Surrender/Renunciation of Indian Nationality/Passport Surrender/Renunciation of Indian Nationality/Passport

Surrender/Renunciation of Indian Nationality/Passport

Surrender/Renunciation of Indian Nationality/Passport

The Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, does not allow dual citizenship. It is a punishable offence under the Indian Passport Act, 1967, to apply for an Indian passport, continue to hold an Indian passport, get an Indian passport re-issued or travel on an Indian passport after acquiring foreign citizenship. Extant rules prescribe penalties for holding Indian passports by foreign nationals.

Under Indian law, Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) who have acquired foreign citizenship are required to surrender their Indian passports to the nearest Indian Mission/Post immediately after acquisition of foreign citizenship.

Indian citizens acquiring any foreign citizenship on or after 1 June, 2010 must formally renounce their Indian citizenship. This can be done by surrendering their Indian passports for cancellation and obtaining a "Surrender Certificate" endorsement on the cancelled passport. The Indian passport would be cancelled and returned to the passport holder along with the Surrender certificate for future reference.

Production of Surrender Certificate is essential while applying for Indian visa, PIO/OCI card or any other miscellaneous consular services, in case Canadian citizenship was acquired on or after 1 June, 2010.

Those who acquired foreign citizenship on 31 May, 2010 or earlier need not pay the Renunciation Fee. They must however get their Indian Passport, whether already expired or not, duly surrendered. Necessary entries in the records would be made by the Mission/Consulate and the Indian passport cancelled and returned to the applicant.

Persons of Indian Origin who had earlier obtained OCI / PIO Cards or Visa without surrendering their Indian passports are required to surrender their last held Indian passport and obtain surrender certificates at the time of renewing their OCI / PIO Cards or for obtaining fresh visa.

Procedure for obtaining Surrender Certificate/Renunciation Certificate

Please note that acceptance of applications for this service has been outsourced to BLS International Services Canada Inc.

Complete applications along with the requisite documents, original Indian passport and the prescribed fees should be submitted to their centers located at Vancouver, Surrey, Calgary and Edmonton. It may also be sent by courier/post to: BLS, Unit 201-8140 120th Street, Surrey, BC V3W 3N3.

Applicant should first fill online surrender application on https://embassy.passportindia.gov.in. This will generate the Application Reference Number (ARN) and a PDF file. The print-out of the saved PDF file of online surrender application should be submitted to the nearest center of BLS International. For more information/clarification, please visit the website : www.blsindia-canada.com

The applicant would need to submit the following:

  1. Duly filled-in application form.
  2. Original Indian passport with one copy.
  3. Copy of the Canadian Citizenship certificate.
  4. Copy of Canadian passport, if held.
  5. Canada address proof – copy of DL / utility bill / rent agreement/BC ID (any one)
  6. Applicable Fees (For exact amount payable, please refer to the link https://www.blsindia-canada.com/vancouver-jurisdiction/surrender-of-india-citizenship.php

Applicants are to contact BLS directly for depositing their forms and fees. In case the application is sent by mail, the same should be forwarded to BLS International and must include the prescribed fee plus BLS charges and courier fees, for return of documents. All your queries may also be directed to their staff. Their office addresses, timings, phone numbers and e-mail address can be found by clicking here

Fees

  • Indian citizens who acquired foreign citizenship on or before 31 May, 2010 - C$ 34.00
  • Indian citizens acquiring any foreign citizenship on or after 1 June, 2010 - C$ 113.00

In addition to the prescribed fee mentioned above, an applicant would be required to pay C$3 on account of Consular Surcharge + BLS service fee.

Processing time

Where the applications are complete in all respects, the process time would be 2 weeks (10 working days) from the date of receipt of such applications in the Consulate.

Status Enquiry

We are unable to respond to telephonic/fax/e-mail queries regarding status of applications before the time limit indicated for processing the application. Processing time of applications is calculated from the date of receipt of completed applications in the Consulate. Thereafter, queries may be made by email to surrender[dot]vancouver[at]mea[dot]gov[dot]in

We encourage you to read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) by clicking here.

Forms

  1. Declaration for surrender of Indian Passport when passport is lost
  2. Surrender/Renunciation of Indian nationality and passport