Varundh wrote:Hey there..
I am an Indian Citizen working in the UK (post study work visa) after my graduation in the UK University. I came home for a week, where I lost my passport while traveling in the city, just one day before my flight back to london. I posted it all over, made banners, registered an FIR, called the union's etc. but nothing.
I wanted to know for what the process is of getting a new passport and the same post study work visa that I had. My work people are ready to help me.
I need to get back to work asap since I'm going to loose out on a lot and my job.
I filled out the passport form and it gave me a really long date of submission.
I called the visa people where they gave me a check list and said i'll have to go through the normal process of having £ 2800 in the bank for three months and stuff.
Question is :
1) How long does it take to process such visas (since I already have one) but i just simply lost it.. all my details are with the UKBA anywhich way.
2) How am I supposed to get the statements in time?!?! My bank is in the UK even if they Do send statements, its gonna take a looong time! does the embassy accept print outs of the transactions?
3) Whats the fastest process to go back to uk again?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
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Dear Varundh,
I am an Indian citizen as well and that is why I am aware of rules in India.
First of all, your visa remains valid till the time it was originally there as it is the passport that you have lost and not the visa. Although, I am not sure if it was a Foreign national card.
Second, to get a passport, apply through the Tatkal Scheme in India, as It seems you are still there in India. The tatkal scheme will probably need your FIR copy and certain documents which you can find out on the Indian Passport website,
www.passport.nic.in. Tatkal service is the fastest and delivers your new/renewed passport within three days (usually on the third day, it is sent through courier and if you are not staying at a remote area, it will probably reach the next day). Its fees, when I applied last year in june was Rs 2500 (the normal passport application fees is Rs 1500), it probably would have increased by a few rupees. Keep this step posted to the UKBA as well so that they know you are trying your best and fair to work things out. Don't worry, Tatkal service is really good. Only your application documents will have to be perfect and it will be better if you take them all at once so that you are cleared at one go only. Otherwise, one day you will stand the whole day in a queue and get to know that your documents are incomplete and by the time you will know this, all the offices would have been closed, so you will waste another day.
So, the best for you would be to go through the website,
www.passport.nic.in and read all the documents required, pile them up and go to the passport office and stand there in queue (if the office opens at 9 or 10, believe me, there will be people standing since 8am with their names on the register and you wont get time to see the officers). My idea is that the documents are first checked by passport officers and only when they sign (provided all your documents are perfect) are you eligible to attend the queue of payment for the tatkal fees (atleast thats what happened to me when I applied at Ghaziabad (Delhi) passport office last year).
Oh by the way, forgot to mention, apart from the documents written on the passport website, you might want to take you UK address proof (telephone bill, council tax letter, bank statement, internet bill etc), your proof of employment in the UK, your bank statement (just to be on a safer side, because you never know what do they ask for), an affidavit from a gazetted officer stating your address in the last 12 months (this is what I took and it will probably be written on website as well).
Once you have the passport, I am not sure how can you secure your visa, probably they have a way of giving a duplicate one to you which offcourse you can check when you let the UKBA know that you have applied for an urgent passport in India.
I think I must have covered almost everything I knew, however, If you want to know anything else, you are most welcome.
Regards
Madhur
