Did anybody successfully receive Indian visa from CKGS yet?

[weirded]

Done?

My coworkers application now reads "Document received from The Indian Embassy and is ready for collection.". So some progress, I guess?

[Andrea Tsoi]

Application Status

Here was my application Status. I arrived at the NYC office at 8:40. Office opened at 9am. Probably about 15 people in front of me with appointments I got to the counter at 9:33. The rest you can see below. I got through to the customer service via phone, and asked them how long it should take to ship back with the prepaid self-addressed envelope. They said 2-3 days, but since it's already past that point I have a bad feeling that I will need to go in person to pick up. I heard on Yelp someone working with the SF office hasn't seen it ship for 5 days. I'm travelling for business, and am not even in NYC during the weekdays. So trying to work it out now.


Application Status/ Date of Status

Document received from The Indian Embassy and is ready for collection. 6/6/2014 1:17:46 PM
Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy for further processing. 6/4/2014 11:37:39 AM
Your Application is Submitted at the Embassy/Consulate 6/4/2014 6:00:12 AM
Your application is in process. Your tracking id is USAN10071014 5/30/2014 9:48:16 AM
Your Appointment is Scheduled 5/30/2014 9:33:28 AM

[bholla]

Finally got it

I must admire CKGS support team. They called me several times at my home, my cell, etc. (while I was on a flight) to tell me that my visa is ready for pickup. Including somebody from India also tried to call me. Finally after I landed I picked up the call and luckily I was in NYC, so went to CKGS office at 4 PM and picked up the passport. What an experience. Next stop India!!

Thanks to CKGS support team.

[Andrea Tsoi]

I must admire CKGS support team. They called me several times at my home, my cell, etc. (while I was on a flight) to tell me that my visa is ready for pickup. Including somebody from India also tried to call me. Finally after I landed I picked up the call and luckily I was in NYC, so went to CKGS office at 4 PM and picked up the passport. What an experience. Next stop India!!

Thanks to CKGS support team.

Hi Bholla,
Can you tell us about your experience on picking up the visa? i.e. how long did it take you to get the visa at 4pm? Mine still hasn't be sent via the prepaid envelope, so I think I will need to go on Monday to pick it up. I only have one chance to pick it up before my trip, since I am also travelling...I actually just moved my flight back to 8pm to try to get out to the CKGS office...

[bholla]

Hi Bholla,
Can you tell us about your experience on picking up the visa? i.e. how long did it take you to get the visa at 4pm? Mine still hasn't be sent via the prepaid envelope, so I think I will need to go on Monday to pick it up. I only have one chance to pick it up before my trip, since I am also travelling...I actually just moved my flight back to 8pm to try to get out to the CKGS office...

Hi Andrea, Yeah I suggest just go and pick it up. I went there around 4 PM and it was a mess. There were already about 30 people waiting in hot and humid (no AC) hallway {may be they are preparing people how hot and humid it would be to experience in India at this time, }. After few minutes the security guy comes and says everybody must have a printout of the receipt else will not be allowed to go upstairs. I had to run to the Fedex office around the corner to get it printed and go back. In the mean time everybody went upstairs. I gave my printout to another security guy upstairs and says I must sit and turn off the cellphone. Everybody was waiting silent and to my surprise a lady comes out through one of the doors on the left side and calls my name. May be I was lucky because of my situation and they kept my passport on the side specially marked. Last in and first out.

My suggestion would be to go there early and give some time and make sure you have a printout with web file number, name and passport number printed. I paid for the service online and I printed that receipt.

Good luck.

[g2014]

Congratulations Bholla.

I must admire CKGS support team. They called me several times at my home, my cell, etc. (while I was on a flight) to tell me that my visa is ready for pickup. Including somebody from India also tried to call me. Finally after I landed I picked up the call and luckily I was in NYC, so went to CKGS office at 4 PM and picked up the passport. What an experience. Next stop India!!

Thanks to CKGS support team.

[gvish]

My daughter's PIO application got rejected saying 'thumbmarks was not clear'. We are travelling to India next month, so planning to apply for Visa.
Myself and my husband are Indian Citizens. Which visa should I apply for my daughter Tourist visa or Entry Visa?

[cdolon16]

My daughter's PIO application got rejected saying 'thumbmarks was not clear'. We are travelling to India next month, so planning to apply for Visa.
Myself and my husband are Indian Citizens. Which visa should I apply for my daughter Tourist visa or Entry Visa?

Hi gvish,
How did you find out about the rejection did you receive it in the mail? When was your application received by CKGS? Was it in person or mailed to them. Just trying to understand how long it took them to process. Thanks!

[gvish]

Hi cdolon16,

Our application reached them on May21st, I didn't receive any tracking id/acknowledgement mail from ckgs.
After sending mail to consulate and after talking to customer care ppl they have opened our package(after 3 weeks).
They just rejected the application saying my daughters thumbprint is not clear and need to resend the application.
I don't know how much clarity of thumbprint they expect from a 6 month old.
They took 3 weeks to open my application packet, so planning to apply for Visa.

