VFS Delivered Passport to Wrong Person

[sinnerman26]

VFS Delivered my canceled Indian passport and Surrender Certificate with the stamps from the Consulate to the wrong address. I had provided them prepaid shipping label. They seem to have put my docs into someone else's prepaid label and delivered it to them. The other person reached out to me letting me know about the receipt of my documents but will not release them to me without some sort of authorization or advise from Consulate. I contacted the Chicago consulate, Consul General, Vice Consul General and bunch of other people but I get no response. VFS also does not respond.

I fear sending this people my US passport now for OCI.

Any ideas how to proceed?

[Donald_Trump]

Sorry that this happened to you. VFS was known for this shoddy work prior to CKGS when they had the contract and used to be the outsourcing provider. It seems nothing has changed in these years. I am afraid they are the only one through which all your Consular needs has to be processed, no other way. You will again need to deal with VFS for OCI. In short - VFS has the monopoly and hence it sucks at it and applicants have no recourse or actions that can be taken legally against them to hold them accountable and responsible.

If you have time and money for a lawyer, I would say you should go after VFS for doing this. After all, your passport and surrender certificates have your personal information and this has to be protected at all cost under US laws and shouldn't be mishandled in any sort of way. I think only legal threat can wake the VFS guys up.

What you can possibly do right now is to give an empty legal threat to VFS that it's their responsibility and your personal information shouldn't have been exposed to an unauthorized person in any way. This is against US privacy laws and that VFS should make this correct instead of you spending your efforts and money to do whatever is needed. Otherwise you are going to sue them.

And yes, also write to the Consulate officials about this. You should be able to find their contact details on respective jurisdiction's website. I have written to them previously and have got responses from them.

VFS Delivered my canceled Indian passport and Surrender Certificate with the stamps from the Consulate to the wrong address. I had provided them prepaid shipping label. They seem to have put my docs into someone else's prepaid label and delivered it to them. The other person reached out to me letting me know about the receipt of my documents but will not release them to me without some sort of authorization or advise from Consulate. I contacted the Chicago consulate, Consul General, Vice Consul General and bunch of other people but I get no response. VFS also does not respond.

I fear sending this people my US passport now for OCI.

Any ideas how to proceed?

[Donald_Trump]

Also, don't known why the other guy is acting up and asking for Consulate's authorization. I mean he should just confirm some details from you and just mail the docs to you. Pretty simple.

[sahajpatel]

The other guy is actually breaking the law... tell him that. It is illegal to with hold someone else's passport unless you are from a US government agency

[sinnerman26]

Also, don't known why the other guy is acting up and asking for Consulate's authorization. I mean he should just confirm some details from you and just mail the docs to you. Pretty simple.

Exactly. I even gave him copies of my driver's license for identity verification and told him that I can provide you a prepaid shipping so that you can release the documents to me. I mean its already canceled and the surrender certificate has been given. At this point there is no need to involve either VFS or Consulate.

[sinnerman26]

The other guy is actually breaking the law... tell him that. It is illegal to with hold someone else's passport unless you are from a US government agency

Does that apply to foreign passport? Would US law have any jurisdiction over a canceled Indian passport which is property of Indian government?

[sinnerman26]

Sorry that this happened to you. VFS was known for this shoddy work prior to CKGS when they had the contract and used to be the outsourcing provider. It seems nothing has changed in these years. I am afraid they are the only one through which all your Consular needs has to be processed, no other way. You will again need to deal with VFS for OCI. In short - VFS has the monopoly and hence it sucks at it and applicants have no recourse or actions that can be taken legally against them to hold them accountable and responsible.

If you have time and money for a lawyer, I would say you should go after VFS for doing this. After all, your passport and surrender certificates have your personal information and this has to be protected at all cost under US laws and shouldn't be mishandled in any sort of way. I think only legal threat can wake the VFS guys up.

What you can possibly do right now is to give an empty legal threat to VFS that it's their responsibility and your personal information shouldn't have been exposed to an unauthorized person in any way. This is against US privacy laws and that VFS should make this correct instead of you spending your efforts and money to do whatever is needed. Otherwise you are going to sue them.

And yes, also write to the Consulate officials about this. You should be able to find their contact details on respective jurisdiction's website. I have written to them previously and have got responses from them.

Thank you for the response and I appreciate your advise.

Do you know if OCI application can be done in India? Or does it have to be done through US. Like can someone go to India on a tourist visa or e-tourist visa and then apply for OCI while being present in India?

[Donald_Trump]

Yes, you can apply from India but it would be better and recommended if you applied in US. Don't know what are the timelines and documents required if you apply from India.

Thank you for the response and I appreciate your advise.

Do you know if OCI application can be done in India? Or does it have to be done through US. Like can someone go to India on a tourist visa or e-tourist visa and then apply for OCI while being present in India?

[sinnerman26]

I finally received my canceled Indian passport and Surrender Certificate back yesterday. I had to coordinate with the Chicago Consulate who basically washed their hands off any responsibility saying this is VFS fault, which is true. They did escalate the matters with VFS and I got a call from someone at VFS. They had the nerve to tell me that they didn't receive the shipping label, which they had clearly lost and for some reason put my passport and surrender certificate in somebody else's return envelope.

Now I had the soft copy of the return label which I forwarded to them and told them to forward it to the person who is currently holding my items. At first they wanted to get the items back to VFS and then send it to me. I don't trust these people not to screw things up again so I asked them to allow the recipient of my items to directly send it to me.

Some observations and lessons learned from this incident:

01. Keep a copy of everything you send to VFS. (Make extra copies if you don't have any of your passports, shipping label, etc.)

02. For Surrender of Indian citizenship, don't try to make sense of their forms. Just print the checklist, use an editing application to enter in your details, additional particulars form is not necessary, send multiple passport size pictures, provide two proofs of address.

03. Try and find the Consul General's direct phone line if possible. The general lines are always going to voicemail at Chicago. I was able to find the Consul General's direct phone line and his secretary was able to escalate the matter with VFS for a quick resolution.

04. The VFS helpdesk is useless. They will charge you money for your calls but they don't have any information about the VFS Application Center operations. Try and reach directly to VFS Application Center.

05. Have patience.

06. Count on your fellow former Indian citizens to help you. The person who had my passport and certificate was truly a gentleman. The folks here who have advised and shared their experience are a great resource. Continue to share your observations for others who are in the same boat.

[Donald_Trump]

sinnerman26 Congrats! Also, you were asking if you can do OCI application in India. If you are living in the same location as the Consulate (Chicago in your case), then you can wait till VFS starts in-person acceptance of application. This way, you can avoid the shipping and mix-up as you can also have the OCI picked up in person.