Dual Citizenship dilemma - PCC from Nepal

[tim626 0]

Hello. I am a US Citizen. My wife is an Indian national. We met, were married, and currently live together in United Arab Emirates. We are currently in the midst of the Spouse Visa process. Her I-130 petition was recently approved, so now we are working on gathering her documents to submit to NVC.

Our current problem is with regards to the Police Clearance Certificate (PCC). She has to get a PCC from all countries she has lived in since age 16. Before coming to United Arab Emirates, my wife was married to a Nepalese man. She moved from India to her husband's home in Nepal (right across the border), and lived there from 2009 to 2012. While there, she started her own business, which required her to obtain Nepalese citizenship. However, she did this while still maintaining her Indian citizenship, despite the fact that neither country allows dual citizenship. Apparently this is fairly common practice among her community (Indians of Nepalese descent living near the border area). She never got a Nepalese passport during her stay there. In 2012 she divorced her husband and moved back to India. In 2013 she obtained an Indian passport (her first time getting a passport), got a job in UAE, moved there and then met me shortly after.

She should have no problem obtaining a PCC from UAE and India, since she has all the necessary documents. However, for PCC from Nepal, it is required to furnish both the citizenship number, and the passport. But presumably, the Nepalese authorities will not accept the fact that she has a Nepalese citizenship number, but an Indian passport.

What should we do in this situation? I realize my wife broke the rules, but I believe her actions were justified at the time, and I don't think this should preclude her from being able to come to the US. Surely there must be a way around this?

I've already asked my lawyer, and they have no advice.

One thing I thought was that maybe she can apply for a Nepalese passport. That way she would have all the documents necessary to get a Nepalese PCC.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Gorkhali 213]

Hi there

first of all Nepal do not allow dual citizenship. I am a nepali citizen living in India since last 10 years and i have not obtained any indian documents (therefore obtaining documents is not usual thing). Recently when i went to my embassy in Delhi for no objection letter third secretary asked me tons of questions about the nationality and any indian documents if i have (which i don't) therefore it was easy.

First of all you have to figure out a way to surrender her Nepali Citizenship (And i dont think hiding nepali citizenship will work as while filing the PCC form you have to mention about her ex husband and her work details etc etc)).

Nepali PCC for nepali national is issued in Kathmandu and its 2 days task. Not so tough if you dont have any criminal history. However your wife is using her Indian passport, therefore she has to go through Indian embassy.

Note : My best advise is to find a good Immigration lawyer in Nepal to jump this hoops.

P.S : I am not a lawyer and whatever i have jotted above is from my experience of obtaining documents as required by USCIS and NVC.

[Gorkhali 213]

My personal advise :

Do not get Nepali Passport.. If so then as she is using her Indian passport and staying at UAE, it will be a bigger mess.

[fellaamazing 72]

Nepali passport will help a lot. For US purposes, all she needs is police certificate. And police certificate from Nepal won't be possible without a passport.

Since she is still a Nepal citizen, it's best if she gets the passport directly from Nepal. As the above post mentioned that Nepal embassy in Delhi asks tons of questions, it wouldn't surprise me that it is because of tons of Indian bureaucracy. (Trust me, I know about that since I dealt with two country embassies in Delhi)

And trust me, there is absolutely no way around in NVC without receiving all police certificates.

But after receiving police certificate, I would advise to legitimately surrender Nepal's citizenship.

[Gorkhali 213]

Nepali passport will help a lot. For US purposes, all she needs is police certificate. And police certificate from Nepal won't be possible without a passport.

Since she is still a Nepal citizen, it's best if she gets the passport directly from Nepal. As the above post mentioned that Nepal embassy in Delhi asks tons of questions, it wouldn't surprise me that it is because of tons of Indian bureaucracy. (Trust me, I know about that since I dealt with two country embassies in Delhi)

And trust me, there is absolutely no way around in NVC without receiving all police certificates.

But after receiving police certificate, I would advise to legitimately surrender Nepal's citizenship.

Hi There

I don't think she should apply for Nepali passport. She can surrender the Citizenship and obtain PCC from Nepal for Indian citizen living in Nepal.

If she obtains Nepali passport for PCC then in PCC they will write about Nepali passport no and Citizenship no which will further complicate case at NVC or Embassy. Again i am just speculating.

Best advise is to find a good lawyer in Nepal who has knowledge about immigration. Try contacting visa agency in Nepal and seek information about this (those visa agency in nepal will only have info about student visa however they may be able to shine some light on PCC too)

[tim626 0]

Hi guys, thanks a ton for the advice, it's very helpful.

Regarding the advice to surrender citizenship and only then apply for PCC: if she does this, and uses her Indian passport, wouldn't it still be a problem since her Indian passport was issued in 2013, when she was still a Nepali citizen?

Also, if you happen to have a recommendation for a lawyer, that would be great. :-)

[Gorkhali 213]

no .. it should not be problem. For traveling between India and Nepal you dont need passport. She can show her voter card and state that she used the same to travel between India and Nepal as well as stay in Nepal.

Therefore passport issuance date has nothing to do. However i dont know how will you justify why she accepted Nepali citizenship while maintaining Indian too.

