Cox & Kings Global Services

I was planning to apply for my emergency visa as my mother was undergoing some medical treatment in India and I wanted to be with her. I had 2 weeks time to get my tourist visa processed. As I had recently got naturalized in US, I had to get my renunciation certificate before I could apply for my Indian visa. The customer service agent in Cox& Kings told me that I could apply for both together and I could get the normal Tourist visa processed in 3 to 5 business days (and no need to apply for emergency visa which cost$ 100 more and is valid only for 6 months). I was pleasantly surprised with professional service and customer service focus of the agent. My visa got processed in 2 business days!
I have gone through the visa application process with various European countries and the service at Cox& Kings exceeded all of them. Keep up the excellent service!

I was one of those unfortunates who got caught up in the whole BLS-​CKGS transition mess and agonizing delay from BLS.
However, the services of Cox & Kings Washington DC centre were excellent and prompt and it was a very good experience. Here is some background on my case —
Dec 2013 — submitted OCI Application to BLS Washington DC Centre
Jan 2014 — Documents returned (without passport) as ‘Incomplete’. Re-​sent documents and note that passport was already sent in first application in Dec.
Jan — Feb — NO reply from BLS despite several phone calls and emails. Just standard ‘application is being processed by Embassy’ email replies to tickets submitted online, by a suspicious name (probably auto-​reply) ‘Sarah’.
mid-​Mar 2014 — Escalated my case to ‘appropriate channels’. Got a phone call from a lady in BLS who refused to give me her number but apologized for the mess-​up and claimed that my Application had been forgotten in the pile of Applications they have received (read — but not done anything about). She claimed to have ‘searched the office several times but not found my passport’. She promised to call again after checking with Management about the next step but was not willing to share her number.
No response from her for two weeks.
end-​March 2014 — Finally after several emails back and forth to Washington DC Embassy and phone calls (and days of tension, headaches and worry), I received an email from Mr. Jain from BLS. He promised to personally look into getting my application submitted to Embassy. He also advised to file for an Indian Visa Application.
Apr 2014 — got Visa in two weeks after BLS Management was looking into my case. My OCI Application was submitted to Embassy finally. I thank Mr. Jain and Ms. Molly for their prompt help, even though it came months after major screw-​ups from the rest of the BLS staff in the Washington DC office.
May 2014 — transition to Cox&Kings. May 22^nd, I immediately contacted CKGS and asked for status update on my OCI case. They informed me that they were waiting for data from BLS as BLS was the one who had submitted my application.
They also cautioned that applications sent to BLS would take longer because CKGS was still ‘collecting data and asking for co-​operation from BLS about the pending applications’. I was like, Oh No, what’s new here!
Unlike BLS helpline, CKGS was prompt and courteous and actually wrote something substantial in their emails.
Jun 2014 — found out about OCI Indian website that shows more detailed status of application. Mine was showing ‘Documents Printing’ for several weeks.
Contacted ‘appropriate channels’ to get this step moving further.
Once the status on that website showed that my documents had reached DC Embassy, I pinged CKGS again and asked them about progress on my case.
After syncing up with the Embassy, CKGS asked me to send my passport.
mid-​July 2014 — received my documents finally!
It took almost 8 months for my application to go through in addition to much mental trauma. I sympathize with folks who are having health issues or are senior/​aged and have to get their OCIs, visas or passports renewed through BLS channel. Good Luck!
I think that CKGS is doing a good job. They have a lot of clean-​up to do after the mess left by BLS (read b***-s***).
One can blame several parties for this mess-​up. I think that CKGS is taking the brunt of this whole mess and they should be given some consideration. I beleive that CKGS has handled the whole transition of pending applications from BS very well and folks need to show some patience towards this organization instead of brickbats.
Few things to note —
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I had sent my passport and other docs in plastic covers but my passport and docs were returned carelessly without the plastic covers, by CKGS. It would be good if they can retain those plastic covers and send documents safely.
Be very thorough in all correspondence with CKGS. BLS staff were lousy, careless imbeciles who were probably not qualified to do this work.
Stay on top of your application. I learnt the hard way. Ping these guys every few days about the status. Otherwise, be prepared that the application may just be lost in a pile of other applications.
Use ‘appropriate channels’ to escalate your case if urgent. Google up this information and contact folks directly. Unfortunately, this process works the same way that one gets a license in India for e.g. — through several intermediate ‘hindrances’ and bureaucratic issues.
The title ‘IAS’ or ‘IPS’ is useless in India. This title has ‘Indian Civil Servant’ in it’s super-​set category but these people seem to forget their task is to serve their nation. I guess probably one cannot blame these people only — even getting work done from subordinates is such a pain in the neck. Too much of ‘Sirji’, ‘Madamji’ and too little work.