Lost Certificate of Naturalization by Passport office; can't get Indian Visa

[immindianamerican]

Hi,

I became naturalized US citizen in May-2011. I applied for expedited passport right away after Oath-ceremony which I received within 10 days. However, US passport office never returned my Certificate of Naturalization. I have been having several mail and phone correspondence with them and they just don't know where it is. Last time I talked to them was in December-2011 and they told me that they have to check with Washington to see if Passport office mistakenly sent them the certificate.

Now, I have to go to India in March-2012 but I can't. Ideally, I would apply for OCI but since I may not have enough time for processing, I'll have to apply for Entry-visa. However, the visa application requires that I present them with Indian Citizenship Surrender Certificate, application of which requires me to present them with Certificate of Naturalization to prove and convey information about the time when I became naturalized citizen.

I have called Travisa, the outsourcing company which handles all Indian visa related applications, and they say that unless I can provide them either Certificate of Naturalization or some document that provides details of my naturalization, they won't be able to process my application for both Entry-visa and citizenship-renunciation. Apparently, US passport isn't enough.

I checked USCIS website and only form of proof of citizenship, other than US passport, is Certificate of Naturalization for naturalized citizens. Even if I apply for replacement certificate, the enlisted processing time is 6-months.

Any ideas? Is there anyway I can retrieve some document that provides information of my naturalization in short time from USCIS or from any other place? I really need to go to India in March.

Thanks so much for reading and any help you can provide.

[immihelp]

You are stuck.

You need to immediately apply for Certificate of Naturalization - Form N-600, whatever time it takes.

Once you have it, apply for India visa or OCI or whatever you would like.

Once you have that, you can visit India.

[immindianamerican]

I had to request passport office to send me photo copy of my Certificate of Naturalization and they agreed. I made the same request 6 months ago but they denied that. Well! the photo copy will do for now.

[BlueMax]

The whole pitch on expedited passport at regional pp office after Oath Ceremony for which you pay $60 extra is that N-550 never leaves from your possession to avoid getting lost. They verify it and return back to you.