Dilemma

[vik3001]

Hi,

I have a child born in Nov 2010 in the US. Both of us are indian parents on green card. We are planning to move to india in a few years. What is our best course of action for our child, considering the child will be educated in india.

1. Apply for indian birth certificate?

2. Apply for indian passport?

3. Apply for US passport?

We may travel occasionally to US after moving to india. I am thinking to apply for all, so atleast in the next few yrs, child can travel to US on US passport and when in india, can atleast use indian birth cert to get admission?

Gurus pls guide or anyone who has done this before pls help!

Thanks in advance!

[vik3001]

anybody?

anybody?

[nitishkatara]

Apply for IndianPassport

Since you plan to go back and live in india i would suggest to register the child's birth with the closest indian mission/consulate.

This will help you get the indian passport for the child.

Also inquire with the indian mission/consulate - how will the child visit usa in future?

I have read somewhere that the child will be considered a usa citizen by the us consulates and hence will not qualify for any visa. He will have to give up indian citizenship and get the us passport to travel to usa. This you can clarify from the indian consulate/mission when you register the child's birth.

Please update this forum as and when you learn more info from the indian mission/consulate.

hi,

i have a child born in nov 2010 in the us. Both of us are indian parents on green card. We are planning to move to india in a few years. What is our best course of action for our child, considering the child will be educated in india.

1. Apply for indian birth certificate?

2. Apply for indian passport?

3. Apply for us passport?

We may travel occasionally to us after moving to india. I am thinking to apply for all, so atleast in the next few yrs, child can travel to us on us passport and when in india, can atleast use indian birth cert to get admission?

Gurus pls guide or anyone who has done this before pls help!

Thanks in advance!

[piku]

Reply to "dilemma"

If you want to back to India for good then I would advise you to get an Indian passport. We came back to India in 2000 with our 9 month old son. I regret having given him a US passport. You need to apply for a visa every 5 years and depending on where you live, it could be a painfully long process. The last time it took me 8 months and probably 7 or 8 visits to the FRO office to get things moving. My son is in regular school (not international school or anything) and pays regular fees. But I don't know what will happen once he completes Class 12. Since both my husband and I are Indian citizens we cannot apply for OCI for our child (stupid rule!!!). He can do that once he turns 18. I heard two years back that the rule would be changed so that minor children of Indian parents can get OCI, but it has not been done yet. Even if he gets OCI, I am not sure how that will help him in his college education. The rule says "parity with NRI's for education". But NRI's are supposed to pay the inflated fees in dollars. There's no way we can pay inflated fees in dollars because we earn in INR. I have done extensive search on the net to see what people like us (living in India, with a child holding foreign passport) have recourse to in terms of their child's education. I have not had any luck. All the websites of different universities have rules for NRI/PIO/OCI candidates that would apply to people living abroad. Example, they say that "letter from Indian mission in the candidate's home country" etc. The fact that my son has lived in India since infancy and we pay taxes in India, has no bearing on the situation.

Anyway, to make a long story short, for people contemplating on leaving the US or any other foreign country for good and settling in India, Indian passport makes sense. Your child can choose once he / she becomes an adult. Once you give your child a US passport and then find that it is causing problems in India, then the only thing he can do is renounce it when he is 18. And US citizenship, once renounced, cannot be got back. So please think over this and decide what you want to do. I wish someone would read my post and assure me that I am thinking too much and my child's future education is not going to be a problem in India. In case you hear or read anything that does not paint a gloomy picture like I have, please let me know.
All the best.

[vmokshagundam]

Why not get US passport and PIO card? PIO card is valid for 15 years and you can renew it for $25 (in US, not sure about fees in India). Your child can keep US Citizenship and live in India as long as he/she wants. Parents do not have to be foreign citizens to get it, like OCI.

There is a requirement for registering with FRRO, but does not apply to children below 14 or 16 years from what I remember. I'm not sure, check on it.