OCI vs PIO

[kdasari]

Hi all:

I am an Indian who is now naturalized US citizen (2004). My wife was a German National who is also now a US citizen (not dual with Germany). We have two daughters who are both born in the US and have US Passports.

I just applied for Surrender certificate (August 30, 2010) and waiting for the response from SF Consulate.

We are planning to travel to India around late December 2010. My original plan is after having the surrender certificate,
1. apply for OCI for myself and my daughters
2. apply for PIO for my spouse.

Is this still a safe bet given my travel timing? Also the current US Passports of both myself and my will expire in 2014 and will need to be renewed. Given all this should I consider
going PIO for all four of us for now and later consider OCI? I don't really see us staying longer than month or two at the most for each trip in India.
Would like to invest in real property in India for us, but PIO does offer this benefit it seems.

I understand the prefernce between OCI and PIO and the perception of the relative merits of each program vary based personal experiences and preferences. But what I am expecting to get out of your answers is dicussion of a variety of opinions and prefernces that will help me make a decision which way to go.

It may be simply that I may not have enough time to process OCI (i hear that it can take up tp 4 months).

Appreciate comments and feed back.

Thanks
KD

[curtdfw]

You're correct that PIO issuance is likely much faster -- I got mine (I'm married to an Indian national) in four weeks from the Houston consulate. You can always upgrade to OCI later. The only tricky part is the processing time for the Surrender certificate.

Both PIO and OCI have the same real estate investment privileges, excluding only agricultural properties.

[kdasari]

SC Still Not here

I haven't recieved my SC yet, can't seem to reach SF consulate for status update.

Any advice on how to get stuatus update on SC application once the "advertised" processing time has elapsed?

[kdasari]

My calls are not returned

My calls SF CGI are not returned regarding the status enquiry of the surrender certificate.

[kdasari]

Recived my Surrender Certificate

I finally got the Surrender Certificate in the mail yesterday. I am planning to goto CGI in SF tomorrow to apply for the PIO for the entire family. I have the application package ready with all the required docs.

Any suggestions as to how long the process will take? I am still expecting to travel in early December. Is this enough time to recieve the PIO?

Any ways to exepedite this process?