Hi all! For those of us residing in India on an OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) card, which has always been advertised as a lifelong visa, don’t you think we’re living in a strange irony? It feels like the Indian government is trying to squeeze more money out of NRIs and OCI card holders.
Earlier, the rules made sense. If you were under 20, you had to update your passport details after every new passport, but if you were between 21 and 49, you were exempt. Now, regardless of age, every time you renew your passport, you have to update your passport particulars online. On top of that, they’ve started charging for it. If you don’t update the details within three months of getting a new passport, you’ll have to pay a US$25 penalty. I mean, what exactly is the logic here? First, from 29 January 2015, they made it clear that OCI card holders no longer needed to carry the old passport that contained the U-visa sticker. You only needed your valid foreign passport and your OCI booklet. Yet, even after that change, some immigration officials still insisted on seeing the old passport. So what was the point of changing the rule if it wasn’t going to be followed consistently? And now, instead of simplifying the process, they’ve introduced another requirement where every passport renewal has to be updated through an online portal that is poorly designed and frustrating to use. For something that’s supposed to be a lifelong visa, the system seems to be moving in the opposite direction by adding more bureaucracy, more penalties, and more unnecessary hassle. Sent from my iPhone -- Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/accessindia.org.in/d/msgid/accessindia/CADwy9hcLdsOJDd%3DwJrTFaGtYH_XaZ%3D_fAxzhhX8_4DP%2B0SdJgw%40mail.gmail.com.
