Subscribers of MurthyIndiaBulletin and readers of MurthyIndia.com are aware of the application process for Consular Report of Birth abroad (CRBA) at the U.S. Consulates and Embassy in India posted on Oct 6, 2009. We would like to inform our readers and prospective applicants for CRBA that, the Consulates and Embassy in India have suspended action on the application made between December 23, 2010 and January 18, 2011. This update is available on U.S. Embassy, New Delhi’s website and the U.S. Consular website of Chennai.

This notification is further to the Department of State ís announcement for up-gradation and transition of existing system to introduce a re-designed Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA, or Form FS-240). The re-designed CRBA will have advanced state-of-art of security features to prevent fraud and identity theft and to ensure uniform quality. The DS-1350 issued for requests for additional, replacement, or amended CRBAs, will be replaced with new FS-240s.

We will keep you informed on any further update on this subject.