OCI process for Canadian Citizens

After getting Canadian Citizenship, for Indian origin people OCI is an important document to get. With many other advantages OCI primarily helps to avoid the hassle of applying for visa to visit India (and go through the dysfunctional system of Indian Government with BLS or whoever is the absolutely mismanaged and sketchy behavior company).

Okay! This post is not about the advantages of OCI or why someone should get it or not but if one has decided to get an OCI then what to do step by step!

Why am I writing this post? Because when I applied for OCI I struggled a lot and I heard from a lot of people on different forums, groups and in-person that the process is riddled with Pitfalls and it’s very frustrating and all over the place. I tried to find proper resources but I didn’t get any so I want normal people out there to save their precious time and money and save themselves from this suffering at the hands of BLS and CGI employees and overall System crafted by ‘Babus’ to keep people making rounds and bleed in money and time.

From my own experience, it seems Indian Embassy/Mission whatever and the BLS has intentionally kept the process of applying to OCI and relevant details wrong on their website. (They know many important instructions on the website are wrong (they tell you that at the BLS office) but they want people to come to their office get really frustrated to get through the mazes and waste time and give in to their money grabbing techniques and pay hundreds of dollars for the ‘postal’ application.

The actual OCI online form and everything is also messed up. They ask you to fill everything in BLOCK letters and the form itself automatically converts some fields to small letters.

This along with the BLS pushing people to spend more than $100 per application for the postal service of BLS’s choice is an extortion. 

But it seems the Indian Government doesn’t care about their own image or people so I’m writing this post for practical people to go through this hassle smoothly and not to lose precious time, money and peace of mind to the sketchy people in BLS Canada.

The following Full process is verified to work for the BLS for CGI Toronto location. For Vancouver and Ottawa jurisdictions, folks please adjust some parts for yourself.

This process is for anyone who was earlier a citizen of India themselves and acquired the Canadian Citizenship by naturalization (i.e. after completing Canada Government’s stay in Canada criteria and other criteria whatsoever and then following the normal Canada Citizenship application process)

I don’t know a specific process for OCI for children or dependent spouse or any other category but the common sections and points here work for all applications.

Step 1: Download the Checklist of the OCI application. (There are many versions of this checklist on BLS and CGI (Consulate General of India) website for Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa) I’m giving you the exact one that works. Though the checklist says Ottawa it works for Toronto jurisdiction.

Click to access Checklist_Information_Booklet_for_OCI_2jun22NN.pdf

Step 2: Get the documents as per the checklist.

Mandatory documents are:

1. Last India Passport that you held – Copy and Original

2. Canada passport – Copy and Original

3. Surrender Certificate – Copy and Original

4. Canada Citizenship Certificate

5. Proof of address – Driving License, or any utility bill with your name and address is fine

6. Fees – $345 Demand Draft to Consulate General of India, Toronto

7. Photograph – take 1 51mmx51mm photo. Though the Online Form takes your photo (you upload it) and the uploaded photo appears on the printout (even color printout), BLS still asks you for a physical photo and pastes it on the top of the photo printed on your Online form’s print out). Make sure your photo is taken in the last 6 months and it has the date of photo stamped on the back of the photograph or BLS will rip you to take their $15 photo service where a lazy looking BLS guy in a lousy manner takes a worst possible photo of yours and BLS will use it. That photo won’t be as per their own specifications but they will accept it because they GOT the $$s.

8. Take a photo of your physical photograph and your signature on paper. 

8.1 The digital image of your photograph should be a square so it should have same size in horizontal and vertical pixels and the image size should be less than 500KB

8.2 The digital image of your signature should be  a rectangle  such a that the length of the signature image is 3 times the height of the image. So, for example, you may have a signature image with pixels 1500 x 500 pixels. The image size should be less than 500KB

8.3 Create a scanned images of the following of the size less than 1000KB (not 1 MB because 1 MB is 1024KB and file of 1001 KB will be rejected by this ancient system) 

8.3.1 Indian Passport

8.3.2 Canadian Passport

Specifications in the Point 8 literally seem to be crafted to discourage normal people in the process of OCI application and give in to the sketchy smug BLS and CGI employees. From normal person’s point of view creating images of the above specification takes a lot of effort and also skills to handle computer.

