Renunciation Procedure using VFS

[CC80]

Here is my timeline with SFO,

02/05/21 : Application mailed via FedEx
02/09/21 : "your package has been received at the VFS application Centre. Our current processing times are longer than usual. Your application will be reviewed with 48-72 business hours."
03/01/21‘ " Received’ your Application and your application is now ‘Under Process’ at San Francisco."
03/03/21 :"Your Application has been ‘Processed’ at the VFS India Consular application Centre and currently is ‘In-Transit‘ to the Embassy of India/Consulate General of India for decision making."
03/19/21 : "Your Application has been reviewed by the Embassy of India/ Consulate General of India & will be dispatched using the courier service you had opted."
03/19/21 : "Your document (s) is dispatched using the return label purchased or sent by you.If using VFS courier, please check for email from "[email protected]" for details."
03/22/21 : Received documents back in hand.

[bloxer]

Update: Called VFS today. They are currently processing renunciation applications received on March 8th.

They asked me if I applied Tatkal or Regular. So I asked them to upgrade mine to Tatkal. Their answer: Tatkal is not available for Renunciation!! (what idiots, why ask?).

I wanted my OCI to go Tatkal, they are like: OCI also does not have Tatkal. Then what is tatkal for??? (issuing passports, which is already pretty quick in most places).

What an agency!

[bloxer]

Here is my timeline with SFO,

02/05/21 : Application mailed via FedEx
02/09/21 : "your package has been received at the VFS application Centre. Our current processing times are longer than usual. Your application will be reviewed with 48-72 business hours."
03/01/21‘ " Received’ your Application and your application is now ‘Under Process’ at San Francisco."
03/03/21 :"Your Application has been ‘Processed’ at the VFS India Consular application Centre and currently is ‘In-Transit‘ to the Embassy of India/Consulate General of India for decision making."
03/19/21 : "Your Application has been reviewed by the Embassy of India/ Consulate General of India & will be dispatched using the courier service you had opted."
03/19/21 : "Your document (s) is dispatched using the return label purchased or sent by you.If using VFS courier, please check for email from "[email protected]" for details."
03/22/21 : Received documents back in hand.

45 days only? Fantastic.

[arkaa]

Here is my timeline with SFO,

02/05/21 : Application mailed via FedEx
02/09/21 : "your package has been received at the VFS application Centre. Our current processing times are longer than usual. Your application will be reviewed with 48-72 business hours."
03/01/21‘ " Received’ your Application and your application is now ‘Under Process’ at San Francisco."
03/03/21 :"Your Application has been ‘Processed’ at the VFS India Consular application Centre and currently is ‘In-Transit‘ to the Embassy of India/Consulate General of India for decision making."
03/19/21 : "Your Application has been reviewed by the Embassy of India/ Consulate General of India & will be dispatched using the courier service you had opted."
03/19/21 : "Your document (s) is dispatched using the return label purchased or sent by you.If using VFS courier, please check for email from "[email protected]" for details."
03/22/21 : Received documents back in hand.

That is probably the quickest turnaround I have seen reported since VFS took over. Maybe they are getting better? I am planning to apply as soon as I get my US passport - hope Houston is also doing better with the time lines.

[sln]

Funny, the same consulate (SFO) were on a "Webinar on Indian Visa" on Feb 20 and said Renunciation would take 3 weeks

[bloxer]

Funny, the same consulate (SFO) were on a "Webinar on Indian Visa" on Feb 20 and said Renunciation would take 3 weeks

* Renunciation processing inside embassy is taking 3 weeks (See response from CC80, 03/03 - 03/19).
* When these guys talk, they only talk about their own processing time, they do not include VFS time, or other organization time, forget about shipping, dispatching time etc.
* I asked VFS (today) about how long embassy is taking right now, they said 1 week. So clearly that is not true because we know embassy is taking much longer.
* VFS also said applications at VFS is taking 1 week, that is also a lie (from my own experience 2wks+ and counting). <== this is a killer in whole system, which is already a sloth

I am forming a serious complaint against VFS to MEA, will post early next week to their website. This slowness is acceptable when they do it for free, but not otherwise if they charge $200+ for each step. I am paying for a service & getting garbage. Things need to change. We all need to file a complaint with MEA directly. In fact, if you look at MEA website, there are specific links for VFS related issues/complaints.

In this era, how are we all even putting up with such organizations! If there was even a single person handling all cases "actively", I cannot see how things will move so slow.

