In person for entry visa in Houston consulate.

[vellabadu]

We have applied for OCI back in August and we still did not get it. So we applied for Entry Visa in October and its been more than 4 weeks, we still didn't hear anything. The latest status says, the documents have been submitted to the Indian consulate. We purchased tickets to India to travel on December 3rd. It looks like we are not going to get the visa. Based on the current situation I don't think we will get the entry visa anytime soon.

I just applied visa for my wife only, my son has PIO and I have OCI. My wife already traveled to India once on entry visa. So when we applied entry visa in October 2009, they canceled her Indian passport (they have a stamp in her Indian passport and it says "Passport Canceled on acquisition of foreign citizenship"). Since she got citizenship before May 31st, 2010 and she has cancellation stamp, we never applied for her surrender certificate. I don't think we need to apply for surrender certificate. Do you think this is still an issue? Also we already applied her OCI and the latest status is "Photos scanned on September 24"). If surrender certificate is the issue, then they should have raised that when we applied for OCI.

So here are my questions.

1. Can we fly to Houston and request the Indian consulate to grant entry visa?
2. Do I need to take an appointment (I tried to take a personal appointment, but I couldn't find it).
3. Can her brother who lives in Houston go in person to the consulate to get her entry visa.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know I shouldn't buy the tickets until we get the visa in our hands, but we have to go to India to attend my brother-in-law's marriage.

It's been nightmare with Houston Indian consulate.

P.S: My friend also applied for entry visa for his family, their U.S born daughter got the visa in one day but the parents are in the same boat as mine. And the consulate is not going to send his daughter's passport until the parents get entry visa.

[mjfernand]

Hi vellabadu,
I was in a similar position. I had applied for OCI end of August and since it was not forthcoming I went in person to travisa (where the indian consulate in Houston outsources the visas) and was able to get an entry visa same day. Based on other peoples experiences there, it seems that if you mail it it, it can take 4weeks up to 3 months to get the entry visa back. Instead, if you do it in person, you can get it same day.
I think the main holdup is the surrender certificate needed for the entry visa. If you have that in hand and include it in your application (like I did) then it's quick. Another woman who was in front of me had not yet cancelled her passport. They advised her to go to the indian consulate and submit the renunciation form and old passport (see the houston consulate website for details) and then with the receipt they gave her, they told her to go to travisa and apply for a TOURIST visa instead of an entry visa. It seems they are doing this for a short period of time due to this problem of OCI taking too long. Even though the consulate website says that you cannot do a tourist visa for persons of indian origin and the travisa website will say that you cannot, just go to the travisa office and they will help you fill out the forms and you can get it same day or next day. Hope that helps you and best of luck.