NRI latest News Archives

NRIs Certificate Checklist to Enter EU Upon Lifting Travel Ban

September 9, 2020 Manoj Sodhani Comments 0 Comment

The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced countries to enforce a travel ban. All services across the globe have been paralyzed. Lockdown has been imposed and movements are completely stopped unless it is an emergency.

But now, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has announced to unlock its flight services. The Spanish Ministry of Interior has permitted unmarried NRIs or unregistered bachelor partners of European Union (EU) citizens to reunite by following a pre-defined procedure of entry.

Spain MFA Lifts Up Travel Ban

This big announcement came in public through the Twitter handle of the Spanish MFA. It reads:

“Given the current #COVID19 travel restrictions, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Interior, has established a procedure for the entry into Spain of unmarried/unregistered foreign partners of European Union citizens.”

It subtly states that foreign nationals can re-live with their EU partners, provided that they have contacted the corresponding Consular Office and submitted the requisite documents. These documents should have proofs of their relationship.

Checklist of Documents

Travel proof like plane tickets on the same flight or, a notarized statement by an EU citizen
Unmarried certificate that must be apostilled or legalized
Proof of an appointment to enter into a contract of marriage in Spain from the Spanish authority, if there is any
Registration on the census
Joint rental contracts
Joint bank account statements
Joint invoices
Joint ownership of assets
Invitations to family events such as weddings, etc.

These documents will have other docs like visa and passport also, which have been generally asked to show up while taking a flight to any European country. This documentation procedure will be similar to the old one, wherein the non-residents have to go to the providers of services to NRIs for getting assistance in enclosing duly attested bachelorhood or marriage proofs by SDM & the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) with the application. In short, this procedure will be a replica of the pre-conducted emigration procedure.

Post Documentation Procedure

Upon submission, the Ministry of Home Affairs will assess the application and verify documents. Then, the applicant NRIs can visit the Consular Office to receive a substantiating certificate, which they must have to board the plane. The final decision about their compliance with requirements will be made by the migration authorities at the checkpoint.

People have been struggling with coronavirus globally. Now, it would be a big challenge to re-start with the whole procedure from the scratch, scheduling interviews and submitting applications.

Countries Lifting Travel Restrictions

Together with Spain, there are many other countries that have exempted air services from ban. These are Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

The non-residents who are bachelors can contact consular office to know about the checklist of certificates to be submitted. However, many of these would include the aforesaid list of documents.

Many have found that the Spanish MFA is unfair in this matter. These are those who have third-country passports. A few more ones are added to the list of unhappy people who cannot provide all documents for legalization or verification.

The US President May Suspend Immigration of Indians

April 28, 2020 Manoj Sodhani Comments 0 Comment

It’s not a new thing for the president of the USA who has recently announced that he may order for temporarily turning off approving immigration permission or its renewal for Indians. The terror of widespread pandemic COVIID-19 is still on due to which its economy is tussling hard. Around 15 million people in that continent have lost their jobs. It’s really a hard time when people are struggling to save life. The NRIs are feeling no earth under their feet. Now, they have one more apprehension to face off, i.e. unemployment.

There are many Indians who are looking for revising their visa. Most of these are the employees of the IT companies and technology professionals. They are under a deep shock. It seems another sequence of “Americans first” regime.

When the US president Trump tweeted in the late night on Monday, the non-residents’ fear for ousting came up front. A New York based immigration lawyer Cyrus D Mehta threw light on it.

Here are the key points that are creating a threat to the people with Indian passport there:

Impact on Indian Nationals

However, it is not clear who is going to be impacted with this decision. The details are yet to come out. But, the surfacing of apprehension is obvious because of the history. Previously, such steps had been taken while keeping aside the rights of the green cards holders. Their travel ban had been executed and there was a massive cut in the workforce from this origin. However, it is really unconstitutional to halt entry in the US.

The Worst Hit Visa Category

The executive order will likely to impact prospective aspirants from this country. Although there is going to have a little impact of the green card holder who are yet to receive confirmation on either a non-immigrant visa or an immigrant visa from the US consulates and embassy.

Stranded Indian Tourists

Those who have travel visa will likely not to be impacted unless they ask to extend their non-immigrant visa to stay there or apply for the change of the status while being in the US.

Legal Challenges

The executive order or EO may likely to face off zillions of challenges in the court. One court or more may issue a preliminary injunction and halt it unless the Apex court of this continent nods for hearing the matter.

