child born in india to us citizen father and indian citizen mother

[harshit]

Hi. I am a US Citizen with OCI. My wife is Indian citizen with US greencard.
We have moved back to india from usa permanently.
We are expecting a child here. My questions are

1) I want my child to get Indian citizenship at birth and not US (as wife is Indian citizen). Is it possible to do so when he/she is born? I know as a us citizen I can apply for my child's US passport.But I dont want to do so. We both are planning to renounce our US citizenship in next few years when I get Indian citizenship.

2) If the answer to above question is no, how to get Indian citizenship for my child? If US citizenship is the only thing he gets at birth, can I apply for his OCI from india and later apply for Indian citizenship?

Thanks

[immihelp]

If your child is born in India, there is no problem. Just get the regular Indian citizenship for the child, just like everyone else born in India does, including the way you were born.

There is nothing additional required. It does not matter that you are US citizen.

[cafeconleche]

Technically, the child will be a US citizen, and therefore not an Indian citizen. However, Indian law is unclear about a lot of things, and they won't know/care that the child is a US citizen through one parent.

You cannot renounce the child's US citizenship. The child can only do that once he/she grows up. I would do the child a favour and apply at least for a US consular report of birth abroad (no need to get a passport) so that, in future, the child can choose to exercise his/her US citizenship. It's a valuable thing, and not giving your child the option to exercise it in future would be unwise.

Essentially, you'd all be "pretending" that the child is an Indian citizen. I know this is all for the sake of educational costs, etc., and I understand. Just make sure to consider all options/factors.

Good luck.