PIO Card

My Sons PIO card processing was pretty seamless and straight forward since all the documents were proper.

The passport & PIO card was received by Fedex courier on 12/30/2014.

Passport sent by post/courier number YYYY YYYY ZZZ 12/29/2014
Your application has been collected from the Embassy/Consulate and is being sorted. Your application will be ready for collection from our Application Center within one business day. 12/26/2014
Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy/Consulate for further processing. 12/22/2014
Your application is in process. Your tracking id is USAN YYYY YYYY 12/22/2014
Your application has been received and will be submitted subject to verification. 12/22/2014

Good Luck to others for their PIO card.

Wish You a Very Happy New Year 2015.

I'd like some advice on the question of India address proof.

My cancelled Indian passport shows our US address as our permanent address since the passport was issued here in the USA. Do I need to submit some other documentation for Indian address ? I still have an old cancelled Indian passport that expired in 2002 that shows the Indian address. I'm dubious tyhough thether that will suffice.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions

Thanks

I sent the documents on 12/15/2014 through Fedex. Process got completed on on 12/23/2014. I received PIO and Passport on 26. Ideally it should be overnight delivery but its Christmas week.
One mistake i did:
I had sent a regular check of my bank, which is not acceptable. So the lady from CKGS called me and i made a payment through credit card over the call itself. And after that process was smooth.

My daughter PIO is received, altogether it was a seamless effort

Passport sent by post/courier number YYYY YYYY XX 12/23/2014
Your application has been collected from the Embassy/Consulate and is being sorted. Your application will be ready for collection from our Application Centre within one business day. 12/23/2014
Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy/Consulate for further processing. 12/17/2014
Your application is in process. Your tracking id is USAH YYYY XX 12/17/2014
Your application has been received and will be submitted subject to verification. 12/17/2014

Also, I wanted to give a special mention and thanks to the customer support CKGS as other members were complaining
they don't pick up the call and they were not supportive e.t.c

In my case, every time I call; I get connected immediately and the person I was talking was helping me
to the maximum extent and the email communication with the customer support was also good. I used to get
response within 12 hours.

Good Luck for others to get their PIO card.

Thanks,
Ganesh

My daughters PIO card and US passport is showing as dispatched on 12/12/2014 but the UPS tracking site shows absolutely no sign that the package was ever dispatched. I am not getting any convincing reply from CKGS helpdesk other than a routine statement asking me to contact UPS.

Does anyone have any information on how to escalate the issue to CGGS management or even Indian embassy?

Passport sent by post/courier number 1 YYYY X 12/12/2014
Your application has been collected from the Embassy/Consulate and is being sorted. Your application will be ready for collection from our Application Centre within one business day. 12/11/2014
Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy/Consulate for further processing. 11/28/2014
Your application is in process. Your tracking id is US YYYY XX 11/26/2014
Your application has been received and will be submitted subject to verification. 11/26/2014

My 'Minor' PIO Experience @ Washington DC

Document Submitted - Nov 4th
Clarification question answered - Nov 9th
Submitted to consulate - Nov 10th
PIO received - Dec 18th

Re-verify all your documents before sending. It is better/quicker to have them correct the first time around that sending supplementaries.

Is it just me or the online application tracking is not working?
http://www.in.ckgs.us/VPOOnline/WebPages/TrackYourApplication.aspx
I applied for PIO, I enter my TRACKING ID and captcha and click Submit. Doesn't go anywhere, stays on the page. Javascript broken? If I hit enter on the TRACKING ID or Captcha fields it goes to the search page..! Tried in couple browsers and on my phone, same result. Thx

Hi,

Please someone could let me know if my PIO minor application could be processed or not.

I submitted my documents to Coxs and Kings on Dec 10th 2014
Documents reached embassy on Dec 11th 2014.

Considering only 21 days left in this month, will consulate approves my son's PIO application or reject it ?

Also I came to know yesterday that my visa petition status is showing as RFE.

I called to Coxs and Kings, and they told that SFO Consulate will generally look for 6 months of valid visa for parents.
And they are saying PIO can only be applied from America and not from India.

Incase if my H1 extension is rejected what are the next steps should I take to take my son with me to India ?

Please kindly respond me..

Thanks....

Below is my experience with CKGS NY

I completely followed the checklist and looks like there has been flaw in the checklist which is not asked for Parents Visa status, Now they corrected. Since I missed the Visa copy , below is the cause.

There were 17 calls to call center, 2 online complaint/feed back , 6 escalations, no one helps and completely frustrated with application status..

I kindly advise folks to review several times and check with your friends / Immihelp experiences once before you send the documents to CKGS and also there is no e-mail access in CKGS office NY , I wasted 1 week due to this and finally sent hard copy of the required document., but still no progress.

Planned and booked for my daughter trip to India on 12/30 , it clearly says it never happen.

Recieved Additional Document CONSULATE REJECTION APPLICANT FATHER VALID USA VISA STATUS COPY IS MISSING 12/4/2014
YOUR APPLICATION IS ON HOLD due to the missing or incomplete documents as mentioned in Remarks Column Only once the documents are received by us at CKGS and post verification, will we be able to continue to process your application. Refer to the Email sent to you from CKGS with further details. Rejected by Consulate. Need Father's USA visa copy. 11/24/2014
Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy/Consulate for further processing. 11/6/2014
Your application is in process. Your tracking id is USAN704 **** * 11/5/2014
Your application has been received and will be submitted subject to verification. 11/5/2014

Applied for PIO for the family including a child and received PIO within 3 weeks (in spite of Thanksgiving holidays). The process was quick and it was good experience. For a minor issue, Team Manager has taken initiative to resolve it soon.

Time lines are:

Passport sent by post/courier number 100192346258000430170077180857 12/07/2014
Your application has been collected from the Embassy/Consulate and is being sorted. Your application will be ready for collection from our Application Centre within one business day. 12/05/2014
Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy/Consulate for further processing. 11/24/2014
Your application is in process. Your tracking id is USAN70545114 11/23/2014
Your application has been received and will be submitted subject to verification. 11/23/2014

Notarized on these forms for child:

Additional Particulars Form
Parental Authorization for Minors
PIO Application Form

The process was smooth in the sense that after submitting I was checking the status online and got the PIO.

Minor issues:
First by mistake I have sent the documents to Consulate of India (NY) and it was returned to me in the return envelope I had in my first mail, within 2 days.
Then it was sent to CKGS.
For each application, separate reference number was allotted.
First my PIO and passport was sent. Other return envelope got missed at CKGS. I sent a mail with screenshot of tracking number and address, CKGS Team Manager has jumped in and has sent other members PIO and passports on the next day.

The courier number given in the onsite is not the actual AWB/tracking number. It seems like some reference number that is internal to CKGS. If we know the tracking number of the return envelope that we sent, we can check from the tracking number for the status.

As far as documents goes: 2 sets of checklists and one copy of all other documents.
I applied for Indian Renunciation and PIO in the same envelope, for each applicant, for each task all the mentioned documents were attached. No short cut in the sense that if there is proof of address on both tasks then copy of address proof on each application (renunciation and PIO) and for each applicant.
On the child application, parents have signed next to child's signature.
Separate payment (MO) for each applicant. We can have single payment for both tasks.

Overall I am fully satisfied with CKGS of NY center.