Step 3: Go to the website https://ociservices.gov.in

Warning 1: The link in the instructions in the checklist document above is messed up and takes you to the wrong website. 

Warning 2: DO NOT FOLLOW THE STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS at the link in the above downloaded checklist. THESE ARE WRONG!!

Step 3.1: Go to the OCI Registration section in the https://ociservices.gov.in and reach upto the Fresh/New Application

​Step 3.2: Here onwards I’m mentioning only the pitfalls. 

In the Online form instructions below ONLY the parts of Online form that are NOT straight forward are mentioned, if anyone has doubts about anything not mentioned here please let me know in comments and I will keep on updating this post for everyone’s benefit.

There are no proper instructions/information, anywhere on the BLS or CGI website about the points mentioned below.

PART A

3.2.1: Applicant’s Information: Fill up this section as per your Canadian Passport.

3.2.1.1. Name:

Surname (Last Name)

Given Name (First Name) 

Note: Above both should exactly match the name as in Canada passport. If you had a middle name or any other dot, comma or any kind of little even seemingly insignificant difference in both Last Name and First Name section in India and Canada passport. e.g. middle name is dropped, added or First name in India passport was xxx yyy and last name zzz but in Canada passport First name is xxx and last name is yyy zzz or any difference. Just tick the box Have you ever changed your name? to YES. And fill up the previous name as it was in the India passport. (You will be surprised how even when you don’t have any change in your name e.g. in Canada passport you are not using your middle name etc. BLS may anytime behave absolutely quirky. And you don’t want to waste your precious time or FALL PREY TO THEIR MONEY GRABBING TACTICS). 

IF YOUR NAME HAS ANY CHANGE AS DESCRIBED ABOVE THEN DO A NOTARIZED AFFIDAVIT SIMPLY SAYING THE NAME IN INDIAN PASSPORT AND NAME IN THE CANADIAN PASSPORT IS OF THE SAME PERSON AND THAT PERSON IS ME ETC. THERE IS STANDARD FORM OF THE AFFIDAVIT WITH ANY LAWYER OR A PARALEGAL FOR THIS PURPOSE (SHOP AROUND FOR THIS). IT SHOULDN’T COST MORE THAN $30.

IF YOU MISS THIS  AND YOU HAVE TO DO THIS SIMPLE NOTARIZED AFFIDAVIT NEAR BLS BRAMPTON OFFICE THEN THEY HAVE THEIR SMUG MONEY GRABBING ALLIES IN BUILDING NO. 10 THEY WILL CHARGE YOU IN THE RANGE OF $70 TO $100 DEPENDING ON YOUR URGENCY AND BY THE WAY THEY WILL ACCEPT ONLY CASH. YOU WON’T BELIEVE THEY HAVE A VERY UGLY ATM MACHINE IN THAT SMALL OFFICE BLOCK IN THE BUILDING 10 WHERE THEY DO THIS AFFIDAVIT. YOU WILL SEE THERE IS A CARD PAYMENT ACCEPTING MACHINE BUT THEY WON’T ALLOW YOU TO PAY USING THE CARD. IT’S MONEY GRAB IN ALL POSSIBLE WAYS.

3.2.1.2​​ Place of Birth: – Mention only the name of the city/town of your birth. No need to write CityName, State in this field as it appears in your India passport otherwise in the printout of the OCI online form the state will come twice and BLS will say the form is wrong and you have to go back and refill it.

3.2.2: Applicant’s Passport Details: Fill up this section as per your Indian Passport.

