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YOUR India visa application experience with CKGS @USA

YOUR India visa application experience with CKGS @USA

Old Jun 15, 2014, 5:25 pm
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Originally Posted by Mr. Bean
Does anyone have any updates? Has anyone successfully gotten a visa processed yet? Or at least some tracking information?
Some must be having them processed, as visa numbers still seem to be incrementing upwards when queries are run for visas issued in the US. Whether or not those new visas and passports with those new visas are getting back to applicants, less clear; that said, I would hazard a guess and say yes some probably have. The tracking info from the contractor's end? No ides what's going on there.
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Old Jun 15, 2014, 8:35 pm
  #77  
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Originally Posted by Mr. Bean
Does anyone have any updates? Has anyone successfully gotten a visa processed yet? Or at least some tracking information?
I've emailed around several times. C+K says they don't have the full set of information from BLS, and BLS says they have completed the handover. Go figure. Tracking on C+K website still shows no record found.

I sent off another email today recommending they locate my missing passport and return it immediately. I also CCed the Department of State's [email protected] email to hopefully prompt a response. At some point, they have to consider this a stolen passport, right?
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Old Jun 16, 2014, 3:17 am
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Emailing all and sundry from the comfort of your home isn't going to cut it, you need to contact the consular officer responsible for your visa, preferably in person. Only s/he can get things moving.

I would tend to agree with some of the previous posters. Before the outsourcing the visa process was a mess, especially with MEA officials doing it themselves. Back in 2002 or 03 I remember visiting the CGI Munich outside of office hours and seeing employees (two office clerks that did the counter duty in the morning and the office peon who worked the reception) in front of mountains of passports and forms trying to get the visa stickers done manually in hectic pace. Nowadays its about 7 or 8 local C&K admin staff preparing everything and its all automated.
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Old Jun 16, 2014, 5:16 am
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Finally got a personalized response from C+K:

We are sorry that you are being inconvenienced in the transition process that is taking place between BLS , the old service provider and CKGS ,the new service provider. We would like to inform you, that we are the new service provider CKGS and are in no way responsible for the way your files have been handled. We are truly sorry. We have checked the handover manifest from BLS and have been given in complete or no data . We only update the status based on the data given to us by BLS. There is no further update on your record To assist you , we are now checking with the Consulate and will get an update manifest directly from them .This can take anywhere from 5 to 10 days . If we get any information earlier , we will be happy to update you.

For any further question, you can call us on toll free number 1-866-978-0055 / 1-866-316-5244.
I'll wait my 5-10 days, but as oliver2002 says, it may be time for a few hour drive to Atlanta for a day to make stuff happen at the consulate.
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Old Jun 16, 2014, 9:04 am
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Progress? Maybe.

Originally Posted by Mr. Bean
Does anyone have any updates? Has anyone successfully gotten a visa processed yet? Or at least some tracking information?
Bouncing around between the forums online, it looks like visas are getting processed but not getting sent back. The online fedex form is broken in some way.

A lot of people are driving down to the office to pick up their visas.

Still, though, lots of missing passports....including mine which has not turned up.
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Old Jun 16, 2014, 9:48 am
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
Some must be having them processed, as visa numbers still seem to be incrementing upwards when queries are run for visas issued in the US. Whether or not those new visas and passports with those new visas are getting back to applicants, less clear; that said, I would hazard a guess and say yes some probably have. The tracking info from the contractor's end? No ides what's going on there.
I submitted my Visa application in person on June 6th, the next day it showed up as "Application in Process", and the next day (June 8) it showed as "Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy for further processing." No update since then.

I've got a ticket booked for travel on July 4th, I was hoping a full month to process might be enough but the stories I am seeing are not very encouraging...
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Old Jun 16, 2014, 11:18 am
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Originally Posted by chopkins
I submitted my Visa application in person on June 6th, the next day it showed up as "Application in Process", and the next day (June 8) it showed as "Your application has been submitted at The Indian Embassy for further processing." No update since then.

