Surrender Of Indian Passport? Penalty :(

[Balait_da_Sher]

Any lawyers here? My dad and I surrendered our indian passports after finding out recently that it is required by indian law to surrender the passports. We have never travelled on the passports since aquiring British Citizenship which was back in 2001. So now when we submitted the passport, they have fined us £145 each.

like all Indian departments this looks like a money making scheme and has information scattered all over the place. Has anyone had this issue? How did you deal with it? Are there any lawyers who can advice?

http://hcilondon.in/renunciation.php

The following are main provision for surrender of Indian Passport:

Under Indian law, Persons of Indian Origin, who have acquired foreign citizenship, are required to surrender their Indian passports to the nearest Indian Mission/Post immediately after acquisition of foreign citizenship. Person of Indian Origin who have already acquired foreign citizenship till 31.5.2010 are required to surrender their passports whether valid or expired to the respective Indian Mission. They will now have to pay £14(Pound fourteen) only towards Miscellaneous service charge and would not be required to pay any fee under Citizenship Act. However, those Indian citizens who acquire foreign citizenship from 1.6.2010 onwards will have to pay Rs.7,000/- (to be collected in local currency at official rate of exchange fixed by Government of India from time to time) along with a declaration of renunciation of their Indian Citizenship. The revised fee is effective form 01.06.2010. The information regarding applicable fee could be viewed atwww.mha.nic.in/uniquepage.asp?ID_PK=77.

2. The Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, does not allow dual citizenship. Holding Indian passport/acquiring Indian passport/travelling on Indian passport after acquisition of foreign citizenship constitutes an offence under the Indian Passport Act, 1967, and attracts penalties. The Government of India has prescribed imposition of penalty on a graded scale, depending on number of trips made on Indian passport after acquiring foreign nationality, for the violation of Passport Rules and retention of Indian Passport for more than 3 years after acquiring of foreign nationality. The fee structure is as given below:-

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The fee/penalty will be collected at official rate of exchange fixed by the Government of India for each month and rounded off to the next number.

[Balait_da_Sher]

found this, does this apply to UK?

http://www.theistimes.com/tag/indian-passports-surrender/

[VanHelsingh]

You got off lightly. My mom travelled twice using her Indian passport since becoming a British citizen (and obtaining a British passport) in 2005. She got done for £425 last year. We surrendered her passports last year and had to pay £80.00 for a transaction fee, i.e. just to hand it in.

Pathetic, greedy Indian consulate. Although to be fair, they did warn us (smallprint on the Indian consulate website) but you know Indian ladies, they don't listen. If she'd listened to me back in 2005, she wouldn't have had to pay a penny. Instead she followed the example of her friends at work (who got done for even more because they travelled to India on many, many occasions using their Indian passports after obtaining citizenship).

[gurdssingh]

india does not allow dual nationality, so you cant have both passports. you cant travel on indian passport if your a citizen here. they charge you for the visas you should have paid for and a penalty if u travel on indian passport whilst being a citizen here. what you can have is a pio or oci which looks like a passport but is a lifelong visa. there was talk about oci and pio holders to have the right to vote in india. dont know if it was passed.

[proactive]

A guy who deals with the Indian consulate getting visas told me it about £14 to surrender your passport provided you have not travelled on it since you obtained british citizenship. There's a form you need to fill in and you also have to show them a copy of your naturalisation certificate. This was also what my brother was told when he enquired last year.

[Sikhistan]

Same rules here in united states. They will not give you india visa if old passport paperwork not handed in along with fees. India is into making money with such Visa fees and now with surrendering the passbook.

[JasSinghKhalsa]

Bribery didn't worked there? :wink2:

Instead od paying £150/- , PAY £50/- to PEON and Job is done :laugh: