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liminal

CKGS Indian passport re-issue questions--please help

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Hi friends,


If there's a more appropriate forum for this question, please let me know.
I'm an Indian national who emigrated to the US with my parents as a teenager, and am currently an LPR (green card holder).

Unfortunately I neglected to renew my Indian passport for several years (no excuses besides that I was in college and had a lot of financial and other worries).

Looking at the CKGS process, it seems complex and potentially very slow, especially given the horrible situation with COVID19. I have a number of questions that I hope experienced folks here can answer.


    1.    CKGS and the Indian govt. website *seem* to allow you to change your primary and secondary address to a non-Indian address. However, I've read elsewhere that they need an Indian address for verification. Unfortunately I have no address in India or ties to anyone there at present. Will this be a problem? Apparently there's some sort of police verification involved, can they complete the verification with just my name and city of birth and perhaps the old address on the passport?


    2.    I never had an Aadhar or PAN number prior to emigration. Is this a problem? My expired passport also appears to be an "old style" passport and I can't find the 'file number' that the application asks for. According to some online advice I can enter a file number such as '1234' as a placeholder, but I'd appreciate some confirmation from folks here.

 

    3.    Any advice or common 'gotchas' with CKGS applications would be helpful. I've read that I need to provide a letter indicating why I'm renewing my passport, which seems strange, but I can do that--any tips there?

Generally, any ideas on how much trouble it is to re-issue a passport that expired several years ago?
Thank you very much and best wishes to all.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: India
Timeline
On 6/29/2020 at 12:36 PM, liminal said:

Hi friends,


If there's a more appropriate forum for this question, please let me know.
I'm an Indian national who emigrated to the US with my parents as a teenager, and am currently an LPR (green card holder).

Unfortunately I neglected to renew my Indian passport for several years (no excuses besides that I was in college and had a lot of financial and other worries).

Looking at the CKGS process, it seems complex and potentially very slow, especially given the horrible situation with COVID19. I have a number of questions that I hope experienced folks here can answer.


    1.    CKGS and the Indian govt. website *seem* to allow you to change your primary and secondary address to a non-Indian address. However, I've read elsewhere that they need an Indian address for verification. Unfortunately I have no address in India or ties to anyone there at present. Will this be a problem? Apparently there's some sort of police verification involved, can they complete the verification with just my name and city of birth and perhaps the old address on the passport?


    2.    I never had an Aadhar or PAN number prior to emigration. Is this a problem? My expired passport also appears to be an "old style" passport and I can't find the 'file number' that the application asks for. According to some online advice I can enter a file number such as '1234' as a placeholder, but I'd appreciate some confirmation from folks here.

 

    3.    Any advice or common 'gotchas' with CKGS applications would be helpful. I've read that I need to provide a letter indicating why I'm renewing my passport, which seems strange, but I can do that--any tips there?

Generally, any ideas on how much trouble it is to re-issue a passport that expired several years ago?
Thank you very much and best wishes to all.

1. I applied for a friend couple weeks ago and we used his US address. The application does ask for Indian address though but not sure if a police does any verification.

2. My friend had a adhar card. I remember renewing my father's couple years ago and he was asked for adhard card. TBH I don't remember if adhar card # was a required filed on the application.

3. We didn't provide any letters. Can you please provide a source where you read the information? I do remember seeing this on the renunciation checklist if we didn't renew it for few years, they want explanation why we didn't so.

 

Are you eligible to become US Citizen? If so I would chose that route and not worry about renewing old passport. 

I-90 Green Card Timeline

05/29/2014: Applied for I-90, Due to an Name Error.

06/12/2014: Biometrics Appointment

02/13/2015: Green Card Was Ordered To Be Produced

02/20/2015: Green Card Has Been Mailed.(Received Tracking Number)

02/23/2015: Green Card Received With Correct Name

N-400 Citizenship Timeline

07/05/2012 = Eligible to apply for Naturalization based on the 5-year rule (90-days rule applied)

01/11/2015 = Sent N-400 Packet (to Phoenix Lockbox Facility via USPS Certified Mail)

01/15/2015 = N-400 Packet Delivered

01/27/2015 = I-912 Approved

02/02/2015 = NOA1 Received (Priority Date 01/15/2015)

02/07/2015 = Biometrics Letter Received (Bio Set for 02/20/2015)

02/25/2015 = In Line for Interview

04/03/2015 = Interview Completed

--- = Oath Letter Received

04/15/2015 = Oath Ceremony!