You can send mail to consulate people as well as call the customer care guys.

[RyanA808]

Help!!!!

Hello Bholla,

Please help us with your details, you can mail your queries on [email protected], so that we can resolve this issue as soon as possible .

Regards,
Team CKGS

This has been my status for over a week now nobody can tell me exactly when they will return my passport in the return envelope i provided. Is there anyone here who knows that work for CKGS? Im flying in less than two weeks and Im not only flying to India so I really need my passport back.

Application Status Date of Status

Document received from The Indian Embassy and is ready for collection. 6/7/2014 6:09:04 AM

Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy for further processing. 6/6/2014 12:04:25 PM

Your Application is Submitted at the Embassy/Consulate 6/6/2014 8:54:54 AM

Your application is in process. Your tracking id is 6/5/2014 10:54:22 PM

Your Appointment is Scheduled 6/5/2014 10:49:38 PM

[cdolon16]

Hi cdolon16,

Our application reached them on May21st, I didn't receive any tracking id/acknowledgement mail from ckgs.
After sending mail to consulate and after talking to customer care ppl they have opened our package(after 3 weeks).
They just rejected the application saying my daughters thumbprint is not clear and need to resend the application.
I don't know how much clarity of thumbprint they expect from a 6 month old.
They took 3 weeks to open my application packet, so planning to apply for Visa.

You can send mail to consulate people as well as call the customer care guys.

How do you contact the consulate? What is their email address?

[ragu20]

My coworkers application now reads "Document received from The Indian Embassy and is ready for collection.". So some progress, I guess?

Thanks bholla and Andrea for your response. There is no change in status for us. It is still the same "'Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy for further processing."
We applied by post. Does it take long to get response from Embassy.

We have an emergency to travel to India on June 20th.
Can we go directly to the Indian Embassy in New York directly to get the stamping for Entry Visa.

Regards,
Ragu20

[ragu20]

Thanks bholla and Andrea for your response. There is no change in status for us. It is still the same "'Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy for further processing."
We applied by post. Does it take long to get response from Embassy.

We have an emergency to travel to India on June 20th.
Can we go directly to the Indian Embassy in New York directly to get the stamping for Entry Visa.

Regards,
Ragu20

[HHB]

I have applied for tourist visa (my children) by mail 20 days ago; one application status shows "basic information entered on may 27" whatever that means and after 4 emails and 3 phone calls, I have not learned anything new. All I get is " we are working on this and there were 5000 applications from BLS". Second application status shows " ready to be collected" even though it was sent by FedEx!? I wonder if support staff on phone have any access to information at all. If push them harder, they put you on hold for two minutes and repeat what they told you alaready which is "we are working on this and you will get an email soon". I have travel coming up in 2 weeks and I have to get this visa.I think I have to travel to San Francisco and see if this setup is even functional. I found an email address from consulate site but that goes back to deaf ears of CGS. Dialing published phone number of CKGS gets you "number not in service"!! And this is the only gateway to India! CKGS administration, consulate of India, will you please WAKE UP?

[Andrea Tsoi]

CKGS passport collection issues

OK here's what's going on so far. I went to the CKGS NYC office today.
When I arrived at 3:30 there was already about 50 people in line waiting to collect their passports. We were crammed into a stuffy and hot first floor hallway, there were about 20 more people left to wait outside in the heat. Only 10 people were allowed upstairs at 4pm. I've been up there, and there are at least 40 chairs up there. The staff took all of our confirmation forms in a pile, and they said when they found our passports they would go downstairs and call our name. There was no order to the process or a line, so no first come first serve. Between 4-6pm, they only completed a dozen collection requests, half of which they told people their passports could not be found, regardless of what status was given on-line. Others in line have said they waited from 4-10pm last week before being turned away and being asked to try again another day. On Friday, they collected people's names and phone numbers and said they would call them when they found their passports. No one receive a call. This apparently has been consistent all last week, as people have mentioned the same scenario for Wed. and Thurs. last week Each day, the staff have said "this will be better than yesterday," but it's not. Honestly the visa process is a hot mess.

I had a flight tonight and the latest I could stay was 6pm. I actually paid penalties to have my flight shifted later in the day, so I could go to the visa office, not realizing it was this bad. I gave my contact information to another person in line, with a mild hope that if my passport came down he could get it for me. A stranger's hands are better than CKGS at this point. He did not get his passport, and neither did I. He told me that at 8:30 they kicked everyone out and locked the door. So they have all our confirmation letters and passports now. He said that when they kicked everyone out, the 10 people who were upstairs came down and said they were calling out more names upstairs. So they WERE NOT bringing the passports down. some people snuck upstairs to check it out. Some people got their passports, some did not so definitely many were not completed.

If you do try to go in person. Try to make a copy on your confirmations, because you'll never see them again.

Apparently if you can get your passport, you can go to the consulate to get your visa directly if you have a flight within 2 days. But if CKGS has your passport you're out of luck