Remember that if you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, the rules for filing income, estate, and gift tax returns and paying estimated tax are generally the same whether you are in the United States or abroad. Your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside.

More information about filing from abroad

Permanent IRS Offices Outside the United States

One of the highest priorities of the U.S. Mission in India is the protection of U.S. citizens who travel and live overseas.  The U.S. Consulate General in Hyderabad encourages all U.S. citizens to sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) at https://step.state.gov/step/ so enrollees can stay safe, connected, and informed while traveling or living abroad.  Millions travel to India every year and encounter no difficulties, but there are times when we need to reach you to let you know what security or emergency situations may be happening in the region.  By informing us about your trip or residence abroad, you help us make contact when you might need us the most.  Signing up is voluntary and costs nothing, but it should be a big part of your travel planning and security.  Smart Traveler is also available as an official State Department app.  The free app invites you to see the world with easy access to frequently updated official country information, travel alerts, travel warnings, maps, U.S. embassy locations, and more. For more information visit the iTunes store at http://itunes.apple.com; or, for an Android version of the app http://play.google.com/store/apps.

If you are already enrolled, would you have a story of how U.S. Embassy/Consulate personnel helped you while you were traveling or living abroad? Please share your thoughts with us by writing in at HYDACS@state.gov or posting a comment on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AmericanCitizenServicesIndia.

Safe travels!

Foreigners Regional Registration Office

Bureau of Immigration, Beside Vijaya Bank Counter

Rajiv Gandhi Terminal

Begumpet Old Airport, Hyderabad

Phone: 040-27900211, 040-27901022, 040-27900388

http://hyderabadpolice.gov.in

Window Hours:

Registration: 14:30 – 16:00 hours

Other Services: 10:00 -12:30 hours

As always, we want to be sure that U.S. citizens in India have quick and easy access to information related to their health and safety as well as information about our services.  To this end, we have created an American Citizen Services India Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanCitizenServicesIndia.

If you are on Facebook, we encourage you to “like” our page and share the link.  Please note that anyone interested in receiving our posts is encouraged to “like” the page whether a U.S. citizen or not!

We also encourage all American citizens – including your relatives and friends who might be traveling abroad this holiday season – to register for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP).  STEP is a free service provided by the U.S. Government to U.S. citizens who are traveling to, or living in, a foreign country.  Through STEP, U.S. citizens can enter information about upcoming foreign travel so that the Department of State can better assist them in an emergency. 

Enroll in STEP here:  https://step.state.gov/step/.

Make “green” holiday choices when you are shopping, traveling, sending cards, decorating, and choosing gifts. When you save energy and resources, you protect the environment and safeguard health both now and for the future.

The winter holidays are nearly here! Some of us are ready for the festivities, but many of us are still planning and shopping for decorations and gifts and organizing holiday gatherings. We want to enjoy the fun and spirit of the season, but we don’t want to spend too much money or use too many resources in the process. And most of all, we want to enjoy quality time with those we love.

The good news is that we can participate in all these holiday activities and still manage to conserve resources. In doing so, we also protect our environment and protecting our environment can safeguard our health now and in the future. 

Whether we are traveling, sending holiday cards, decorating our homes, or choosing gifts, all of us can have “green” celebrations. Even if you already reduce, reuse, and recycle, browse through the suggestions below for more ways to bring those practices into your holiday activities. If all of us make even a few eco-friendly choices, we will save energy and resources and send less trash to the landfill during this busy time of year.

Decorate with items that are energy-efficient and durable.

• Research the most energy efficient choice for your holiday tree. The choice will vary depending on your location. Below are some suggestions.
  • Use other types of decorations besides trees.
  • Buy an artificial tree that you can use for years to come.
  • Contact your state cooperative extension service to find out about trees grown in your area or trees grown in ways that keep forests healthy and safe.
  • Buy a living tree you can plant outside or keep as a houseplant after the holidays.
  • Buy a smaller tree so that you have less to recycle.
  • Dispose of your tree at a chipping facility or return to the environment in other eco-friendly ways.
• Use energy efficiently.
  • Consider using few or no lights in your holiday decorations.
  • Decorate with more energy efficient LED (light emitting diodes) strings.
  • Plug your decorative indoor and outdoor lights into a timer to save electricity.
• Decorate creatively and inexpensively with natural materials from your yard or with items you already own.
• Choose durable ornaments from wood, metal, or cloth rather than plastic or thin glass.

Use fewer resources when you shop, give presents, and wrap gifts.