 

I-130 Timeline

02/08/2020 - Married

06/02/2020 - Filed I-130 Online

06/02/2020 - NOA1 Received

07/01/2020 - Back to U.S from India 

01/11/2021 - NOA2 Received & Petition Approved

 

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On 7/24/2020 at 2:13 PM, Jot18 said:

1. I applied for a friend couple weeks ago and we used his US address. The application does ask for Indian address though but not sure if a police does any verification.

2. My friend had a adhar card. I remember renewing my father's couple years ago and he was asked for adhard card. TBH I don't remember if adhar card # was a required filed on the application.

3. We didn't provide any letters. Can you please provide a source where you read the information? I do remember seeing this on the renunciation checklist if we didn't renew it for few years, they want explanation why we didn't so.

 

Are you eligible to become US Citizen? If so I would chose that route and not worry about renewing old passport. 

Thank you very much for the response! We're going to try and apply for a change of address and specify the US address, and try for a 'Tatkal' application.

On the Indian govt. website the form does seem to allow you to list a US address as both primary and secondary. Hopeful that will work...

It looks like you can get by without an Aadhar number on the application. 

Unfortunately I can't recall where I read the recommendation regarding the letter of explanation, but I figure it can't hurt to explain.

 

I do plan to apply for naturalization but cannot yet due to the time requirements, and would like to have a passport before then in case I need to travel for school or work. And it sounds like it could take up to a year to naturalize and at least several months beyond that to get a US passport.

 

My worry right now is that if CKGS rejects my passport application on some technicality, they might hold on to the old passport and fail to return it.

And I believe I need to have a passport for the N-400 process...any further suggestions appreciated!

 

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: India
Timeline
1 minute ago, liminal said:

Thank you very much for the response! We're going to try and apply for a change of address and specify the US address, and try for a 'Tatkal' application.

On the Indian govt. website the form does seem to allow you to list a US address as both primary and secondary. Hopeful that will work...

It looks like you can get by without an Aadhar number on the application. 

Unfortunately I can't recall where I read the recommendation regarding the letter of explanation, but I figure it can't hurt to explain.

 

I do plan to apply for naturalization but cannot yet due to the time requirements, and would like to have a passport before then in case I need to travel for school or work. And it sounds like it could take up to a year to naturalize and at least several months beyond that to get a US passport.

 

My worry right now is that if CKGS rejects my passport application on some technicality, they might hold on to the old passport and fail to return it.

And I believe I need to have a passport for the N-400 process...any further suggestions appreciated!

 

I don't believe tatkal is being processed at this time but I could be wrong. Yes it could take a couple months to become citizen and no, you don't need a passport to become US citizen.

I-90 Green Card Timeline

05/29/2014: Applied for I-90, Due to an Name Error.

06/12/2014: Biometrics Appointment

02/13/2015: Green Card Was Ordered To Be Produced

02/20/2015: Green Card Has Been Mailed.(Received Tracking Number)

02/23/2015: Green Card Received With Correct Name

N-400 Citizenship Timeline

07/05/2012 = Eligible to apply for Naturalization based on the 5-year rule (90-days rule applied)

01/11/2015 = Sent N-400 Packet (to Phoenix Lockbox Facility via USPS Certified Mail)

01/15/2015 = N-400 Packet Delivered

01/27/2015 = I-912 Approved

02/02/2015 = NOA1 Received (Priority Date 01/15/2015)

02/07/2015 = Biometrics Letter Received (Bio Set for 02/20/2015)

02/25/2015 = In Line for Interview

04/03/2015 = Interview Completed

--- = Oath Letter Received

04/15/2015 = Oath Ceremony!

 

I-130 Timeline

02/08/2020 - Married

06/02/2020 - Filed I-130 Online

06/02/2020 - NOA1 Received

07/01/2020 - Back to U.S from India 

01/11/2021 - NOA2 Received & Petition Approved

 

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