After Ceremony..

[piridi.ark]

Dear All,
I am an Indian, recently got approval and we are waiting for ceremony this month end.
After Citizenship Ceremony, please advice the necessary things to do.
1.Apply for British Passport?
2.What to do with Indian passports?? Do they cancel or Do I need to cancel? Do i need to contact HCI london?
3.Are we eligible for dual citizenship? or... (of course there is no dual citizenship now), is there any such kind of documentation!!!
If they cancel indian passports and issue British passports, do we need to apply for visa every time when we visit india!!!!

Can anybody , please kindly advice or share any information or weblinks ...

Regards

[Smam]

Hi

1.Yes, you've to apply for your British PP now.
2. You need to inform HCI London and unfortunately they'll cancel the Indian PP for you as the Indian citizens are not allowed to keep dual Nationality.
3.No, you're not allowed to keep dual Nationality you'll be classed as a NRI.
4. Sadly yes you've to apply for Visa when ever you wanted to travel back to India.

I hope this will answer your questions.

[yak2013]

Hi,
1. After citizenship ceremony apply for british passport at IPS https://www.gov.uk/browse/citizenship/passports
2. Surrender your Indian passport at HCI London and get 'surrender certificate' http://in.vfsglobal.co.uk/surenderind_pass.html
3. UK don't have a dual citizenship agreement with India.
4. After getting British passport you'll need Indian visa to visit India. It is best to go for 'Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI)' card which is issued by Indian government to previous indian citizens or 'Person of Indian Origin (PIO)' card. OCI card is a kind of life long visa and PIO card have validity of 15 years.
http://www.hcilondon.in/oci.html http://passport.gov.in/oci/OnlineOCIRegistrationG.jsp
http://www.hcilondon.in/pio.html

[santoshganpath]

For your 3rd question, as suggested by yak2013, OCI (Overseas citizen of India) is the best option as you do not need visa each time you go to India. The other advantage is there is no time restriction to live in India with OCI. You can stay there as long as you wish. This is almost like dual citizenship but not literally. Only thing is you have certain restrictions which you are not allowed to do in India. 1. You cannot stand in election for a public office. 2. You will not be eligible for government jobs. 3. You cannot own agricultural land. Apart from these three (and some income tax related) we can enjoy all the benefits of an Indian Citizen with OCI.

You can Google "Benefits of OCI" and you will get lot of information and also look in "Other Countries" section in this forum.

Once you get British PP, you need to surrender Indian Passport to HCI (only VFS accepts all the surrender applications on behalf of HCI), get the surrender certificate, actually your Indian passport is also given back to you. They will cut all the four corners of the India PP and stamp inside which says the holder has acquired foreign nationality. Mind you, you need to surrender your Indian PP within 3-months from the date of your British citizenship ceremony.

Once you get the surrender certificate, you can apply for OCI online - all this info is again on HCI website.

Hope this helps.

Regards...
Santosh

[Thought_Oasis]

Hi there!

Apologies...but what if my Indian passport is expiring in May this year... Would I still need to 'surrender' it or is it deemed invalid after expiry anyways.

Many thanks!

[ban.s]

yes, because you need to renounce your indian citizenship - surrendering the passport is part of renunciation process.
Holding an expired passport doesn't strip your citizenship rights.