[ocitrack]

Update: Called VFS today. They are currently processing renunciation applications received on March 8th.

They asked me if I applied Tatkal or Regular. So I asked them to upgrade mine to Tatkal. Their answer: Tatkal is not available for Renunciation!! (what idiots, why ask?).

I wanted my OCI to go Tatkal, they are like: OCI also does not have Tatkal. Then what is tatkal for??? (issuing passports, which is already pretty quick in most places).

What an agency!

Thanks for calling them to find the date. i will post here if i there is any progress in my application.

[Naglos]

Hello, I have Submitted My Renunciation Application Through VFS On 20th Jan 2021. It Was Forwarded To The Embassy For Processing On 5th Feb 2021. After That, I Have Not Heard Any Updates for a long time. Then 3rd March, I got a response from PRAMIT that my application has been referred to RPO Chennai for clearance. I don't understand why it needs RPO clearance for the renunciation. Every time dealing with the Indian consulate is painful even though we pay a lot of fees.

I don't know what to do now and need your advice.

Thanks

[ocitrack]

I just received a email from VFS requesting additional documents.
03/10/2021 - Application Mailed
03/11/2021 - Received my VFS
03/30/2021. - Email Requesting Additional Information.

[Donald_Trump]

bloxer VFS only charges about $15.90 as service fee. The rest goes to Indian government actually!

The vendor before VFS was CKGS and it was very efficient with them. They had a very good online application and tracking system of their own and you could even do Renunciation and OCI application together when CKGS was the vendor. The only reason CKGS lost contract was their founder (Founder of parent company Cox & Kings) was involved in some bank fraud and investigations and cases are going against him. (This is the only logical reason I can think of for the change in vendors) You can search Cox and Kings bank fraud online if you are interested!

Unfortunately, VFS was the natural choice as VFS had experience before CKGS of being the vendor but VFS was known for its bad performance even previously..

* Renunciation processing inside embassy is taking 3 weeks (See response from CC80, 03/03 - 03/19).
* When these guys talk, they only talk about their own processing time, they do not include VFS time, or other organization time, forget about shipping, dispatching time etc.
* I asked VFS (today) about how long embassy is taking right now, they said 1 week. So clearly that is not true because we know embassy is taking much longer.
* VFS also said applications at VFS is taking 1 week, that is also a lie (from my own experience 2wks+ and counting). <== this is a killer in whole system, which is already a sloth

I am forming a serious complaint against VFS to MEA, will post early next week to their website. This slowness is acceptable when they do it for free, but not otherwise if they charge $200+ for each step. I am paying for a service & getting garbage. Things need to change. We all need to file a complaint with MEA directly. In fact, if you look at MEA website, there are specific links for VFS related issues/complaints.

In this era, how are we all even putting up with such organizations! If there was even a single person handling all cases "actively", I cannot see how things will move so slow.

[ocitrack]

i have to upload some documents requested by VFS. In the message i received, they have asked to enter the application ID # and Application Reference Number. I think ARN is the government issued number. anyone know what is the application ID # ? I could not find any reference in any emails from vfs.

[bloxer]

i have to upload some documents requested by VFS. In the message i received, they have asked to enter the application ID # and Application Reference Number. I think ARN is the government issued number. anyone know what is the application ID # ? I could not find any reference in any emails from vfs.

VFS email contains an Application Letter & Renunciation Cert Letter (attached pdfs) after registration is complete at their site. The only thing I can think of is the pdf "name" which includes application letter has an ID which looks something like this..."USAS___.pdf". That same ID was used for renunciation cert pdf document name and courier labels pdf names. That is very likely VFS Application ID#.

(this is my best guess, i don't claim that it for sure is).

[sholay]

Finally received an update "Your Application has been reviewed and received will be dispatched using the courier service opted by you".

[sln]

Finally received an update "Your Application has been reviewed and received will be dispatched using the courier service opted by you".

Which consulate? How long since you applied? I assume this message is from Consulate?

[bloxer]

SFO Renunciation update:

03/12/2021 - Sent physical
03/15/2021 - Received fedex
03/16/2021 - VFS recv ack (Email)
04/01/2021 - VFS under process (Email)
04/01/2021 - VFS processing done, ready to send to Mission (2 hours later SMS)
04/02/2021 - Sent to mission
04/05/2021 - In-process at Embassy