3.2.2.1 Previous Passport Number – ​Leave this field blank. (if you had a earlier Canadian passport then only you have to fill in this field. Don’t fill up Indian passport number, otherwise BLS smug people will…)

3.2.3: Applicant’s Family Details: Fill up this section as per your Indian Passport.

Fill all your parent’s details EXACTLY as they appear in the Indian passport  

3.2.3.1 Relation with the root Indian: Self

3.2.3.2 Spouse Details: If you are married then fill up the Spouse’s details EXACTLY as per their Passport.

3.2.3.3 Marriage Registration Date: Fill the date EXACTLY as per your MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE. (BLS is quirky they may ask you for your marriage certificate any time out of the blue, even when your OCI application is not based on your spouse’s Indian origin)

3.2.4: Applicant’s Address Details: Fill up this section as per your Address proof.

Match every dot, comma or anything else in your address proof ONLY except till your address contains some special characters like # etc. and that are not allowed in the online form. If the character is not allowed you may skip it.

3.2.3.1 E-mail address is going to be in SMALL letters. Even though the Instructions in the OCI Online form SPECIFICALLY mention that everything in the form should be filled in BLOCK letters. The OCI Online form automatically converts this field to SMALL letters.​​

PART B

3.2.4 Image Upload

3.2.4.1. Upload the images crafted in the Point 8 in the Step 2 above.

3.2.4.2. Upload the images of your Canadian Passport and Indian Passport crafted in the Point 8 in the Step 2 above.

Reach up to the page that has a button named “Generate Registration Form” and you have passed another hurdle in the process.

Step 4: Taking printouts and getting to the BLS office

4.1 Take a printout of the OCI online form. Take a printout of all the pages of the form even the information/instruction pages. (BLS people may even ask you for the information booklet/instruction pages of the Checklist or the form so be prepared)

4.2 There are some fields in the printed OCI form like name, date etc. Fill the name with a pen as per your Canadian Passport.

4.3 Take copies of all the documents mentioned in the Step 2.

4.4 Take the Demand Draft of $345 as mentioned in the Step 2.

Step 5: Reach the BLS office (by appointment or by walk-in whatever is available as per your luck! pure sheer luck!). On a safer side book an appointment whenever you can get it. This system is messed up and you may not get an appointment.

If you are not getting appointment on the BLS website or the website said walk-ins are open and your reached their and the office said website is wrong, then sorry folks we have to take it as our bad luck! And you are not alone! For every once in a while person bragging about how they did walk-in or appointment went smooth I have witnessed 100s or more people who have went through the sheer frustration.

This system seems totally rigged! so hang tight and keep trying for an appointment unless you are fine to pay $$$ for the postal application.

If you send application by post and if they find some absolutely quirky mistake, it costs more $$ and BLS wants it. Once the application is sent by post every other documentation request/to/fro has to be taken by post and it costs serious $$$. Plus, we have the risk of sending originals by the unreliable/uninsured BLS’s choice courier/post service.

Step 6: Submit the application at the BLS office and pay whatever they ask for. They will push you to take their postal delivery service. You may politely deny. 

BLS tells us for the originals (i.e. your India passport which they will take even if you visit) there is no pick-up service YOU MUST HAVE TO PAY FOR THE COURIER. AND THEY GIVE YOU A FORM THAT SAYS THIS SERVICE IS OPTIONAL AND YOU ARE CHOOSING IT BECAUSE YOU WANT IT. 

THEY MAKE YOU SIGN THAT FORM IF YOU DON’T SIGN IT THEY DON’T ACCEPT YOUR APPLICATION. UNSCRUPULOUS LEVEL I DON’T KNOW WHAT.

BLS will rip you off in some other way, so be mentally prepared. The objective is come our with least damage SUFFERED. 

Good Luck, everyone!

Disclaimer: This is not a professional advice and it is an attempt to share summary based on information gathered from the experience of multiple people who went through the horrors of the OCI application process