passport renewal & my child indian visa

[kskchakri]

Hi,

My current passport is scheduled to expire in Jan 2008. I need to renew it and am looking for the process/documents/fees/misc stuff i would need to get it done. Please do guide me as to where i can get the correct information and the process involved.

My second question is about my daughter who was born here in US. As i am on a project, i would be going back to India. What are the options i have regarding my daughters Indian passport/visa. As she was born in US what is the impact back in India as we have to fill in the application forms for her future. What are the best options for me as i have heard vagulely about the OCI/ PIO cards but have no idea what they mean.

Anyone with the information, i request you to please reply back to my post.

Thanks in advance
Kalyan Chakravarthy

[tamtom]

Hi,

My current passport is scheduled to expire in Jan 2008. I need to renew it and am looking for the process/documents/fees/misc stuff i would need to get it done. Please do guide me as to where i can get the correct information and the process involved.

You can get all this kind of information from your nearest Indian consulate.

My second question is about my daughter who was born here in US. As i am on a project, i would be going back to India. What are the options i have regarding my daughters Indian passport/visa. As she was born in US what is the impact back in India as we have to fill in the application forms for her future. What are the best options for me as i have heard vagulely about the OCI/ PIO cards but have no idea what they mean.

There are two main possibilities for your daughter. The first and more common case is you get her a US passport and PIO card. This gives her a 15-year residence permit with NRI-like status in India.

The second case is you can get her an Indian passport. This gives her full rights in India, but the US will also still consider her a US citizen. It's fine as long as she stays in India, but there are known hassles if she will need to travel between India and the US - and at that point she might need to shift to the US passport and PIO card. Those issues are discussed in this other thread: http://www.immihelp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16288

OCI is similar to PIO but is a lifelong permit instead of 15 years. But a minor child can get OCI only if one of the parents is a non-Indian citizen of Indian origin, so that probably doesn't apply in your case.

Hope this helps,

Tamtom