# DS-160 Personal Info 2 Page - Clarification



## kishore2b (Dec 27, 2012)

Hello Everyone

Good Day.

I am an Australian Citizen and applying for an E3 Visa and I haven't applied for OCI yet which will include cancellation of my Indian Passport which is valid until 2025. My passport technically can't be used for any travel activities as I have acquired Australian Citizenship and recieved an Australian Passport.

Should I mention* Yes/No* for the passport section highlighted after other country/region of origin. Appreciate your help.










Thanks


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Note the wording of the question:
Do you hold or *have you held*... 
So, in the past tense you have definitely held an Indian passport. Given that your Indian passport has been cancelled, you're fine with responding No to the second part of that question.


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## Moulard (Feb 3, 2017)

I actually disagree with Bev on this for regulatory reasons on the second half of her response. Your answers should be YES and YES not YES and NO until such time as you surrender your Indian Passport or it expires.

The second part of the question is geared at determining if you hold a passport that has not been formally cancelled - because conceptually you could travel on a valid uncancelled passport and the US wants to know the details of all the passports you could travel on..

So the answer to the second half of the question is YES until such time as your Indian passport expires or you formally surrender it.

Under the Citizenship Act of 1955 I understand that Indian citizenship will have been automatically terminated on voluntarily acquiring citizenship of Australia.

So on making the Australian citizenship pledge of commitment by oath or affirmation one automatically looses Indian citizenship.

While it would be an offence under the Indian Passport Act of 1967 for you to travel on an unexpired Indian passport, one still can do so, and as a historical footnote before OCI was introduced it was quite common (but illegal) to do so.

To mix metaphors, if a tree falls in the forest and the Indian government is not aware of it, has the tree really fallen.

Surrendering a valid Indian passport is the way to formally let the Indian government know you have performed an expatriating act.

If I was to really quibble, it is not until an India Passport & Visa Services Centre accepts the surrender, that the passport is cancelled, but for your purposes. If you are intending to apply for a PIO / OCI card, I would suggest that you need to answer YES until such time as you have made an OCI application through VFS or the passport expires at which point it is no longer a valid travel document.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Basically we don't disagree here. I took the OPs statement about the cancellation of his passport as a done deal and on re-read I see that he is saying that it "will be" cancelled. Comes of reading through things too quickly I guess.

There are different protocols for different countries. I know the US makes a big deal out of returning even a cancelled passport to the holder. (With a couple of big old holes punched through the cover and front pages.) I'm always a bit surprised when France doesn't return an old passport on renewal, but I guess that's standard practice for more countries than I realized.


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## kishore2b (Dec 27, 2012)

Thanks for your response Moulard. I will update my DS-160 accordingly.

Thanks Bev for your response. Appreciate it


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