Process of Indian Visa after obtaining USA citizenship

[aspiringCitizenCA]

Greetings all!

I was wondering if anyone recently applied for visa/e-Visa for India after applying US citizenship. Checking online, I found mixed info, hence thought of asking here.

1) Is it necessary to surrender Indian passport for visa?.
2) Is it necessary to get renunciation certification for visa?
3) In how many days one gets e-Visa?
4) Can one apply e-visa for more than 1 year duration without going to Indian Embassy in US.
5) Does e-visa of 1 year or more require sending passport or any other doc to Indian Embassy in US?

Thank you. Stay safe!

[R78]

If you are looking to travel urgently to India, then you can apply for an E-Visa without renunciation.
If your goal is to get a longer term visa (default for former indian citizens is 10 yrs), then you can get the 10 yrs visa + renunciation done together.

1) Original Indian passport is required for surrender certificate. When the Consulate completes the process, they will return it to you with "cancelled due to foreign nationality stamp" and surrender certificate.

2) Yes. But Renunciation+Visa can be done in the same process since they are both handles by the consulate / embassy
Only Renunciation+OCI is to be done in two steps.

3) You can apply for 1 month, 1 year or 5 year E-visa.

4) Embassy / Consulate does NOT issue E-Visas. These are granted solely by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Hence the application & fees are paid online, photo & US passport copy uploaded and they will approve.
Once approved, you need to print the barcoded letter and travel to India. On arriving, they will stamp the 1month, 1 year or 5 yr on the passport.

Only sticker visas (10 yr) are issued by the Embassy / Consulate. These require you to complete renunciation and send your original US passport so they can place the visa sticker on it.


5) Does e-visa of 1 year or more require sending passport or any other doc to Indian Embassy in US?
NO. Not for E-Visas.

[R78]

Cost of E-visa
30 days : $10 (off peak season)
30 days : $35 (in peak season)
1 & 5 yrs : $65

[R78]

forgot to mention: AVOID any vendor sites / agents
Very easy to apply online. Indian Govt Website is : https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html