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US citizenship and OCI process/experience
I am sharing this for anyone who is going through these processes. It took me a lot of research to decipher everything since there isnt one authority/source who will tell you this. I have also included my personal timeline for each step. 

I am not here very often so may not be able to answer any follow up questions. 

Original citizenship: India
US location: Washington DC/Virginia
Goals: Obtain US citizenship, obtain India OCI card

Everything below has to be done in this particular order since the next step is dependent on the previous item. 

1) US Naturalization process:

- Submit the N-400 application online as soon as you are eligible - May 2021
- Interview - January 2022
- Oath Ceremony - February 2022 - receive naturalization cert at the oath ceremony 

2) Obtain US passport

- get the naturalization cert
- apply for US passport (I also applied for the optional passport card for a small fee) - you will mail the original copy of naturalization cert (make copies beforehand) 
- once you have the US passport (took two weeks) - apply for India passport renunciation cert (requires US passport info)

3) Indian citizenship renunciation cert 

- apply on the govt website first - get the application number. When it asks for passport information - it usually means your old Indian passport information (not the US passport info)
- then apply on the vfs site (requires the application number from the govt website application) - choose their FedEx shipping service, pay with credit card, it will give you a renunciation cert template, will provide shipping label
- send package to vfs (include documents listed in the checklist - make sure to sign all necessary docs, include original passport and photocopy of it)
- receive the renunciation cert and cancelled passport in mail - two weeks in March 2022

4) Apply for OCI (requires renunciation certificate)

1. fill out the form on the govt website. Make sure you have a digital version of the SAME picture you will send in the mail to VFS later to upload to this site. Make sure all PDFs and picture are less than 1M in size (painful). This form asks for a lot of information and will take a lot of back and forth to finish. This time - when it asks for passport information - it usually means your US passport information. Naturalized US citizen documents needed: canceled indian passport, US passport, US naturalization cert, indian citizenship/passport renunciation letter, address proof (utility bill), picture, self written consent letter for VFS to make edits
2. fill out the application on the VFS site
3. Mail the whole application package
4. Status is checked on https://ociservices.gov.in/statusEnqury
5. The OCI card is delivered around 2 months from the date of application (May 2022)
All Replies (1)
OCI Minor : Washington DC
Mar 22, 2022 => Package shipped date
Mar 23, 2022 => VFS delivery
Mar 29, 2022 => VFS acknowledged
Mar 30, 2022 => Package sent to Indian embassy after VFS review
Mar 31, 2022 => Indian embassy acknowledged
Apr 01, 2022 => Indian embassy application status changed to Under-Process
May 13, 2022 => OCI Number generated and Document Printing Status Processed
May 19, 2022 => VFS FedEx tracking number received
May 20, 2022 => OCI Delivered

Note: The OCI tracking site still says "Processed on May 13"
All Replies (0)
OCI Minor SFO Timeline
March 17: VFS received son’s OCI application and asked for more documents regarding mother’s legal status in US
March 20: sent the required documents
March 23: VFS received application and is under process
March 25: Processed at VFS and in transit to the consulate/embassy
March 29: Acknowledged on OCI’s website

Processing was slow and have travel plans so emailed VFS SFO and embassy in SFO on 5th of May

May 06: Status changed to processed
May 10: Dispatched from Delhi MEA
May 18: Document received in SFO and FedEx mail generated
May 19: Received OCI
All Replies (1)
VFS processing of photos
Anyone can comment on this.

When VFS demands new photos for any reason, do they scan and upload the new picture on the application?
My experience is whatever digital photo that the applicant has uploaded is kept the same. The new physical copy of the photos were never used (might be only on file), but the OCI card printed is with the original photo uploaded on the application.
or it might have happened only with my application.

