The Global Organization of People
of Indian Origin (GOPIO International) acknowledges with gratitude the
substantial achievement realized with remarkably quick action when the
government of India
issued a clarification on June 1, 2010 "that PIOs will not be asked
to pay any renunciation charges".
There still remained valid issues
that needed prompt remedial action by the Ministry of Overseas Indian
Affairs (MOIA) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). For this
reason, GOPIO had continued its appeal to the Government of India on
behalf the global Indian community in pursuit of fairness and equitable
treatment of those Indians who have become citizens of other countries.
These concerns include lost, misplaced or missing passports,
substantiation documents, surrender forms, fees and cut-off dates. GOPIO
has brought these concerns to the attention of Hon. Vayalar Ravi,
Minister of MOIA.
We are pleased to announce that
the following communiqué from Dr. A. Didar Singh, Secretary, Ministry of
Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) has substantially resolved the
matter and eased the burden previously placed on Indians who acquired
citizenship of other countries.
*****************
From:
Dr. A. Didar Singh
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA)
Date: Tue, Jun 15, 2010
at 1:11 AM
Subject: passport surrender issue
D.O.No.OI-15014/02/2009-DS 11th
June 2010
Dear Overseas
Indian,
This Ministry received a large
number of representations from PIOs, particularly in the U.S.A.,
protesting the recent circulars hosted on the websites of our Missions in
the US regarding the levy of registration charges for 'declaration of
renunciation of Indian Citizenship' and the imposition of penalties for
delayed surrender or non-surrender of Indian passports last held by
them. Some of these representations and petitions were also
addressed to the Hon'ble Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, as also
the Hon'ble Prime Minister.
2. I write this to inform
you that in appreciation of the sentiments expressed in many of these
representations and petitions, I had taken up the issues raised therein
with the Ministry of Home Affairs (which administers the Citizenship Act
and the Rules made thereunder, which provide for the levy of a fee of
Rs.7000/- for registration of a declaration of renunciation of Indian
citizenship by a PIO) and the Ministry of External Affairs (which
administers the Passport Act and Rules, which provide for penalties for
delayed surrender or non-surrender of Indian passports last held by PIOs,
as also their misuse).
3. I
am glad to report that following my demarche interventions MHA had
issued a circular communication on 01.06.2010, clarifying that the fee of
Rs.7000/- for registration of a 'declaration of renunciation of Indian
citizenship' will only be charged from PIOs, who intend to acquire
foreign nationality/citizenship in future and those who have already
acquired such foreign citizenship in the past, will, by virtue of Section
9 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, cease to be Indian citizens forthwith,
upon such acquisition of foreign citizenship and they will not be
required to make such a 'declaration of renunciation of Indian
citizenship'.
4.
As regards the surrender of Indian passports last held by such PIOs, it
has been clarified by MEA vide their circular letter dated
03.05.2010 [para 2(viii)] that there would be no need to surrender a
passport which expired before 2005.
5. I trust with these
clarifications issued by MHA and MEA, the grievance expressed by you
PIOs, stands redressed. *
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
Dr. A. Didar Singh)
Copy to: JS(PMO), JS(CPV), JS(Foreigners), MHA
All Indian Missions in US (Washington,
NY, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston)
HCI, London
***************
Earlier GOPIO
had sent a letter to Minsiter Vayalar Ravi
on the remaining issues of Indian Passport Surrender, parts of which are
reproduced below:
However, there are still valid
issues that need prompt remedial action by the Ministry of Overseas
Indian Affairs and the Ministry of External Affairs. These concerns
include the following which need to be addressed in a timely and
equitable manner:
1. A large
majority of the people of Indian Origin who have become citizens of other
countries did not have any use for their old Indian passports and may
have lost, misplaced or never kept in their possession after acquiring
citizenship of other countries. Those who still have their
passports have no problem in surrendering their old passports to obtain Surrender
Certificate. But those who do not have their passports with them are
required to furnish certified copies of the following documents:
- Details of last held Indian passport
(Passport No., Date of Issue & Place of issue). The onus of
providing details rest on the applicant.
- Official documents submitted to authorities
of new country at the time of obtaining citizenship/naturalization
& documents used for entry such as US Form I -130.
- Notarized letter explaining reasons for
loss.
- Police report.
The production of items 1
and 2 above will not be easy and could take months to
obtain from the local or regional immigration authorities.
There are many people who have
had long term visas for India
but do not have the old Indian passport with them. When their Indian visa
comes up for renewal, although renewed earlier multiple times and visited
India
several times, they will not be able to renew it. In this category, there
are people who visit India
to meet relatives, to oversee the philanthropic projects they have
initiated and/or attend/participate in international meets, such as PBD.
We make the following suggestions in this respect:
· For People of
Indian Origin who have been citizens of their adopted countries for over
ten years, the validity of their Indian passports which they had at
the time of obtaining citizenship of the new countries had long expired.
Their obsolete passports cannot be used in anyway and should no longer
present security risks. The Government of India should relax the current
rigid requirement and consider asking for the following documents to
obtain Surrender Certificate:
1.
Affidavit
giving details of the passport and reasons for loss.
2.
Police
report, if necessary.
2. As per
Section 9 of Indian Citizenship Act 1955, "Any citizen of India who by naturalization, registration
or otherwise voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country
shall cease to be a citizen of India." Indian
citizenship is thus automatically terminated on acquiring US
citizenship. Therefore, Indians in the USA
do not have dual citizenship of India
and of USA.
Indian Consulates require
applicants for "Surrender Certificate" to submit
"Renunciation of Indian citizenship" Form which starts with
"Declaration of Renunciation of citizenship made by a citizen of India who
is also a citizen or national of another country." Item 3 of the
Form talks about the acquisition of US citizenship while item 4
talks of renouncing of Indian citizenship.
Item 6 on the form says, "I
------------------------ do solemnly and sincerely declare that the
foregoing particulars stated in this declaration are true and I make this
solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true."
Anyone signing the current form
to renounce Indian citizenship is doing so incorrectly and maybe doing so
illegally as well. What is being asked amounts to surrendering something
which a person does not have. We suggest that a simple "Surrender of
Indian Passport Form" be designed for the purpose of surrender of
Indian passport after acquisition of citizenship of the country of
immigrant's domicile.
3. The
service fee of $175 USD for Passport Surrender Certificate is
unreasonably high and should be reduced to a reasonable amount. Doing so
would preserve the loyalty of Indians who have acquired citizenship of
other countries and would go a long way to remove the impression that the
Government of India is gouging NRIs and PIOs.
4. Many people
have paid the fee of $175 and penalty of $250 to obtain his/her surrender
certificate prior to June 1, 2010. It may be administrative inconvenience
to give refund but it will continue to be source of anger in the minds of
many people and somewhat tarnish years of goodwill built by the mutual
healthy relationship between India and its Diaspora.
Timely attention is required to
address these outstanding issues in a fair and equitable manner. Indians
who have become citizens of other countries must not be made to feel that
the Government of India is preying on them. Such negative feeling could
diminish their loyalty and continuing support for their motherland.
*****************
We at GOPIO International
acknowledge the efforts of Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to respond to our concerns promptly
and take remedial action as noted above. We also acknowledge and
appreciate the overwhelming support from the global Indian community from
all corners of the world. We are convinced that this massive level of
support made a tremendous difference in the outcome of our appeals, as we
will continue to monitor and seek redress on issues and concerns
affecting the global Indian community.
