Penalty for failing to surrender passport within 3 years

I acquired British Nationality about 4 years ago. I had no idea that I was meant to surrender my old Indian passport after acquiring foreign nationality. But I did not miss-use my Indian passport. I travelled to India in 2009 with Visa on my British Passport. But Indian High Commission did not inform me on the time of issuing me visa that I should have surrendered my Indian passport. I had no prior knowledge of this until couple of months ago. As soon as I came to know I followed the procedure and sent my old passport with normal fee and documents. Now I have got phone call from them that I need to pay a penalty of £145/- for retaining indian passport for more than three years.

It seems so unfair, as their system did not pick up at the time when I applied for visa on British Passport and they failed to inform me. If I did not use their services with my new passport I can understand they would not be able to pick it up. I can understand charging penalty from people who travelled on the old passport and carried out business in India on Indian passport even when they acquired foreign nationality.

Also I have read - "Penalty charges for retaining a passport despite acquiring foreign citizenship for over three years have also been waived off". - link below
http://www.theistimes.com/pios-protest- ... passports/

But they dont seem think this is the case. Does anyone has any view or any other information that could help me on who to talk to or appeal to. As Indian high commission only appear to be interested in making money even if it is unfair on people. What if I dont pay panality, will they refuse short term visa in future as I dont have surrender certificate?

Thanks
gs

Now surrendering your indian passport is compulsory.I would suggest you to surrender your indian passport ASAP and get your certificate apply for OCI.

Now a days they are giving OCI in 3 weeks time so it is easy to get this than visa

gsrai31 wrote:I acquired British Nationality about 4 years ago. I had no idea that I was meant to surrender my old Indian passport after acquiring foreign nationality. But I did not miss-use my Indian passport. I travelled to India in 2009 with Visa on my British Passport. But Indian High Commission did not inform me on the time of issuing me visa that I should have surrendered my Indian passport. I had no prior knowledge of this until couple of months ago. As soon as I came to know I followed the procedure and sent my old passport with normal fee and documents. Now I have got phone call from them that I need to pay a penalty of £145/- for retaining indian passport for more than three years.

It seems so unfair, as their system did not pick up at the time when I applied for visa on British Passport and they failed to inform me. If I did not use their services with my new passport I can understand they would not be able to pick it up. I can understand charging penalty from people who travelled on the old passport and carried out business in India on Indian passport even when they acquired foreign nationality.

Also I have read - "Penalty charges for retaining a passport despite acquiring foreign citizenship for over three years have also been waived off". - link below
http://www.theistimes.com/pios-protest- ... passports/

But they dont seem think this is the case. Does anyone has any view or any other information that could help me on who to talk to or appeal to. As Indian high commission only appear to be interested in making money even if it is unfair on people. What if I dont pay panality, will they refuse short term visa in future as I dont have surrender certificate?

Thanks
gs

I see what you are saying, and that is what I did. I applied for the certificate as soon as I found out that I meant to surrender old passport. Now they have everything but they won't issue me the certificate unless I pay £145 penality. Which seem unfair - they should have asked me for the certificate when I applied for visa 2 years ago on my british passport, as I could have sorted this out then, rather then leaving it for more then 3 years. I dont think it was such a big thing when I aquired british passport, and I dont think there was so much information about this on their websites. Now because they appear to have found this a huge source of making money out of NRIs..it has become their one of their prime objective and all kind policies/rules are published on their website and thier agencies website. I am not really looking to obtain OCI, all I want is visa for couple of montha when/if I need to travel.

See also Question on surrender certificate

everybody knows that you need surrender your Indian passport once you acquire British nationality.You don't complain when you have to pay £1000 to get British passport,do you?

I didnt pay £1000, so no issue there, you seem to run this blog on behalf of indian high commission. thanks for you comments any way.