Renew US Passport and Indian PIO while in India

[Jagadish]

Hi,

My 5 year old daughter lives in India. She has her US passport and Indian PIO card. US Passport is expiring May 30 2009. She has 15 year PIO card but it has to be updated whenever US passport get renewed. Father and Mother are Indian citizens by Birth but Father has recently got US citizenship.

Based on your experience, do you think I have enough time to renew the documents while they are in India? Or is it best to bring her here to get the paper work completed. I have to renew her US passport by a guardian as both parents are in USA.

Lets say for Instance, If I start the process in India and get US Passport renewed and once I apply for the PIO card change and if the PIO process doesnt complete in time, is she considered to be out of status?

Thank You,
Jay

[curtdfw]

Don't know about PIO, but renewing the US passport should be fairly quick. I renewed mine while living in Delhi in 2006, and it took only about a week. Unsure how the status as guardian affects things, though.

[Jagadish]

Thank you very much to your response.

If PIO process runs late beyond the expiry date, do you think its a out of status thing for my daughter.

[curtdfw]

Well, if the PIO is valid for 15 years and your daughter is five, how could it expire? You'd need to have the new US passport number noted in the PIO card in the space provided, but am not certain where that would be done - FRRO maybe? In any case you should probably get the US passport renewal started right away. Mine took only a short time, but things change...

[Jagadish]

Ok. I am thinking that it has to be attested before the end of 5 years. So delay in not getting the new passport number onto the PIO doesnt do any harm. But I think better the sooner right?

Best Wishes

[curtdfw]

Yeah, sooner is better -- I'd carry both the expired US passport (referenced in the PIO card) as well as the new passport when she's traveling until the PIO is updated with the new passport reference.