And i know this is not going to be easy. Being nepali and knowing how people work in nepal, i am telling you there is going to be lot of bribe.

Honestly for my birth certificate from my own Village Development Committee (VDC), i had to pay 500 Rs for tea and coffee because of my broken nepali. They suspected that i was not nepali even thou i had all documents proving i was nepali. That's shameful but that's how it is.

Sorry i dont know any lawyer out there in Nepal. Never had to deal with them as i handled my paper work on my own.

[tim626 0]

no .. it should not be problem. For traveling between India and Nepal you dont need passport. She can show her voter card and state that she used the same to travel between India and Nepal as well as stay in Nepal.

Therefore passport issuance date has nothing to do. However i dont know how will you justify why she accepted Nepali citizenship while maintaining Indian too.

And i know this is not going to be easy. Being nepali and knowing how people work in nepal, i am telling you there is going to be lot of bribe.

Honestly for my birth certificate from my own Village Development Committee (VDC), i had to pay 500 Rs for tea and coffee because of my broken nepali. They suspected that i was not nepali even thou i had all documents proving i was nepali. That's shameful but that's how it is.

Sorry i dont know any lawyer out there in Nepal. Never had to deal with them as i handled my paper work on my own.

OK. Thanks again for the advice. I'm looking up Nepali lawyers and emailing them, hopefully will get a response. My wife is also in touch with some relatives in Kathmandu who can hopefully help.

Any further advice from others on this forum would be greatly appreciated as well.

[fellaamazing 72]

no .. it should not be problem. For traveling between India and Nepal you dont need passport. She can show her voter card and state that she used the same to travel between India and Nepal as well as stay in Nepal.

Therefore passport issuance date has nothing to do. However i dont know how will you justify why she accepted Nepali citizenship while maintaining Indian too.

And i know this is not going to be easy. Being nepali and knowing how people work in nepal, i am telling you there is going to be lot of bribe.

Honestly for my birth certificate from my own Village Development Committee (VDC), i had to pay 500 Rs for tea and coffee because of my broken nepali. They suspected that i was not nepali even thou i had all documents proving i was nepali. That's shameful but that's how it is.

Sorry i dont know any lawyer out there in Nepal. Never had to deal with them as i handled my paper work on my own.

lol.. Bribe culture is same in the subcontinent... I originate from Pakistan. Being gay, I choose to have a child by surrogate in India. Since I knew how things work with "tea/water" money, it did reduce my trip time a lot. Converting from USD, Rs 500 isn't much anyways if it gets things done.

[tim626 0]

Hi all, OP here with a follow-up question.

My wife has a friend in Nepal who knows someone in the police at the locality where she stayed. He is saying they can get the police clearance from that locality directly.

But is it OK to get it from there? Or does she have to get it from Kathmandu?

Does anyone know? TIA

[Gorkhali 213]

Nepal pcc comes from kathmandu not the local police station

[tim626 0]

Nepal pcc comes from kathmandu not the local police station

Yes but apparently this guy is saying that since she is getting it as an Indian citizen, it's OK to get it from the local station (they are willing to overlook her Nepalese citizenship). I wonder if NVC would accept it?

Edit:

From travel.state.gov website:

Police Records

Generally available. All applicants from across the Nepal should apply at the two main police stations, the Maharajgunj Police and the Deputy Inspector General's office in Ratnapark, designated by the Police Headquarters in Kathmandu. Records are issued by the Police Headquarters after a check for adverse information has been conducted through the centrally maintained records at the Headquarters. Ther local police station or, if resident in a small village, the District Police Headquarters, may also issue a certificate, but those police offices only check for derogatory information available in their records, not a nationwide check. The Headquarters- issued records are generally reliable as the scope of the check includes all of Nepal. Political unrest in some districts may prevent applicants from obtaining certificates.

Not sure how to interpret this? It says they do issue from the local stations, but will the NVC accept it?

Edited September 14, 2015 by tim626

[Gorkhali 213]

They are willing to overlook anything in Nepal for bribe.

Even if nvc accepts consulate won't.

[tim626 0]

Hi, bumping this thread again. I've been in touch with a Nepali lawyer recommended by my lawyer in New York.

The lawyer is saying they will be able to get her PCC as an Indian citizen, overlooking the fact that she has Nepali citizenship. I'm not sure how they are going to do this. I suspect there might be some sort of bribery or other mischief happening behind the scenes, but they are keeping a legal facade over the whole thing. Either way it doesn't really matter to me as long as it gets done.

But I'm concerned about one aspect. I was always under the impression that the Nepal PCC was valid for only 3 months. But when I asked them about the validity, I received this reply:

To answer your question, in context of Nepal there is no limitation on validity, the issued character certificate do not contain the date of validity, it only confirms that whether applicant of the character certificate while residing in Nepal do or do not have any adverse record against her till her residence in Nepal. The validity of Character Certificate is either 6 months or more, it depend upon the Embassy whether to accept or not.

Can anyone vouch for or against this? It seems to go contrary to what I've heard elsewhere. TIA

[walran 24]

Nepal is the land of Baksheesh... Get an attorney to help "smooth" the path for some...$