Is our application lost?

[Indianhelp]

Passport Renewal---BLS SAYS NO MONEY ORDER FOUND!!!!

Hi All,

I applied for Passport renewal at BLS INTERNATIONAL ATLANTA,GA on March 8th 2016 and did not hear back from them until April 15 2016.There was an email sent to me which said NO MONEY ORDER FOUND....No idea what is going on....I am 100% sure I sent all the documents including money order.Not sure about this **** * they got all the documents and just not money order.

No proper answer from customer service.Everytime I call,i get different answers,One person asked me to send the money order immediately,other person said looks like they are sending all the documents back to you,so lets wait till monday.Need to call again to get the third answer.I emailed to [email protected] and no reply from her

My passport is expiring on June 1 2016 and lot of dependency on passport and this company is causing havoc.How to live in US without valid passport and visa and BLS INTERNATIONAL HAS A RESPONSIBLE JOB...BUT THEY ARE HANDLING IT SO VERY IRRESPONSIBLE

Any thoughts on this frnds?

[Vishnu1]

First of all thank you so much Vishnu, I got the refund back after four months now, they subtracted $20 from my refund for postage which is still a fraud, postage is like .49 cents for mailing the check and around $ 5 for sending the application back. I went ahead and got 10 year tourist visa with CKGS rather than OCI. I would have never have gotten my refund back if I had not came to this website and talked to you Vishnu, I appreciate from bottom of my heart! And everyone keep emailing them! Get your money! Don't give up.

I am glad you got your refund!

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$20 = chai pani...

$20.00 = Fees for causing months of mental agony, furstration and sleepless nights. That is not free

[kumavat]

$20 = chai pani...

life time chai pani for bls internationals. Khule aam chori

[priyaseeksoci]

$20 = chai pani...

[kumavat]

Don't hold your breath. This is their modus operandi. They have been telling me for over a month now that my check is in process. I am owed over $1000.00. Keep sending them e-mails at least once a week with cc to consulate. Unless we keep up the pressure, we are not going to get the refund. Good luck and keep posting with your experience.

Thank you for telling me to email them again and nice that you got the refund, the just sent me my check and they got $20.40 from me too. Who charges that much for postage? BLS is such a fraud, never in my life will forget this company. At least we got most of it back.

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Totally agree.

Glad it worked out for you regarding OCI card.

I have another horror story to share regarding CKGS, NY. I applied for mine and my wife's tourist visa and renunciation application. Mine went thru fine. For my wife, however they have held up the visa. Reason; She has expired indian passport that expired in 1992. She did not become US citizen till 1998. We never renewed the passport between 92-98 as we did not travel outside US during that time. Indian consulate wants her indian passport from 1992-98 which she does not have. They are not believing us that we did not renew the passport. Here is the kicker, CKGS guy told me "how can you stay in US without a valid passport". I had to educate him that if you have green card thats all you need to stay in US and as long as you are not traveling outside US, you do not need to have a valid passport. Of course I can talk to no one at indian consulate as everything is handled thru CKGS. So now we are in a limbo again. I will probably have to go to NY personally to resolve the issue. This is frustrating beyond words.

sorry to hear this. that's crazy, apparently those people in those companies like BLS and CKGS does not know what passport is!!! All they want is money.

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Totally agree.

Glad it worked out for you regarding OCI card.

I have another horror story to share regarding CKGS, NY. I applied for mine and my wife's tourist visa and renunciation application. Mine went thru fine. For my wife, however they have held up the visa. Reason; She has expired indian passport that expired in 1992. She did not become US citizen till 1998. We never renewed the passport between 92-98 as we did not travel outside US during that time. Indian consulate wants her indian passport from 1992-98 which she does not have. They are not believing us that we did not renew the passport. Here is the kicker, CKGS guy told me "how can you stay in US without a valid passport". I had to educate him that if you have green card thats all you need to stay in US and as long as you are not traveling outside US, you do not need to have a valid passport. Of course I can talk to no one at indian consulate as everything is handled thru CKGS. So now we are in a limbo again. I will probably have to go to NY personally to resolve the issue. This is frustrating beyond words.

sorry to hear this. that's crazy, apparently those people in those companies like BLS and CKGS does not know what passport is!!! All they want is money.

[kumavat]

For everyone who still has not received their refund, the Indian embassy has added another online complaint form https://www.indianembassy.org/vpc_enquiry.php

Lodge your complaint on that form. Hopefully that helps. Good Luck!

First of all thank you so much Vishnu, I got the refund back after four months now, they subtracted $20 from my refund for postage which is still a fraud, postage is like .49 cents for mailing the check and around $ 5 for sending the application back. I went ahead and got 10 year tourist visa with CKGS rather than OCI. I would have never have gotten my refund back if I had not came to this website and talked to you Vishnu, I appreciate from bottom of my heart! And everyone keep emailing them! Get your money! Don't give up.

