OCI with affidavit

Hi,
My dad became a British citizen in 1968 so his Indian passport wasn't returned to him from the UK home office. The Home Office used to keep the Indian passports that time. He would like to apply for an OCI and he has his Naturalisation certificate, a school education certificate, and a Notory affidavit to confirm that his Indian passport was not returned to him by the UK home office. Will this be enough for his OCI?

[quote="satellite"]Hi,
My dad became a British citizen in 1968 so his Indian passport wasn't returned to him from the UK home office. The Home Office used to keep the Indian passports that time. He would like to apply for an OCI and he has his Naturalisation certificate, a school education certificate, and a Notory affidavit to confirm that his Indian passport was not returned to him by the UK home office. Will this be enough for his OCI?[/quote]

You need to apply for a surrender cerificate first -
Applicants are mandatorily required to submit Surrender Certificate of Indian Passport (original).
See "Applicants who have held an Indian passport, and obtained foreign nationality before May 2010, but are unable to produce the same for Surrender of Indian passport for any reason (lost/misplaced/submitted to UK Home Office long time back) are required to furnish a notarised affidavit in original from UK stating the facts about their Indian passports along with other necessary documents as mentioned below"

See more details here - http://in.vfsglobal.co.uk/OCI.html

Also see - http://www.immigrationboards.com/other- ... 96029.html

Hope this helps, maybe others who has similar experience may comment, allow few days for that, as majority people don't visit this forum once their matters are solved!!!

Thanks for your reply Samkma!
I tried to apply for a Surrender certificate first with my affidavit but the worker at the VFS office said she couldn't give me a surrender certificate without an Indian passport, but my friend went to the same VFS office and got a Surrender certificate with no Indian passport, he only had an affidavit like mine! The VFS office told me to apply for an OCI without surrender certificate, hopefully it won't cause problems without the surrender certificate. You're right, many people don't come back to the forum once their matters are solved!

Hi satellite,

You may be okay.

AT http://in.vfsglobal.co.uk/OCI.html

On the DOCUMENTS REQUIRED tab:

UNDER "Documents required for Applicants born In India" it states:

Applicants who have held an Indian passport, and obtained foreign
nationality before May 2010, but are unable to produce the same for
Surrender of Indian passport for any reason (lost/misplaced/submitted
to UK Home Office long time back) are required to furnish a notarised
affidavit in original from UK stating the facts about their Indian
passports along with other necessary documents as mentioned below

AND UNDER "Other necessary documents of Indian origin" the 3rd option is:

School Leaving Certificate (in original). Post-dated School
Certificate/School Leaving Certificate from India should be
authenticated by Director of Education/District Magistrate/District
Collector of the area with name, stamp, seal and contact telephone
numbers with area code for verification

So if your father's school education certificate is a school leaving certificate
you should be okay. Note: If the certificate is not in English or Hindi they
will probably ask for a certified translation.

Good luck.

Thanks bahla, the school certificate has been stamped by a notary though and not a district magistrate/collector, is a notary stamp similar to district collector in India? The stamp says GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

satellite,

the school certificate has been stamped by a notary though and not a district magistrate/collector, is a notary stamp similar to district collector in India? The stamp says GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

I don't know if a notary stamp is acceptable.

My reading of the VFS clause is that you can submit either (i) an original school certificate, or (ii) a post-dated school certificate, e.g. a replacement certificate obtained many years later. If it is a post-dated certificate then it should be stamped etc by one of the officials mentioned in the clause so that the details can be double-checked by OCI staff if necessary. Note: the clause says 'should be' not 'must be', hinting that the requirement for stamping might be optional or at least that there may be scope for other types of authentication, for example by a notary. It is worth searching the forum to see if others have experience of submitting post-dated school certificates.

Good luck.

Indian notary?? Well, pay him Rs 500 and any notary will be ready to notarize your own death certificate in front of you!!
District collector / Director of Education / District Magistrate - are IAS officers - appointed by state / central government.