I've got a ticket booked for travel on July 4th, I was hoping a full month to process might be enough but the stories I am seeing are not very encouraging...
Ah! So does the two-hour turn around time mentioned by the new Modi's government in the following link is limited to the CKGS processing and there will be another TBD-day processing by the Indian Embassy? If so, does any one knows what the TBD is? Thanks!

http://www.telegraphindia.com/114061...y_18503729.jsp
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Old Jun 16, 2014, 3:04 pm
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Another data point - I received word from the Indian Embassy in Washington today that my Visa has been returned to CKGS and is ready for pick up, even though the CKGS Application Tracking page still shows it at the embassy. I'll give them a couple days to update the status, then might just go downtown to see if I can find it at the office...even though I paid the $15 to have them send it back to me, it sounds like CKGS is the weak link here so the sooner I can get it back in my hands the better!
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Old Jun 16, 2014, 5:56 pm
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Originally Posted by lax2010
Ah! So does the two-hour turn around time mentioned by the new Modi's government in the following link is limited to the CKGS processing and there will be another TBD-day processing by the Indian Embassy? If so, does any one knows what the TBD is? Thanks!

http://www.telegraphindia.com/114061...y_18503729.jsp
I would love to get a look at the contracts currently standing. This "penalty" approach may be a substantive enough change to void the executed contracts and give the contractors grounds to thumb their nose at the GOI and play a game of their own.

The GOI seems to be pushing for this penalty thing as if this penalty approach is risk free for visa applicants and others. How many contractors need to be churned before this function goes back in-house?

Lowest cost provider is not always the right cost provider.
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Old Jun 17, 2014, 3:03 pm
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Angry Wrong person's Visa in passport!

How's this for quality control......CKGS in San Francisco put my wife's Visa in my son's passport!!! It was even pasted on a page opposite another visa which clearly showed my son's name. It has been over a week now and it has still not been resolved.

Last edited by gdavis; Jun 17, 2014 at 3:04 pm Reason: mispelling
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Old Jun 18, 2014, 6:49 pm
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YOUR India visa application experience with CKGS @USA

CKGS don't issue actual visa . In this case consulate made the mistake . CKGS should have double checked the visa page before mailing passports . Entire mess is a PR nightmare for indian govt .
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 9:37 am
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YOUR India visa application experience with CKGS @USA

You are correct....it was the Indian Consulate in San Francisco who made the mistake.

We have now been told the "new" Visa has been approved & will be at CKGS, however it has somehow not made it there from the Consulate which is less than 4 miles from CKGS. We are not allowed to go to the Consulate, per CKGS, they say we won't be allowed in the building. This is just crazy!

We are beginning to wonder if the passport has somehow been lost, which means not only the loss of precious mementos of vacations past, but also would cause us to cancel our upcoming plans due to lack of time to get a new passport & Visas. Maddening!
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 7:42 pm
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YOUR India visa application experience with CKGS @USA

After several e-mails & phone calls to the person handling our son's Visa fiasco at CKGS they finally found it....I promptly drove to San Francisco to pick it up. Total time was 28 days from when we submitted the applications.

I truly believe that had we not pressed the issue & found the phone number to the CKGS San Francisco office so that we could talk to someone on-site rather than in India......(which is what you get when you call the numbers listed on the web site)that we would still be waiting.
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Old Jun 19, 2014, 8:30 pm
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Got my Visa and passport back in the mail today. Submitted in the DC office on Friday, June 6th, it was back to CKGS on June 17th but they didn't get it out in the mail until the 18th, and received it all via FedEx this morning, so 13 days start to finish.

I thought going in that my experience in the office submitting the paperwork was bad (three hour wait, no one in the office knew what was going on, pretty much chaos), but reading some stories here and other places it sounds like I did OK. I had intentionally waited a couple weeks after the switch from BLS to CKGS, but I guess there are still some issues.

Good luck to everyone else!
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Old Jun 21, 2014, 1:54 am
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Originally Posted by gdavis
After several e-mails & phone calls to the person handling our son's Visa fiasco at CKGS they finally found it....I promptly drove to San Francisco to pick it up. Total time was 28 days from when we submitted the applications.

I truly believe that had we not pressed the issue & found the phone number to the CKGS San Francisco office so that we could talk to someone on-site rather than in India......(which is what you get when you call the numbers listed on the web site)that we would still be waiting.
You should post the number to help others out.
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