I'll be in Mumbai. Looking to book appointment at the Lower Parel office.
Many years ago when I renewed my passport in Mumbai - I had received a post card and had to take that to police station for my verification. Its news to me now that police come home to verify.

Police coming to houses to verify has been going on in various parts of India for decades. While it isn't a common experience, there is enough of it that I've seen it done while at some homes in India.

I'm amazed how Indian Ambassador Navejt Sarna got his Global Entry card without verification :)
I guess diplomatic passports are exempted from police verification - hence even he was clueless on the PSK emails

no they are not....my parents hold diplomatic passports & they both had to go through the police verification....

giving the indian ambassador his global entry card so quickly was just another pr stunt....so they must have had special permission to bypass the verification....

That said, foreigners don't get a GE card, only US citzens get one. In the beginning they used to put a tiny sticker into your passport at the interview, even that is gone. Now all you have a is a generic letter you can print out from the GOES website.

interesting....i wonder why they don't give cards to everyone????i mean if you have membership then why not the membership card????

Not much great use for the card unless going by surface means of sort into the US. Otherwise, it's just another US-issued ID. Well, the Canadian officials seem to like it too for some purposes, but otherwise there isn't much use for it other than it's a card that has the KTN number on it for PreCheck; but that number is also in the GOES account/conditional approval letter.

The USG doesn't want to issue US ID to a lot more types of non-US persons; and issuing and mailing the ID cards for non-US persons would be more or less a waste of money and/or come with increased fees/costs.

Having the GE card doesn't mean the GE membership is valid.

PR show indeed. No new Indian police verification for loading him up for Global Entry was required. He wasn't subject to the normal process, but that wasn't because he has an A-1 US visa. IFS and other Indians with diplomatic passports are ordinarily subject to police verification if seeking GE membership -- at least that tied to ordinary Indian passports.

fair enough....but i still see no harm in issuing a different version of the card for non-us citizens....some people are old school & they just like to have membership cards....

even if it came with an increased cost, i'm sure many would be willing to pay for it to be delivered to their non-us mailing address....in fact, it could be an added revenue steam to have the cards issued to those who opted for it....

What Global Entry Application ID is everyone using for the PSK form? The GOES ID is different than the GEP ID we get in email from PSK.

the gep id....

Right on the money on all counts except that it is not limited to THIS government.

Cannot attend parent's funeral because you went to see her at time of bypass surgery two month earlier - was from Kangress govt. (Italian lady even scolded Shashi Tharroor for pointing out stupidity)

National security is at risk if guy obtaining OCI at age 49, does not go through almost all of stupid process all over again if he gets new US/UK passport at age 51 - Thats holdover from Kangress too.

Unfortunate reality is that most stupid details are worked out by stupid bureucrates baboos and elected govt official lack intelligence or care to catch/fix stupidity.

There are many other such things:
a) Indian govt official declare on its websites that OCI and NRI are on parity for financial and educational matters but OCI were excluded from exchanging 500 Rs notes
b) Electric utilies are being told (and Reliance has started) to stop accepting advance bill payments
c) A handicapped bed ridden person needs to be taken to nearest airtel center in ambulence and wait 2 hours for thumb print (giving copy of aadhaar card is not enough) otherwise sim will be (eventually) cancelled

List can go on...Problem is not with Current or Past or Future government.
It is in India's (bureaucratic) DNA.

Nothing to do with bureaucratic "DNA". Everything to do with elected officials' "DNA". As much as I find bureaucracy a beast in India, it's elected officials that have made this scene what it is. The elected government officials want a PR show, so they roll out one without appreciating that they should get the bureaucratic ducks in order first or at the same time at least.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. And that goes to show with the rollout of this GE scheme for Indians -- especially as elected officials and their handpicked ones drove this show.

How did your interview go? Any pointers or words of wisdom based on your interview?

very true....the previous government was no better....

the difference between the two governments is that the previous one took ages to implement policies & when they did the rules often made no sense....the current government is in a hurry to announce schemes & policies but there is no implementation in place....the scheme gets announced but in reality the scheme still doesn't exist....

i don't know which one is worse....

i would disagree....the babus are not as bad as they used to be....having to deal with these guys on pretty much a daily basis, my analysis is that it is the government in power that does the damage....

in the past these bureaucratic babus had the luxury of time & information to come up with details....they got some right & they got some wrong....now i have noticed that they neither have the time nor information....they are told with no notice at all that a policy is going into effect & are then left scrambling for details to put the information together with no help coming from the respective ministries because they too have no clue whats going on....

once again, i don't know which is worse....

i couldn't agree more....

read post 21 of this thread....

after my experience of being the first applicant in india, a friend of mine went for his interview earlier this week....his experience was very different from mine....they knew what they had to do....they checked & uploaded his documents, scanned his fingerprints, took his picture & he was out of there in under 30 minutes....a couple of days later he got a call for his police verification & that is being done today....

i think they are getting their ducks in order now & the process should be pretty smooth from now on....