passport surrender grace period and travel

[satz52]

hi

sorry if its been answered before but just want to clarify certain questions as i have to travel to India in early January for two weeks so there is a time issue.just got my British citizenship on 6 November and have applied for my British passport.my questions are:

1. do i get a grace period of 3 months to travel to India on my Indian passport before i surrender it, and if there would t be any problems when i apply for surrender certificate and OCI when i come back.

2. can i travel to India on my Indian passport and fly back to UK on my British passport.is it legal. wont get into any sort of problems at immigration in India or UK.

3. can i apply Indian tourist visa and surrender certificate at the same time.how long can it take to get SC and Visa if apply in person in Hayes vfs

please your advise is much appreciated and urgently needed as don't want to get into any sort of problems with immigration at a later date. thank you for your time and help.

[rivercam]

Hi

yes, you get 3 months grace period and you can use your Indian passport for travelling India without any problems, remember the grace period start date starts from they day you acquired British citizenship (the day on your citizenship certificate) not the start date of your UK passport. You also need to make sure your return date fall in that grace period.

If you want to apply for Indian visa and if you recently acquired British citizenship, the website asks you to submit copy of surrender certificate, so it might not possible to do at the same. so my advice, first apply surrender certificate and then apply for visa. currently it is taking a week for surrender certificate to get processed if you apply in person.

Well, you might be asked questions and explanations why you are carrying two passports etc though rules are clear, you never know what immigration officials ask. My suggestion, use Indian passport and ILR Card at Indian immigration and use your British passport at airline check-in and uk border. (uk immigration does not bother if you explain your recent citizenship-- so you can even clear immigration either way.)

thanks

[ban.s]

2. can i travel to India on my Indian passport and fly back to UK on my British passport.is it legal. wont get into any sort of problems at immigration in India or UK.

if you receive British Passport before your travel, you can carry that but don't use/disclose it at the indian border; so for the purpose of arrival and departure formalities in india use indian passport and ILR as you had done in the past.

when you arrive at UK border you can either use your british passport or indian passport + ILR + landing card.

[db83]

Hi, we are in a similar situation.
has anyone travelled to India on an Indian passport (in the grace period) and returned back to UK with a GB passport ?

Can we surrender the Indian passport in India

[pnakhat]

hi we are on the same boat. could anyone please share their experience. Urgent need

[ban.s]

those of you looking for 'real experience' check this thread

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=142501