• Take your own bags on shopping trips. Keep them in the car so they’re ready whenever you stop at a store.
• Shop online.
• Conserve energy when shopping. Use mass transit if possible. If you have to drive, combine several errands in one trip or carpool with family and friends.
• Give gifts that are durable, energy-efficient, recyclable, or made of natural products.
• Buy from local shops and craft shows or from companies that use fair-trade practices.
• Search antique and second-hand stores for unique gifts.
• Make your own gifts: knit, sew, bake, or create art from reused items.
• Make calendars using your own photographs or make a recipe book with your favorite recipes
• Give a membership or an experience—tuition for a class or a visit to museum.
• Give of your time—coupons for providing a meal, planting a garden, cleaning, or using another talent or skill.
• Plant a tree in someone’s yard.
• Use creative materials for gift wrap:
  • Scarves, fabric, handkerchiefs
  • Old maps, sheet music, advertisements
  • Reusable tins
  • Usable baking pans or other home or garden items

Give cards that are eco-friendly and save resources.

• Make your own cards.
• Buy cards made from recycled paper (look for “post-consumer” content) and printed in non-toxic inks.
• Buy cards and envelopes that can be recycled in your town. Choose cards printed on white stock without metallic or plastic coatings.
• Buy cards wrapped in the least bulky or most recyclable packaging.
• Substitute postcards for cards that require envelopes.
• Reuse the fronts of old holiday cards as gift tags.

Eat sustainable food and avoid disposable containers and extra packaging.

• Research sustainable food choices in your area and buy locally if possible.
• Buy snacks and beverages in bulk to avoid extra packaging.
• Serve food with washable utensils, plates, and glasses, rather than disposable items.
• Make homemade eggnog, hot chocolate or iced tea in large quantities, and prepare pitchers of ice water in advance to reduce waste from water and soda bottles or cans.

Choose a few of these ideas that will be easy for you to incorporate into your holiday celebration. Not only will you conserve energy and resources, but chances are you will also simplify your life. And you may get more of what we all need at this time of year—time to enjoy our families and friends and to focus on the joys of the season.

The voting process has changed, but your vote still counts.  Learn how to request a ballot by watching the winner of this year’s “Gallantly Streaming” video contest hosted by the Federal Voter Assistance Program.

This article is excerpted from the richly illustrated book 

I love America not because I am under the illusion that it is perfect, but because it allows me — the child of Muslim immigrants from India — to participate in its progress, to carve a place in its promise, to play a role in its possibility.

John Winthrop, one of the earliest European settlers in America, gave voice to this sense of possibility. He told his compatriots that their society would be like a city upon a hill, a beacon for the world. It was a hope rooted in Winthrop’s Christian faith, and no doubt he imagined his city on a hill with a steeple in the center. Throughout the centuries, America has remained a deeply religious country, while becoming

a remarkably plural one. Indeed, we are the most religiously devout nation in the West and the most religiously diverse country in the world. The steeple at the center of the city on a hill is now surrounded by the minaret of Muslim mosques, the Hebrew script of Jewish synagogues, the chanting of Buddhist sangas, and the statues of Hindu temples. In fact, there are now more Muslims in America than Episcopalians, the faith professed by many of America’s Founding Fathers.

One hundred years ago, the great African-American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois warned that the problem of the century would be the color line. The 21st century might well be dominated by a different line — the faith line. The most pressing questions for my country (America), my religion (Islam), and all God’s people may well be these: How will people who may have different ideas of heaven interact together on Earth? Will the steeple, the minaret, the synagogue, the temple, and the sanga learn to share space in a new city on a hill?

I think the American ethos — mixing tolerance and reverence — may have something special to contribute to this issue.

America is a grand gathering of souls, the vast majority from elsewhere. The American genius lies in allowing these souls to contribute their texture to the American tradition, to add new notes to the American song.

I am an American with a Muslim soul. My soul carries a long history of heroes, movements, and civilizations that sought to submit to the will of God. My soul listened as the Prophet Muhammad preached the central messages of Islam, tazaaqa and tawhid, compassionate justice and the oneness of God. In the Middle Ages, my soul spread to the East and West, praying in the mosques and studying in the libraries of the great medieval Muslim cities of Cairo, Baghdad, and Cordoba. My soul whirled with Rumi, read Aristotle with Averroes, traveled through Central Asia with Nasir Khusrow. In the colonial era, my Muslim soul was stirred to justice. It marched with Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars in their satyagraha to free India. It stood with Farid Esack, Ebrahim Moosa, Rahid Omar, and the Muslim Youth Movement in their struggle for a multicultural South Africa.

In one eye I carry this ancient Muslim vision on pluralism; in the other eye I carry the American promise. And in my heart, I pray that we make real this possibility: a city on a hill where different religious communities respectfully share space and collectively serve the common good; a world where diverse nations and peoples come to know one another in a spirit of brotherhood and righteousness; a century in which we achieve a common life together.

Author Eboo Patel is executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, Illinois. He is a leader in the interfaith movement.

To read more about Ramadan go to http://www.america.gov/ramadan.html