Immigration
PIO to obtain Surrender Certificate of Indian Citizenship
Persons of Indian origin applying for Indian visa, OCI/PIO Card or miscellaneous consular services are required to produce a Surrender Certificate. This Certificate would be issued to them on payment of one-time Renunciation of Indian Citizenship Fee.
Salient features of the scheme are listed below:
- Indian citizens acquiring any foreign citizenship on or after 1 June, 2010 must formally renounce Indian citizenship. This can be done by surrendering their Indian passports for cancellation and obtaining a “Surrender Certificate” endorsement on the cancelled passport. They would be required to pay a one time Renunciation Fee of Canadian $ 168 while surrendering their Indian passports to the Consulate General of India. The Indian passports would be cancelled and returned to the passport holder along with “Surrender Certificate” endorsement for the future reference.
- Indian citizenship must be formally renounced as soon as possible after acquiring foreign citizenship.
- Production of Surrender Certificate endorsement is essential while applying for Indian visa, PIO/OCI card or any other miscellaneous consular services, in case you acquired Canadian citizenship on or after 1 June, 2010.
- In case, the Indian passport held at the time of acquiring Canadian citizenship is not available, a statement explaining the circumstances of the loss/damage, detailed police report of lost passport, the passport number & date of issue/expiry must be provided, along with proof in support of your claim.
New Immigrants Exploited By Consultants
In the past of couple of months, Toronto have been receiving significant amount of new immigrants from Kerala. We were fortunate to meet and help some of them.
There are unfortunate ones who fell into the trap of immigration consultants. Apart from the service charge of facilitating the immigration process, some of the immigration consultants offer settlement packages. This package has nothing to do with the Government of Canada. It’s a service they offer to new landing immigrants in Canada for a short time, usually a month for a “nominal cost”. It includes accommodation, Toronto transit, phone service, internet service, cable service and guidance to receive government issued documents such as PR card, social insurance card and health insurance card. Some of them even promise job the moment you land here.
Interacting with some of the new immigrants who landed in Toronto through these consultants, we heard some really terrible stories. Some of them did not find anyone receive them at the airport, while others got stacked up in a large home which they shared with other 5 to 10 families. The average rent for a home in Toronto is $1200 plus utilities (electricity, phone, cable and water which may cost an extra $250 based on how you use them). They are provided with a TTC pass ($121 for a month). Read the rest of this entry »
Canadian Citizenship Practice Test
Richmond Public Library has a great online citizenship practice test that will be helpful for anyone preparing for Canadian citizenship test. Read the rest of this entry »