Power of Attorney from NRIs

Updated on 14 Oct 2015:

A reader has pointed out in the comments section that the requirements have since changed. They can be found at - http://www.indianembassy.nl/eoi.php?id=poa

They key difference is that now witnesses from NL are required to appear with the applicant along with their ids to sign the PoA.

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As an NRI in the Netherlands, if you, as an Indian citizen, wish to give power of attorney (POA) to a resident in India, you need to do it at the Indian Consulate or the Embassy of India and would need the following documents:

• Official POA text printed on normal paper: Please note that the format is usually provided by the bank in case of a housing loan or by a lawyer in case of property sale or registration and stamp paper is required only when the POA is executed in India
• Passport and Residence card or visa
• Form for consular services (usually found in the Indian embassy website)
• Photocopies of all of the above
• At least 2 passport size photos: You will need one for the consular services form and one for the POA
• Fee

You are required to sign each page the POA in front of the consulate employee (who will then affix his signature and stamp), so do not sign anything at home. It is also prudent to carry additional documentation, for example, passport copy of the person who the POA is given to, marriage certificate especially if you are a woman etc since requirements may vary from one country to another.

NL specific (cannot comment about Indian consulates in other countries)

The website of the Indian embassy in NL hardly offers any information on POAs and neither do they answer phone calls. So you get the requirements only when you go there in person to Den Haag, so it’s better to be prepared especially if you want to avoid another trip. Please note that only passport and visa processes are outsourced (to VFS Global services) and POAs are directly dealt with by the Embassy. So neither the VFS hotline nor the VFS agents will be able to help you with this request.

Some tips and information:

First of all, any POA should only be given to a person you completely and implicitly trust like a parent or spouse. To avoid legal complications in the future, its better not to choose agents or other business associates.

Second of all, please exercise caution while giving someone general POA. It typically means the person can do ANYTHING with any of your investments and liabilities i.e. act like its his/her money and property. So if there is a specific purpose, for example sale of a particular property, then state only that in the POA. To be doubly sure, please also make sure you revoke the POA, once the job is done. Yes, it is good to have faith in people but there is no need to make it explicit with a legal document.

While drafting the POA, make sure the

• format is right - I found some useful formats here
• date and place of execution (in this case, Indian Embassy, The Hague) are correct
• names and addresses are spelt according to the passport (or similar identification card)
• space at the end of each page (easily done with custom margins in MS word) is enough for the signatures and stamp

Purchase of property

If you are availing a housing loan from a bank for purchase of property (Land or House) in India, please note that in this case, 2 POAs may be required. The first one is to be given to the bank, which will allow them to deal with a local representative. The second one, is for property registration i.e for the representative to appear in front of the Govt. Registrar to register the property in your name. Please note that the text is vastly different for the 2 POAs.

Dark knight rises and falls.....

****SPOILER ALERT****

To me, the movie was neither as bad as the Spiderman, nor as good as the avengers (which is worth watching just for Robert Downey Junior's witty repartee). While I enjoyed all the elements that one enjoys in a Batman movie - the cool gadgets, Alfred the butler, the mass destruction (some of which is caused by batman himself) - the predictability of the script and the unnecessary length of the movie made me stifle yawns quite often.

Anyone who has read enough Sidney sheldon books and seen enough 007 movies would have predicted that Rachel is not as goody goody as she seems. I mean, why else would anyone refer to a child, as ''child'' always without once using a pronoun like ''he'' or ''she'' (sheldon fans/readers would have immediately spotted the similarity to ''Angel'' from Windmills of the Gods) ?! And why in the world, would we have another leading lady (Anne Hathway) who acts like Robin Hood - if Anne is going to be Batman's girl, then the other girl is obviously going to change sides especially after Bruce mentions 17 times that he trusts her !

When is the movie industry going to give up showing the hero's comeback with push-ups as the music reaches a crescendo ? He could have been shot, beaten to a pulp, dropped from a building and all he needs are a few push-ups to get back into the game, eh ? Yeah, yeah, we get it, you want to make the most of his fitness but get creative people !

Some reviewer said ''Hans Zimmermann could have just come to the theatre and beat us on the head with drums''...there is no better way to say it, the music was so unbelievably bad ! We already have a villain who speaks like the darth-vader and add drums to it, you might as well even stop attempting to make sense of what he is saying. Maybe its time for Hollywood to replace Hans with ARR !

All in all, if you have nothing better to do, you might as well grab a few snacks (you will definitely need them) and go watch the Dark Knight.

PS: Did you know that the prison was modeled after the wells in Rajasthan ?

My ideal lunch

Call it an idiosyncrasy or a weird habit but my ideal lunch is having something warm to eat (and no, cold sandwich is not lunch even if my fellow Dutch strongly disagree) and something spicy to read (don’t get the wrong idea….). I always like to read something that makes me think…there is something indescribably satisfying about thinking and letting one’s imagination wander when I slowly chew and enjoy the food. It could be the usual privacy violation article about Google or a John Grisham book that I am probably reading for the umpteenth time.

I don’t have anything against a working lunch but its wraught with complications

- How is it a lunch ‘’break’’ when you continue to discuss the same topics with the same people ?

- At the cafeteria, even if I choose just soup, salad and juice and a colleague comments light heartedly ’’oh..thats a full tray’’, all my ‘’am-I-too-fat’’ sensors light up like a Christmas tree and where-o-where would I find the energy to still keep smiling and think of something to say so as to not offend him (naturally it’s a ‘’him’’) ! To add to it, why does someone who is thin and fit sit just across from me and enjoy the same dessert that I willed myself to ignore ?

- When you eat a spoonful of salad (that requires inordinate chewing), why do people always choose the exact same moment to ask you a question ? The more the person waits for an answer, the more I feel like a cow chewing its cud !! Not to mention the endless worry about bits of salad stuck between the teeth !

Given that there is hardly any time for breakfast (and I eat it while commuting to work) and dinner is preceded and succeeded by household chores, lunch is probably the only meal during weekdays that is slow paced and gives one time. I have to applaud the French here – when I was in Paris for work, lunch was atleast an hour, mostly accompanied by wine and even if its the office cafeteria, the menu was long and the food was delicious. And to top it all, no one spoke about anything but cheese and wine…..that definitely goes on the list as a pro, if I ever consider moving to France.