OCI for infants for India travel and Birth certificate for GC

Hi,

We are waiting for our 4 months old twin baby girls’ passport to come in couple of days. After that ,have to apply for their OCI,which may take around 45 days.Now, somebody in the family is unwell and we may want to travel with babies before applying for their OCI here. Without OCI, can we get an on- arrival visa for the babies there and then apply for it at Delhi or is it possible that we apply it here and then travel to India and come back with on- arrival visa which we get there? (Hope while going from here,only their passports are required.) The reason being we want to book a round trip ticket for both me and husband and our babies(planning a return in about 4 weeks) but if it takes longer for OCI, then obviously I have to stay back there with babies.But, since we have twins, 2 adults are required to travel with 2 infants. In that case, if my husband comes back earlier then again he may have to travel to bring me and babies back here… Please advice what will be the best thing to do.

Also, the I-140 processing is going on, hope it shouldn’t be a problem to travel during that time .

My husband’s birth certificate is not available. How mandatory is it for the GC process? Sometimes, it takes lot of time in India than expected to get such things done during an India visit.

Sorry, don’t have much time at present to do all those search online, that’s why thought of asking here.

Thanks!

Poornima

Yes, you can apply for visa on arrival online. Usually the visa is approved within 24 -48 hrs for babies. The on arrival visa only allows 30 days of stay in India. You cannot extend or change to another status on this visa.

You can apply for a normal tourist visa and then apply for OCI in India.

You can apply for “Entry Visa” for India for your babies. You can get this visa within 10-15 days i believe. Normally this visa is valid for one year but there are options like if you pay more, you can get that visa up to 5 years. After taking your visa, if you are planning to stay for longer in India (longer means around 6 months) then i suggest you should apply your OCI over there which you can get in around 2 months. Even if it’s not possible for you, you come back to States and file your OCI upon your return.

You asked couple of questions together in just one but i am not aware about those process so won’t be able to answer on those questions.