Update: it just happened for 1 of the kids case for me, I just got other kid's OCI card and they shipped the card with the new photo. (I did not upload it)
All Replies (2)
OCI Minor Timeline - SFO
Date Of Acknowledgment 23-MAR-2022
Documents Printing Status PROCESSED On 25-APR-2022
Dispatched From MEA (OCI ) NEW DELHI On 26-APR-2022
Document received At SAN FRANCISCO On 17-MAY-2022
FEDEX notification 17-MAY-2022
All Replies (3)
OCI Minor Washington DC
Hi All,
My son's OCI application is UNDER PROCESS at Washington DC for more than 6 weeks. Date of acknowledgement is April 2,2022. Tried contacting the embassy multiple times but no response. Can anyone please help.
TIA
All Replies (3)
OCI SFO Minor Timelines
17-MAR-2022 : Application dispatched to SFO
23-MAR-2022 : We have ‘Received’ your Application and your application is now ‘Under Process’ at San Francisco and will be submitted to the Mission for decision making.
24-MAR-2022 : Your Application has been ‘Processed’ at the VFS India Consular application Centre and currently is ‘In-Transit‘ to the Embassy of India/Consulate General of India for decision making.
26-MAR-2022 : Date Of Acknowledgment
04-MAY-2022 : Documents Printing Status PROCESSED
06-MAY-2022 : Dispatched From MEA (OCI ) NEW DELHI
12-MAY-2022 : Document received At SAN FRANCISCO
13-MAY-2022 : Received OCI

Overall Process Time is around 2 Months
All Replies (0)
New OCI Card - Minor- Chicago Mission
Apr 5 2022
Created profile in OCI website and uploaded all the required documents, few documents needed notary attestation, which we obtained in advance.

Apr 8 2022
Mailed all the required and notarized document photocopies through FedEx using VFS prepaid shipping labels on the VFS GLOBAL WEBSITE

Apr 12 2022
Received an email: We have ‘Received’ your Application and your application is now ‘Under Process’ at Chicago and will be submitted to the Mission for decision making.

Apr 13 2022
Received an email: Your Application has been ‘Processed’ at the VFS India Consular application Centre and currently is ‘In-Transit‘ to the Embassy of India/Consulate General of India for decision making. As soon as VFS India Consular application Centre receives an update, the status on the ‘Track and Trace’ page will be revised accordingly.

Apr 16 2022
Upon checking the VFS GLOBAL website, under the track your application status: the status was updated to “Your application has reached at the Embassy/Consulate and is currently under review process”, you can check the same in OCI status enquiry page too.

May 06 2022
OCI STATUS REPORT page was updated with OCI Number and the Document Printing Status was showing ‘PROCESSED’ on 06-MAY-2022

May 11 2022
Received an email: Your Application has been reviewed by the Embassy of India/ Consulate General of India & will be dispatched using the courier service you had opted.
Also Received an email from FEDEX with tracking information for FedEx Standard Overnight® package(s).

May 12 2022
Received the OCI card at my residence

Total process time: ~5 weeks
All Replies (2)
OCI Minor SFO - Update
3/14/2022 - VFS - Application mailed via FedEx
3/15/2022 - VFS - Application delivered by FedEx
3/20/2022 - VFS - I reached out to VFS since there was no update in a while.
3/21/2022 - VFS - Your application is being verified and currently under process at the VFS Indian Consular Application Centre
3/23/2022 - VFS - Your Application has been 'Processed' at the VFS centre and is submitted to the Mission for decision making
3/24/2022 - Gov - UNDER-PROCESS (Date Of Acknowledgment: 3/25/2022)
5/2/2022 - VFS - I reached out to VFS since there was no update in a while.
5/3/2022 - Gov - Documents Printing Status - PROCESSED on 02-MAY-2022
5/6/2022 - Gov - Dispatched From MEA (OCI ) - NEW DELHI on 06-MAY-2022
5/9/2022 - Gov - Document received At SAN FRANCISCO On 10-MAY-2022
5/10/2022 - VFS - Notification about shipping package via Fedex
5/11/2022 - VFS - Received OCI package from Fedex

Observations:
1. Somehow San Francisco cases appear to have slowed down recently based on several experiences posted here.
2. Reaching out to VFS somehow ***ally appeared to move the status of my case along the very next day. This happened on two occasions.
3. The paid $5 SMS notification service does not provide any value.
All Replies (4)
OCI Minor SFO
Hii its been 2 months since i applied OCI for my daughter.
Its been 15 days since its dispatched from MEA Delhi but still i havent received OCI nor there is update on status.
DATE OF ACK- 23 MARCH 2022
DOCUMENT PRINTING PROCESSED - 25 APRIL 2022
DOCUMENT DISPATCHED FROM MEA(DELHI)- 26 APRIL 2022
The above is for SAN FRANCISCO. We enquired with VFS they are not giving proper response. Can anyone tell me how long will it take for oci to reach sfo from delhi and time it will take it to get delivered?

UPDATE: OCI received at san francisco- 05/17/2022
                 Received OCI at residence on 05/ 18/2022
From new delhi date of dispatchment , it took nearly 20 days to receive oci.
All Replies (9)

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