Amid instances of unscrupulous elements overcharging members of the Indian community for consular services and other fraudulent activities, India's mission here has cautioned against using such agents and highlighted measures undertaken by it to streamline visa, passport and other services for the diaspora.

Consul General of India in New York Binaya Pradhan told reporters here that several instances have come to the notice of the Consulate where various travel agents are "misusing people’s trust".

They have been charging higher amounts of money in the name of providing services.

Such unscrupulous elements have overcharged applicants for assistance in getting Consular services such as Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), visa, passport and an emergency certificate. Pradhan cited instances where travel agents have charged as much as USD 450 to provide an emergency certificate to travel to India, while such a service costs only USD 17.

The Consulate said it has also come across instances where fake documents about identity, residential address, and utility bills have been submitted by the agents on the applicants’ behalf, often without the knowledge of the applicant. The Consulate said that this not only causes undue avoidable delay but is also a violation of prescribed Indian rules and puts the applicants on the wrong side of the law in the US.

The agents "claim that they have a relationship with the Consulate,” Pradhan said, adding that "they put our community members in trouble by providing false documents, fake certificates." Pradhan underscored that whether it is an Indian citizen, an American citizen or an Indian-American person, they “don't have to come to us through an agent. You can come to us directly for the services that we provide at the Consulate. There is no requirement of using an agent, and on top of that to pay money, which is exorbitantly higher,” Pradhan said.

Additionally, Pradhan noted that it has also been brought to the Consulate’s notice that several fake E-visa websites, claiming to provide such services, are active on the internet. To mislead the applicants, some of these websites have created images and home page templates mimicking the Government of India’s websites.

The Consulate strongly urged members of the community and diaspora to apply on the correct website for E-visa services and not go through any other portal listed on the internet.

The Consulate has issued an advisory to create awareness about not using the services of "unscrupulous elements" who have been overcharging and submitting fraudulent documents on behalf of applicants. It has also publicised the fees and charges for all the services provided to ensure applicants don’t end up paying higher amounts.

The New York Consulate serves the northeastern states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Pradhan noted that of the 5.4 million strong Indian diaspora in the US, about 2.5 million or 40-45 per cent of the total, live in these 10 states. Over 113,000 Indian students out of the 354,000 in the whole country study in universities in these 10 northeastern states.

Pradhan also highlighted a slew of measures undertaken by the Consulate to ensure efficient consular services, including digital initiatives for ease of availing services and digital assistance tools like 'Pramit', 'Bharti Chatbot' and mobile app. It also organizes an open house twice a month when applicants can walk in without prior appointment and meet the Consular Officers for any query they may have regarding the consular services.

Amid a string of tragic and concerning incidents involving Indian students in the US in the recent past, Pradhan emphasised that there has been a "special focus” on students. The Consulate’s approach has been to connect the student community to the larger Indian community so they get a “helping hand” in their initial months. In this regard, the Consulate developed a special platform for the students to find internship opportunities at companies in the US as well as provide access to attorney and medical information.

Deputy Consul General Varun Jeph added that under a recent initiative aimed at addressing the problems of students, the Consulate will host an open house twice a month when they can walk in without taking prior appointments and meet officials.

He called on students coming from India to register on the Consulate’s portals as that will give information about where the students are and how many “so that in case of an emergency, it's much easier for us to reach out to them,” Jeph said adding that this also provides a “comfort level” to the students that they can reach out to the Consulate.

Jeph reiterated that there is "absolutely no need" to go to agents at all for consular services and the applicants can avail of these services through the global visa outsourcing and technology service VFS.

“You can come to us, write to us, things are absolutely smooth. If there are any issues at all, we are here for the community.” On OCI cards, Pradhan noted that under the Consulate’s jurisdiction, there are about 1.5 million Indian-origin people who are American passport holders and of these, only about 600,000 have OCI cards.

“We have been encouraging Indian community members to have OCI cards. The OCI card is in a way a permanent visa. And more than that, it's a better connect to the motherland,” Pradhan said.

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