The competition between CKGS and Indian Government to harrass Foreign born Desis

[frustydesiguy]

I just applied for the OCI process.What a mess! Seriously! CKGS is the third party that the Indian Government hired to work with all OCIs. For starters, I think the OCI process was designed by some drunk monkey with such ridiculous rules!. I am not sure if the designer of the process was trolling or he was insane. Some of the things about the process ( getting a photo with certain specifications that you have to with special photo editing software) is a literal insult to human intellect. I guess, to make life easier for NRIs and PIOs, the next thing they might introduce is building a Oracle DB of your family members and then producing a report of it using a BI tool like Buisiness Objects or Microstrategy and then submit the report as a part of the application! dumb fracks!( Is the Indian government trying to recruit IT professionals by using such methods, The OCI photo requirements gave me an idea that they are).

I am a twentysomething bachelor . My process should have been simple and easy since I am not filling anything for any family member but just myself and since I have never been married , I don't have to fill any details about an ex spouse as well , my parents never surrendered their Indian citizenship, so they are still Indian citizens and hence I did not have to fill any details about their OCI history a well! should have been simple! instead I think I toured half of my county getting together all their stupid requirements. They have ludicrous requirements like notarizing government documents like Naturalization certificate and passport copies and what not ( Technically illegal in the United States ) . No one would do it. Since I live with roommates, I have to go to the office to personally do color copies of passport, and naturalization certificates.
Their website is stuck in the freakin 90s!. Looks like someone built it by looking at a tutorial on youtube!. Instructions are poor, the options are confusing, there are no clear explanation of what each option means , the radio buttons do not even work on mobile sites!. I had accidentally selected a wrong radio button due to an issue with the mobile site ( it locked a wrong option and refused to change) and after that I went through hell. I had to call CKGS to change my selection, it should have been a simple process , but instead, every gentleman I spoke to on the phone kept on giving me different solutions. I got a migraine listening to their BS for weeks.

The matchup process is a joke. The government dispatches you the OCI and then after you fill in the match up form with your passport and send it to CKGS, you get this email

I mean WHY in the BLUE HELL should I send a copy of the below email and the matchup process form AGAIN when I have already sent it with my passport.???? WHAT THE F??
Your OCI Card has been ‘Received’ in the Indian Embassy / Consulate and is ‘Ready to be Matched - Up’ with your original US / Foreign Passport.

You will have to send the following documents to CKGS Application Centre on receipt of this Email.

1) OCI Match Up Form duly completed and signed. The form is available online at http://www.in.ckgs.us/resources/pdf/...m-new-york.pdf . All information as requested in this form has to be completed, including Submission and Collection Sections.


2) Original US / Foreign Passport. The passport must be the same that you entered on your OCI Application.


3) ‘OCI in lieu of PIO’ applicants must send their Original PIO card along with passport for match up as PIO will be canceled by the Consulate.

4) ‘OCI reissue (Passport expired)' applicants must send their old OCI booklet/card and expired US/Foreign passport along with current US/Foreign passport for match up.


5) Copy of this Email that is sent requesting for Match up.


6) The documents as mentioned in the Match Up Form has to be submitted to:-

Attn OCI Match Up

OCI Department

CKGS Application Centre - New York

235 W, 23rd St, 2nd Flo

and the worst PART about CKGS is that THEY DO NOT TELL YOU IF something is MISSING...they will just sit on their backsides and wait for you to call and ask them ''WHAT is wrong??'. A man sitting in India will answer your call and say 'OHH I know what is wrong, you have to submit XYZ, ABC and then you will be fine' _ I MEAN why cant you make an effort to contact the concerned person and help them speed up the process?? what a disaster this whole process is ...everyone from the government to the embassy and ckgs have such apathy for its people! I can only imagine the hell Indian citizens on H1b and green card and student visas go through in case they have to work with this inept circle of bureaucrats

I pray to God to give mental strength to people stuck with this process and some sanity to the people who are in charge of it.

[frustydesiguy]

Try calling CKGS , you will be greeted by some ****o music on the waiting line for about 20 minutes. Some gentleman picks up the phone and answers your questions.
Try calling again and after some time with same questions and another man picks up the phone and will give you different answer for the same question

This sums up the whole process!. No one is sure what is going on.
I am not sure whose fault it is, the Embassy, the ministry or CKGS, but the common people are suffering because of this process. End this madness now.There are people that I know that need to get heart surgery done, someone wants to meet his dying relative, someone wants to move back to India with his family- but they are all on the tenterhooks due to a broken and fractured process. This needs to be fixed
and stop this change oci after age of 20, after age of 50 , while minor and blah blah! Please stop this nonsense! What is the purpose of a lifelong visa if you have to keep renewing it regularly through a fresh process ( and I went through this process just once, and that too the most simple procedure, a bachelor with no family members, still i went through so much hardship, can only imagine what people with families have to go through!)
I understand the government needs NRI money for developing India , so instead, collect a flat OCI maintenance tax every XYZ year instead of making them go through such a poorly designed process which is such waste of time . The current process is just a complete turn off, just collect money through OCI tax and have online renewal ( just like license plate in US or the Green card renewal which my parents go through) after a first time detailed process!. The money is not the complaint people have, the application process and all the BS around it is the problem , and I can go through the application process once, but not every time!

[TheKonkanidude1990]

Indians abroad are known to treat each other badly. An Indian sulks when he sees another Indian . The organizations like CKGS and Indian Embassy are a representation of the behavior of the general public. We are not exactly the nicest , warm people around and these organizations are just an extension of us.
HEnce, we get the service that is more or less a representation of your attitude towards each other.
Plain and Simple!
Having said that, I do agree with your idea of having a flat OCI maintenance tax and a simplified renewal process and a one time long application process. That would really be helpful
Question is, who gives a damn? who reads these suggestions? all we see is some turd from CKGS who replies with automated replies on this thread.