Waiting for OCI Passport Match up

[nc_desi]

Dear Forum Members,
The current status of my OCI application as per GOI website is as follows. I believe this means the OCI has been granted but I am still waiting for BLS to notify me to send the passport for match. I have got two questions.

1) Does the status below reflect that my OCI card has been approved?
2) Why is BLS taking so long to notify me to send the passport for matchup?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Applicant Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
File Acknowledgment Number xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date Of Acknowledgment 26-JUL-2013
Registration Status at Mission WASHINGTON DC
OCI- Number A#######
Documents Printing Status PROCESSED On 23-SEP-2013
Dispatched From MOIA (OCI ) NEW DELHI On 25-SEP-2013
Document received At WASHINGTON DC On 02-OCT-2013

[nopm]

Throughout the entire 2 month process, I never received any e-mail from BLSI directly. After the paperwork arrived in Houston, I was also wondering when I will get an e-mail from them with instructions. Never got one. So, took a leap of faith, by luck found they had a requirement of sending a screen print of Confirmation along with the passport, sent in passport and confirmation and copy of return pre-paid express mail label, and it worked. You will find the details in another post of mine in this thread: “OCI Reissue - Urgent question - Any latest experience?”, but I am pasting below my timeline which tells you what I did at your stage. Good luck, and please come back here and share your story.

Here’s the timeline:
Mailed application – 9/21/13, Saturday
Application accepted by BLS – 9/25/13, Wednesday
Application Processed and Ready to be submitted to Consulate - 9/27/13, Friday (OK, that means first hurdle cleared)
Application sent to Consulate – around 9/30/13
Application sent to MOIA (India) – around 10/4/13 (2nd hurdle cleared!!!)
Documents printed/processed at MOIA (India) – 10/22/13, Tuesday (3rd hurdle cleared!!!)
Documents dispatched by MOIA (India) – 11/1/13, Friday
Documents received at Houston Consulate – 11/5/13, Tuesday; website also says – Pending Application. You have to go to a different tracking location where it says the same thing, but also provides a link to get a Confirmation Screen Print ( yes, the spelling of Enquiry is wrong on the URL); at that link you input some information, and it generates another page that gives OCI-Application Status Details (name, file no., date of acknowledgment, registration status at mission, OCI no., doc. Printing status, dispatched form MOIA (OCI) date, and Document received at Houston date). I believe I was supposed to get an e-mail from BLS informing me that docs were at Houston Consulate, so I need to send in original US passport and this Confirmation Screen Print. I never got that e-mail, wasted a few days, eventually found my way to this other page of tracking my application, which gave me the instructions. The toll free helpline goes to India, and they are completely useless. I called them on a Friday, the connection was extremely bad, the gentleman was very nice, he promised me that I will get an e-mail the next day (Saturday??), then said within a day or 2, then couldn’t answer why I have never received any e-mail throughout the process, and then just hung up. I e-mailed also, and the response was quite swift. My question was – I know docs are at Houston Consulate, somehow I was able to discover that I needed a Confirmation Screen Print and got that, but haven’t received any e-mail from BLS, so do I send the passport and Confirmation, or is there anything else I need to send that I have not discovered yet? E-mail response was quick, but not very confident – Yes, you may send in the passport, no talk of the Confirmation Screen Print.
Mailed new/current/renewed US passport of applicant plus Confirmation Screen Print plus copy of pre-paid USPS return Express Mail label to BLS – 11/9/13, Saturday. The 3rd item was not required, but I sent in anyway, with a hand written note that this was a copy, the original was sent with the application in September. I also pasted the original shipping label from September on the USPS envelope, with a hand written note on the label that this was “Passport Matchup for OCI Reissue.” Keeping a PDF of everything that went out helped in this case.
BLS receives package – 11/12/13, Tuesday (11/11 Monday was federal holiday)
BLS acknowledges package receipt on web site – around 11/13/13
BLS sends package to Consulate for OCI/Passport matchup – around 11/14/13 (4th hurdle cleared!!!)
Passport matchup done at Consulate – around 11/15/13
Passport and OCI dispatched from Consulate – around 11/15/13 (5th hurdle cleared!!!)
Application received at BLS Center – 11/18/13, Monday, 11:02 am
Application Dispatched to Applicant – 11/18/13, Monday, 18:04 pm (6th hurdle cleared!!!)
Passport and OCI received in hand – 11/20/13, Wednesday

[nc_desi]

Thank you everyone for your comments and directions!

I am very delighted to announce that I finally got my OCI after a very long journey of about 6 months.

The case was escalated to BLS' Regional Head and the BLS team sprung into action and was able to trace our OCI applications and were able to match up the passports with the OCI Regsitration.

Apparently, it appears that the BLS systems didn't receive an acknowledgement from the OCI status and thereby the match-up process never got started systematically.

I would also like to thank the BLS Washington team including their management who worked diligently to resolve the issue.

Wish you all a Happy New Year 2014!