FLORIDA NEWS
Indian Consular Application Center opens in Orlando
The Indian Consular Application Center (ICAC) in Orlando is now open to offer all consular services through VFS Global. It was one of eight new ICACs that was launched Aug. 1 in the United States, including Raleigh, N.C., San Jose, Dallas, Detroit, Columbus, Ohio, Edison, N.J., and Boston. Additionally, the ICAC in Los Angeles will be launched soon. That’s a total of 17 ICACs, which will be open six days a week, including Saturdays.
Toward that end, the Consulate General of India-Atlanta Ramesh Babu, under whose jurisdiction the Orlando center falls, held “Connecting Communities, Serving the Diaspora: Consular Conference 2025” Aug. 16 in the Theme Park Capital of the World. Present were CG Ramesh Babu and several leaders of community associations across Florida. VFS Global staff were also present to address any questions relating to the new center. Babu shared that of all the applications the Atlanta office handled last year, 35 percent of the requests came from Florida.
The Orlando ICAC will offer the following services: passport, visa, Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI), surrender/NRI/life/birth/death/marriage and police clearance certificates, GEP, attestation of documents, NORI (No Obligation to Return to India) certificate, registration of birth and marriage. Included in the service fees are photographs for the application, photocopy of supporting documents, assistance in filling forms, and return courier service for completed documents.
KHAAS BAAT LAUNCHES ANNUAL SPONSOR DRIVE
By NITISH S. RELE and SHEPHALI J. RELE
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After completing our 21-year anniversary last month, we launched an annual sponsor drive to secure funds to cover production costs. Since its inception, Khaas Baat has been mailed free to subscribers around the state with only a handful of paid subscribers in the past few years. We are proud that during the pandemic we continued publishing regularly. In fact, we haven’t skipped an issue since we began printing in August 2004. Also, the entire print version of the newspaper can be found online. Since ad revenues alone do not cover our monthly production costs (printing, design, mailing), we are in need of corporate or private sponsors. Your backing will allow us to continue to publish Khaas Baat as a high-quality newspaper proudly serving our community.
Please send your contribution via Zelle to (813) 758-1786 or you can PayPal ID to: [email protected] You may also send a check addressed to KHAAS BAAT and mailed to KHAAS BAAT, 8312 WINDSOR BLUFF DRIVE, TAMPA, FL 33647.
With our festival season under way, we request community leaders and organizers to email event details to [email protected] by the 20th of the month to be included in the following month’s issue. We always welcome your story ideas and suggestions to best serve our community.
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