Paypal account. :p I already made a $15 gift to CKGSt) Now you send them copies of the receipt that shows you have made payments, and the actual US passport of your childu) They will process this and send back the OCI card to youFootnotes[1] Visa for India from USA - CKGS USA