[hemdosh]

In the end we end up harming our own interests. These guys are never going to sudhrofy - they will remain incompetent and pathetic as usual.
I reapplied thru CKGS and this time I went to their NY center. CKGS is a shade better but they are still incompetent - maybe they are still not upto speed with the process. GoI processed my OCI without any hassle and 15 days before time! Delay was because of CKGS.

Totally agree.

Glad it worked out for you regarding OCI card.

I have another horror story to share regarding CKGS, NY. I applied for mine and my wife's tourist visa and renunciation application. Mine went thru fine. For my wife, however they have held up the visa. Reason; She has expired indian passport that expired in 1992. She did not become US citizen till 1998. We never renewed the passport between 92-98 as we did not travel outside US during that time. Indian consulate wants her indian passport from 1992-98 which she does not have. They are not believing us that we did not renew the passport. Here is the kicker, CKGS guy told me "how can you stay in US without a valid passport". I had to educate him that if you have green card thats all you need to stay in US and as long as you are not traveling outside US, you do not need to have a valid passport. Of course I can talk to no one at indian consulate as everything is handled thru CKGS. So now we are in a limbo again. I will probably have to go to NY personally to resolve the issue. This is frustrating beyond words.

[Vishnu1]

For everyone who still has not received their refund, the Indian embassy has added another online complaint form https://www.indianembassy.org/vpc_enquiry.php

Lodge your complaint on that form. Hopefully that helps. Good Luck!

[Vishnu1]

Vishnu, thank you for your helpful suggestions. This is one experience I will not soon forget and I will never forgive the indian govt for putting us through this. I have decided that I am no longer going to apply for the OCI card and will just get the tourist visa every 10 yrs. Not that it makes any difference to the indian govt.

In the end we end up harming our own interests. These guys are never going to sudhrofy - they will remain incompetent and pathetic as usual.
I reapplied thru CKGS and this time I went to their NY center. CKGS is a shade better but they are still incompetent - maybe they are still not upto speed with the process. GoI processed my OCI without any hassle and 15 days before time! Delay was because of CKGS.

[hemdosh]

Thanks

Vishnu, thank you for your helpful suggestions. This is one experience I will not soon forget and I will never forgive the indian govt for putting us through this. I have decided that I am no longer going to apply for the OCI card and will just get the tourist visa every 10 yrs. Not that it makes any difference to the indian govt.

hemdosh - I am so glad that you finally received your refund!



Ditto... My refund money is still in my bank - their check did not bounce.

[Vishnu1]

Finally, after 3 months and countless e-mails, I received my refund check. They docked off $20.00 without giving any reason. At this stage I am not going to pursue this any further. Just glad that I got my $1171 back.

hemdosh - I am so glad that you finally received your refund!

Never thought I would be so happy to receive my own money back!! Now just hope that check does not bounce.

Ditto... My refund money is still in my bank - their check did not bounce.

[tampaite]

Sending e-mail to generic BLS address did not work for me. Try sending it to this individual at BLS: [email protected], and then cc to following people at BLS and indian consulate.
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Initially I got a run-around that check is in process and will be mailed soon. I kept on sending e-mails every few days with cc to all the above individuals. When they realised that I am not going to give up they finally refunded the money. Mr. Shankar at BLS at least responds to the e-mail so try this route. DO NOT GIVE UP. Good luck.

Unfortunately, indian bureaucracy and corruption follow us wherever we go.

I have been emailing ALL of them and their response has been that BLS is not responsible blah blah blah...

[hemdosh]

No go here.

I have been emailing since early May but BLS nor Indian consulate respond!

Sending e-mail to generic BLS address did not work for me. Try sending it to this individual at BLS: [email protected], and then cc to following people at BLS and indian consulate.
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Initially I got a run-around that check is in process and will be mailed soon. I kept on sending e-mails every few days with cc to all the above individuals. When they realised that I am not going to give up they finally refunded the money. Mr. Shankar at BLS at least responds to the e-mail so try this route. DO NOT GIVE UP. Good luck.

Unfortunately, indian bureaucracy and corruption follow us wherever we go.

[tampaite]

Finally, after 3 months and countless e-mails, I received my refund check. They docked off $20.00 without giving any reason. At this stage I am not going to pursue this any further. Just glad that I got my $1171 back. Never thought I would be so happy to receive my own money back!! Now just hope that check does not bounce.

For everyone out there waiting for refund, be persistent and keep them sending e-mails. Good luck.

No go here.

I have been emailing since early May but BLS nor Indian consulate respond!

[hemdosh]

Got the check

Finally, after 3 months and countless e-mails, I received my refund check. They docked off $20.00 without giving any reason. At this stage I am not going to pursue this any further. Just glad that I got my $1171 back. Never thought I would be so happy to receive my own money back!! Now just hope that check does not bounce.

For everyone out there waiting for refund, be persistent and keep them sending e-mails. Good luck.