British Vs Indian Citizenship

First-off, I have received approval of my British Citizenship. Thanks a lot to these forums which has helped me a lot all stages.

Until now, I have just done what people normally do and have progressed towards the citizenship...without questioning the pro-and-con of British Citizenship. One of the reason was that from job point of view it opens Europe and makes it easier to get visas of other places. But more rationally I am not sure if that one benefit is strong enough to give up my Indian citizenship.

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts.

rajesh.kishore wrote:First-off, I have received approval of my British Citizenship. Thanks a lot to these forums which has helped me a lot all stages.

Until now, I have just done what people normally do and have progressed towards the citizenship...without questioning the pro-and-con of British Citizenship. One of the reason was that from job point of view it opens Europe and makes it easier to get visas of other places. But more rationally I am not sure if that one benefit is strong enough to give up my Indian citizenship.

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts.

see thread below

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=54131

thanks beeba. actually i had already read this post, but I am wondering about what have been the experience of people in general who have taken UK passport apart from the one that you can understand from basic readings of the rules; which sometime say only half of the story.

Also...on related note. Do they (Indian Embassy) cancel the passport or do they give it back?

rajesh.kishore wrote:thanks beeba. actually i had already read this post, but I am wondering about what have been the experience of people in general who have taken UK passport apart from the one that you can understand from basic readings of the rules; which sometime say only half of the story.

Also...on related note. Do they (Indian Embassy) cancel the passport or do they give it back?

May be someone who has just gone through this process will advise correctly......but just for the sake of info.

After acquiring foreign citizenship, holding or in a possession of Indian passport is an offence according to Indian laws. click on the link below

http://hcilondon.in/renunciation.php

May be to hold or in a possession means "make use of it " as an Indian national, someone may clarify it plz.

they will send it back to you according to another source which may not be reliable, see below the link.

http://knoowgle.com/Citizenship/India/Cancellation.html

you need to submit the passport at Indian Embassy and pay around 90£ to get the surrender certifciate as proof. At later stages you need this to get either your OCI / PIO cards.

Hi itsme, Thanks. I understand I will have to surrender my passport, but I have few questions.

a) What happens to the visas on the passport. Can we use those visas for travel/ works (such as H1B), as they are in a way not property of Indian Government; even though Indian Passport is.

b) Also can we use the British Passport straight-away to work in Europe or do we need some special permission.

c) Do we get all medical benefits in Europe or do we need to obtain some other permissions.

I can open another post, if these are all unrelated posts, but for now I am leaving this in this post itelf.

Infact I too was having this feeling

I clearly know that having UK citizenship is more beneficial than having Indian citizenship, atleast for present generation (not sure about future generation). But I know very well that if we are emotionally attached to Country of Birth, its a bit of pain when you throw away the citizenship of country of birth, its like seperating from our mother. I can fully understand that (even I am having a bit of it)

But anyway life is all about survival , we need to become UK citizen if you want become more competant in UK.


also I heard some where that if you hold OCI card, and if you want to become Indian citizen again, you just need to stay in India for 1 year (Not sure about this you can confirm this with somebody)

hari15 wrote:Infact I too was having this feeling
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also I heard some where that if you hold OCI card, and if you want to become Indian citizen again, you just need to stay in India for 1 year (Not sure about this you can confirm this with somebody)

yes that's right. even published in HCI website.

Thanks Hari and itsme...I guess that seals it. I guess if we have an option of getting back Indian citizenship in 1 year of Residence in India, I would say we are ok then.