Thursday, December 16, 2010

Stages in OCI Card processing.

(This information may not be relevant now as I see that both NewYork and Houston consulates are outsourcing the OCI (and other processings) to a third party... THANK GOD!!!!)

As with any processing that is done by the Indian consulate in the USA, OCI card processing also is a blackbox with minimum feedback and unanswered questions by emails and phones. We recently applied for the OCI card and experienced frustration like many others who applied too. They stick relatively close to the times described on the consulate's web site but lack of feedback puts you in a tense spot. Here is a sequence of how our OCI processing went - this can be used as a guide for your situation.
The processing times for various stages of this application vary greatly between different people's applications.

Send your US Passports to the consulate at this point....................
As you can see, Printing of the documents took 22 days for us, whereas it was done in 4 days for my brother. Even if you leave enough time to plan for an India trip in anticipation of the OCI card, you can still be trumped by these guys. There is a way out though. As long as you have your US Passport with you, you can get a visa (6 months multiple entry) from the consulate and continue with your plans. The agency that handles Indian visas is (thankfully) a 3rd party and they handled our case very diligently and within a couple of days.

Once the documents are received at the consulate (last step), it took them 8 working days to affix them in my US Passport. I will have to update this post on how long the consulate is going to hang on to the OCI card in case after the documents are received at the consulate, but we decide to wait to send our US Passport to them.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

పిల్లలకి దంతాలు వచ్చే క్రమం.

పిల్లలకి పళ్ళు ఏవి ఎప్పుడు వస్తాయి అనే విషయం మీద (ముఖ్యం గా మొదటి పిల్లవాళ్ళకి ఐతే ఏమి expect చెయ్యాలో తెలియదు కాబట్టి) మాలాగే చాలామందికి అవగాహన తక్కువ ఉంటుంది అనే ఉద్దేశ్యంతో ఇది రాస్తున్నాను. ముఖ్యంగా అదే వయసుకి చెందినా వేరే పిల్లల్ని కూడా చూస్తూ ఉంటే, మన వాళ్లకి అదే వేగంతో పళ్ళు కనిపించకపోతే కొంచెం ఖంగారు పడడం సహజం. ఈ మధ్య మా పెద్ద పిల్లవాడిని దంత వైద్యుని దగ్గరకి తీసుకొని వెళ్ళినప్పుడు ఈ చార్ట్ ఇచ్చారు. ఎవరికీ వారు దీనిని తమ పరిస్థితి కి అన్వయించుకోవచ్చు.