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If Parents are Indian citizens on H1B and H1B expires soon after giving birth to child in US.

Parents wish to apply for OCI for their child but since OCI takes 60 days to arrive, but parents cannot wait for so long since their H1B has expired. Furthermore OCI is complicated process and can reject application for any petty mistake, thus it can take even longer.

If parents wait for long in US for child's OCI, parents will accrue illegal stay in US.

If they take baby to India on tourist visa, baby will be out of status in India after 180 days. Also OCI website states you cannot apply for OCI in India on tourist visa.

Has anyone faced this problem ? or know what options exists ?

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2 Answers 2

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You are right. Getting the OCI can take time and it can be rejected for mistakes in documentations. There are two ways to go here.

  1. Change your non-immigrant status to B-2 or any other visa so that you won't be out of status and stay in the USA. Wait for the OCI to arrive.

  2. Apply for the X visa for your child in the USA, which is given to foreigners who have family ties with Indians(marriage/blood etc.). It's normally valid for 1 year. Getting it is not that difficult. Or come to India with your baby on a tourist visa, change it to X Entry visa through FRRO and then apply for the OCI. Here is a foreigner who has written her experience on getting Entry X visa through FRRO India.

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  • He doesn't need a visa for the USA. The X visa is for India. He can apply for the X visa while being in the USA and then can come to India with that visa. Or he can get the tourist visa for India and convert it to X visa after coming to India, and then wait for the OCI.
    – thetravelgirl
    Aug 22, 2020 at 15:31
  • Can you apply for X-visa for a child if both parents are Indian citizens ? CKGS website clearly states child's parent should be of foreign origin - in.ckgs.us/visa/entry-visa ?
    – JavaDeveloper
    Aug 24, 2020 at 22:36
  • Also I read parents need a non-expired US visa with 3 months remaining. If we transition to B2, we may not have any valid US visa in transition. Any idea how to resolve this ?
    – JavaDeveloper
    Aug 24, 2020 at 22:38
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    The CKGS website states that you are eligible for entry visa if you are a spouse or a child of a person of Indian origin. I would suggest you apply for it since technically your son is a US citizen with Indian origin parents. If they say you are not eligible, apply for a one-year tourist visa for your son, come to India and apply for OCI and renew or convert the visa later.
    – thetravelgirl
    Aug 29, 2020 at 18:58
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One option you can pursue is to change your nonimmigrant status to that of a B-2 visitor so you can stay in the US to await the child's OCI document.

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