Prospective Exemptions

There are hearsays about the exemption of the farm workers, who are there on the H2A visas. Besides, the healthcare workers can also get the opportunity to stay there because of the pandemic spreading widely, taking off lives in millions.

Source: The Economic Times

How Can You Verify Documents in India For Foreign Trip?

February 26, 2020 Manoj Sodhani Comments 0 Comment

If you are still worried about how to verify your police clearance or birth certificate, keep them all aside. You can easily do this and get off all hurdles that cap put your foreign trip or visit on halt.

Here, we are going to share everything about how to get your certificates apostilled in India. Let’s get started with a short brief about it.

Apostille

It is a prominent authority that can sign all papers that you need to get attested for immigration. You can take it as an attestation service. It is available in the Hague Convention countries only. Nobody knew about it before 1961, as it was not convened. When multiple times authentication of visa, passport, birth certificate, transcripts or other immigration papers looked difficult to carry on, the intellects from various countries had set its foundation on 25^th October, 1980. As of now, 101 countries are its member.

The greatness of this service lies in its global acceptance. The legalisation conducted by one member country is accepted by another one, which is a part of this convention.

What kind of certificates does it legalise?

It mainly verifies personal documents, which can be a birth certificate, death certificate, marriage certificate, educational degree or mark sheet etc..

You cannot give duplicates of the aforesaid papers to go abroad for any reason. It is put on the originals. Besides, you should enclose the first and the last page copy of your passport.

One thing that you should always keep into account is that the Ministry of External Affairs has designated a few agencies with this task, which acts as an NRI consultant to get you through the typicality of this process. You should be extra careful from the fraudulent, which makes you a fool by taking money, but does not do anything. So, always ask about their experience and check their authenticity through their ratings on Google Maps & feedbacks, at least. Or, you can counter them with questions about how they do and who have considered them before.

Who does apostille certificate?

The designated signatory can be any of these Class I Gazetted Officers:

Director
Magistrate
Deputy Director
Section Officer
Commissioner
Chief Secretary
Joint Secretary
Assistant Secretary
Deputy Commissioner
Resident Commissioner
Sub Divisional Magistrate

Do you need to go for any other attestation before?

Yes, you may need to get your papers stamped from the state’s HRD. It would verify and check if all your papers for immigration are original. Thereafter, you should go to the notary public with the same request.

As I said, you ‘MAY’ need to go there, it is not compulsory. You can skip going there and catch up with an experienced NRI consultant to directly legalise your papers from the MEA.

About Fee

The verification from the state HRD or the MEA, both, is a paid service. However, both ministries charge minimally, which means you need to pay a nominal fee for it.

Timeline

Since it is about examining your documents if they are not fake, the competent authorities sluggishly do this. The reason might be that the ministries go deep with examination of their legality, which can be time taking.

All in all, the state government may take one or two working days. But, the MEA’s processing could be long. It may complete the whole processing in 3 to 4 weeks.

Update over Documents Needed for Passport in India

December 11, 2017 Manoj Sodhani Comments 0 Comment

Many Passport Sewa Kendras (or PSK) process thousands of passport applications every year. India’s first Post Office Passport Sewa Kendra (POPSK) in Mysuru was set up in January, 2017. Since then, it has processed around 15,000 out of 17,899 passport applications successfully. It’s the enormous sets of stats that just a PSK centre took care of.

Now, you can imagine how many passport applications do 77 PSK process!

It’s one of the significant documents that are mandatory to take along during immigration. It depicts the nationality with the date of the foreign visit. None of the foreign government allows any immigrant sans it. This is why the Indian immigration authority mandated these documents before November, 2017.

Documents required annexing the passport application:

Date of Birth proof for those who are born after 26^th January 1989.
Registrar-issued a birth certificate in the Municipal Corporation (MC) of the respective district. If it’s not available, the passport authority accepts the birth proof issued by the head of the Para-Medical office where his/her birth took place.
PAN Card
School Certificate with the scripted date of birth issued by the recognized board or equivalent board
Aadhar Card/ E-Aadhar
Attested proof that states the applicant served in the government service/ Pay Pension Order-attested by the department head/in-charge of the ministry.
Driving Licence
Election Commission’s Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC)
Photocopy of the public life insurance policy bond, if any.

What amendments have been made in the passport policy in 2017?

It’s related to the documents required for the passport. These are the major changes that are declaimed:

Guardian/Parent’s Name

Old Policy: As per old books of passport rules, it was compulsory to mention the name of both (mother and father) parents.

