URGENT: Minor son (8 year old) out of status and needs Indian Passport renewal

[KaustubhChaturvedi]

My son is 8 years old, his Indian passport expired in Jan 2021, and that's when his I-94 (H4) expired as well. Now I need his passport renewed before I can apply for H4 extention on nunc pro tunc basis. But VFS is saying that I need his H4 extn application receipt for passport renewal. Now I cannot apply for H4 extn with old passport, so I am in a bind. Both me and my wife have valid H1B status, will that not be sufficient for Indian passport renewal? This was a bad oversight on my part, but I am worried about my son's status, and cannot travel to India right now due to covd situation, and no visa appointments

[newacct]

I am not sure what the current policy on Indian passport applications for people who are out of status is. But I think in the past, if he is out of status, he cannot get an Indian passport but he can get an Indian "Emergency Certificate", a passport-like travel document valid for travel to India. He can then try to apply for Extension of Stay with that travel document (I-539 allows entering either passport number or travel document number).

[Donald_Trump]

KaustubhChaturvedi What you will need to do is write an email and physical letter to your area's Consulate explaining your situation. Don't bother discussing with VFS as their support staff and people don't have full idea about all the rules and they just refer to instructions (for normal scenario) set in stone. I am pretty sure there will be workarounds for situation like yours. But for this, you will need authorization from Indian Consulate first.

Also, if you live near/around Boston, there's a Consular camp happening there next week (think it's on 5/8) where you can try and meet the Consulate officials.

[KaustubhChaturvedi]

KaustubhChaturvedi What you will need to do is write an email and physical letter to your area's Consulate explaining your situation. Don't bother discussing with VFS as their support staff and people don't have full idea about all the rules and they just refer to instructions (for normal scenario) set in stone. I am pretty sure there will be workarounds for situation like yours. But for this, you will need authorization from Indian Consulate first.

Also, if you live near/around Boston, there's a Consular camp happening there next week (think it's on 5/8) where you can try and meet the Consulate officials.

Thanks a lot for the advice