Help a Wannabe-Desi Out

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white india.jpg Verity, at the conservative blog Albion’s Seedlings, says she wants to settle in India and buy property there. However, she’s been told that she can do neither.

My understanding is that with the approval of the Reserve Bank, she can buy property for residential purposes, and Wikipedia claims, “Citizenship of India by naturalisation can be acquired by a foreigner who is ordinarily resident in India for twelve years (continuously for the twelve months preceding the date of application and for eleven years in the aggregate in the fourteen years preceding the twelve months).”

Anyone know more about this than just what a Google search turns up?

9 thoughts on “Help a Wannabe-Desi Out”

  1. The post itself is priceless:

    I called the Indian High Commission in London… “Foreigners can’t settle in India! No, no, no! You can’t just settle in another country!” Me: “Of course, you can. With permission.” “No, you can’t.” Reasonably enough, I responded, “Well, what about the 500,000 Indians who are settled in Britain, then?” To which he responded, “They’re illegal.” “… Are you telling me all the Indian surgeons and barristers and millionaire businessmen are in Britain illegally?” “Yah.” … “What about all the tens of millions of Indians settled in the United States and Canada, then?” “Illegal.”

  5. is Verity brown? from what I understand it’s a very different scenario for a brown (even born in US to parents from desiland) versus a non-brown.

  6. sorry, I didn’t mean to exclude– I mean a brown born outside of desiland (not just born in the US)

  7. ? from what I understand it’s a very different scenario for a brown …

    the PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) designation was pulled together with such a scenario in mind. PIO’s can buy property in India without any hassle, though they will need power of attorney granted to a local for paperwork.
    While verity’s log is funny, judging by the consternation of the person she interacted with, she might be doing a bit of guerilla journalism here – a series of staccato questions – to get a non-slick interviewee committing to a series of increasingly preposterous statements – watch out for – “so you’re saying…”‘s – designed to elicit a Yes-No responses on issues that shift a smidgen into wackie-dom with each successive closed-end question.
    some poor babu got it i guess.

  8. as usual i deviated into my head while posting the above… i meant to say – if verite’s pops or mum is indian – she’s a PIO and can buy property – heck i think she could even be a trini, many generations removed – and still count as a PIO- I might remember wrong – but i believe Bharrat Jagdeo is a PIO… i personally think i got the best of all worlds – Access to the Commonwealth, ASEAN and NAFTA … it’s good to fly the maple leaf and the ashok wheel.

  9. I got the impression that Verity does not have any ethnic connection to South Asia — hence the “Wannabe-Desi” 🙂