Sadhus/Sanyasi can state the name of their spiritual gurus in the place of guardian’s/parent’s name. This rule is not altered.

Update: Now, the government has relaxed the rule of stating both parents’ name. The applicant can mention either of the parent’s names.

Annexures

Old Policy: Earlier, around 15 annexes were mandatory. The applicants needed to fill, notarize and attest these certificates. Some even used to pay for the certificate attestation to the third party.
Update: Today, the government has restricted to 9 annexes. The rest of the annexes have been discarded or merged. Therefore, the applicants can enjoy the convenience of submitting limited annexes.

Notarization: It’s an anti-fraud detection program. It scrutinizes the validity and authenticity of the documents as well as transactions.

Old Policy: The requisite documents for the processing of passport applicants needed to be notarized. With the request of doing so, the passport applicants had to queue up outside the notary officer or magistrate or sub-divisional magistrate. Sometimes, this process became lengthy and full of hassles.
Update: After the changes, the notarization is put to its end. This process is no longer in existence. It means that the applicants would no longer go through the hurly burly situation. The magistrate office will no longer be a crowded hub.

Attestation

Old Policy: Like notarization, the documents for the passport required to be attested by the District Magistrate (DM)/ Sub-Divisional District Magistrate (SDM). This is not the end point of the certificate attestation services. The applicant had to go for the counter-attestation by the Home Ministry. Once these Apostille services were done, the applicant finally went through police verification. A police officer verified the documents required for the tatkal passport or the simple one.
Update: The applicants can obtain a plain paper, state and attest. They no longer have to go to the DM or SDM office.

Marriage Certificate

Old Policy: If the candidate is married, he/she had to present a marriage certificate as a proof of matrimony. And if the applicant is unfortunately a divorcee, he/she would have to submit the decree absolute.
Update: Now, appending such kind of proof is no longer required.

What NRIs Should Do to Bank A/c after Resettling in India?

August 19, 2016 Manoj Sodhani Comments 0 Comment

Are NRIs permitted to hold their assets abroad?

Many questions echo in the core of Non Residents of India (NRIs). Some of the questions are-“If I would be able to hold my foreign assets? ; What will happen to my foreign accounts? ; Should I close them all?” and many more….

Emergence of such questions is natural. But the best part is that they are allowed to keep hold of their foreign assets, like foreign currency in banks. However, they must convert their NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts into resident saving account. It is mandatory because their foreign accounts will be closed after shifting to India.

But it does not imply that they don’t have right to keep their foreign currency. Rather, they can keep it safe in the converted resident saving account. But they must inform the banks (in which their accounts are) about the resettlement to India.

What options NRIs have to change their bank account when resettling in India?

As said above, it is a must to convert foreign bank account into resident. Emigrants have three options for saving their hard earned money, i.e. NRE, NRO and FCNR account. These are the best services for NRIs. So, what’s the appropriate options for their conversion, have a look:

For NRO account holders, resident saving account is an appropriate option.
For NRE and FCNR account holders, Resident Foreign Currency (RFC) account is the best alternate.

What are the types of Resident Foreign Currency (RFC) account?

It is categorized in to two groups for:

Shifting NRIs
Resident Indians

What will happen to NRIs fixed deposit with the foreign account, if any?

Fixed deposits ensure long time investment at handsome rate of interest. Emigrants are no exception to it. So, what will happen to it if they have invested in foreign account after shifting in India?

NRIs need not dissolve their fixed deposits (FDs) since keeping it until maturity is permitted.
As FD matures, its holder must convert NRE/ FCNR account to RFC account.
After the account conversion, the account holder’s status is checked. If he is applicable for Resident (and Resident Not Ordinarily Resident or RNOR), then he can have an extra dose of benefits. He needs not pay tax for another 2 years.

(Those who have spent continuous 9 years are categorized under RNOR status.)

What’s the best option for keeping foreign currency in India?

In India, Reserve Bank of India is the apex banking institution. According to its guidelines, the Indian residents can channelize their fund through foreign currency bank account. This account enables deposits in US dollars, EUR, GBP and Japanese Yen.

But an account holder is disallowed to deposit more than one currency in an account. If the need arises, the person can open another account. But he is unable to get any interest as it is not allowed.

Benefits of RFC account:

For transferring income earned from foreign sources
For depositing pension from foreign government/organization.
For transferring money from foreign country periodically.
No need to keep minimum balance
Fluctuating value of foreign currency does not cast any impact.

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