US passport and PIO card

My brother is getting engaged and we need to go to India for the engagement and wedding, which are about three months apart. Now we realize our daughter requires a US Passport and a Visa or some other document to enter India. We applied for the US passport on December 8th and received it on 26th December. The information on applying for a US passport is given in the website

http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/minors/minors_834.html

Note: Not all post offices issue passports.

After this Veda was really sick and we were busy and had ruled out all possibility of going to India. But after her doctor declared that her health was better I decided to apply for the PIO card. We could have applied for a Visa but there is a criteria that there should be 180 days between entries to India and that would not be possible for us with travel in February and again in May. There are several rumors out there that it takes 3-4 weeks to get the PIO card etc, but I got it in a week and I applied by mail. I am in Massachusetts so I had to apply to the Indian embassy in New York. I provided the following

1. The application form filled out in duplicate, with my daughter's thumb print on it.
2. Notarized photocopies of my Driving License and my husband's license.
3. Notarized photocopies of pages of my Husband's passport, my passport and my daughter's passport. I only took copies of the three pages, the first two pages ad the last page.
4. 4 photographs of my daughter in addition to the two that were pasted on the application forms.
5. A certified check for 205$, 185$ for the PIO card fee and 20$ for express mail charges. the check should be payable to Consulate General of India, New York.
6. Notarized Bank statements for address proof.
7. Birth Certificate, original ( actually this was a copy from the town office). Several websites said they do not return the Birth certificate, but they did.

I also provided a cover letter indicating the application contents and requesting for the card to be mailed back as soon as possible, the sample letter format is given below

January 6th 2010

To
Consulate General of India
New York, New York, USA


Subject: PIO card application for _child's name___.


Dear Sir/Madam,

I have enclosed the application for the PIO card for my _age_ old daughter _name_. Along with the application I have provided
1. Four photographs
2. Notarized copies of relevant pages of my husband’s passport, my daughter’s passport and my passport.
3. Notarized copies of my husband’s and my driver’s license.
4. Notarized bank statements
5. My daughter’s birth certificate.
6. A certified check for 205$, 185$ for the PIO card fee and 20$ for express mail charges.

Kindly accept the application and the attached documents and provide us with _child's name_’s PIO Card at the earliest.

Please mail the PIO card or any other correspondence to
___my address___

Regards



_my name_

I mailed the application to

Consulate General of India, 3 E. 64th Street, New York, NY 10065

For additional details about applying for a PIO card please refer the Indian embassy website
http://www.indiacgny.org/php/showContent.php?linkid=179

I sent the application on January 7th 2010 and received the PIO card on January 14th.

Hope this information helps.