From: NRI office Goa To: asjrebello Sent: Thursday, 24 April 2014, 8:12 Subject: Re: Fw: Subject: Indians overseas upset over government proposal to scrap...... Dear Mr. Rebello,
Please be informed that there is no proposal before Govt. of India to scrap PIO and OCI cards. For ready reference, I would like to highlight the major differences in the two schemes as they stand today : 1) While the PIO Card is valid for 15 years, OCI registration entitles for lifelong visa. 2) While PIO is granted to foreigner married to Indian citizen or a Person of Indian origin, such foreigner is not eligible for OCI registration. 3) Minors whose parents are Indian citizens or one parent is an Indian citizen and the other is not, are not covered under OCI Scheme whereas they are eligible under PIO Card Scheme. 4) PIO Card is not allowed to nationals of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and China, whereas OCI is not allowed to nationals of Bangladesh and Pakistan only. 5) While PIO Card is granted to PIOs whose parents / grandparents / great grandparents are or had been of Indian origin, OCI registration is granted to PIOs who were Indian citizens on or after 26th January 1950 or eligible to be Indian citizens on 26th January 1950 or to persons belonging to those territories which became part of India after 15th August 1947 (like Goa)and also to children / grand children of such persons. In other words, while under PIO Card Scheme, PIO link of the applicant is determined based on the linear relationship of the applicant upto great grandparents level, under the OCI Scheme, PIO link of the applicant is determined based on the linear relationship of the applicant upto grandparents level. The merger of PIO Card Scheme with the OCI Card Scheme was conceptualized after it was brought to the notice of the Govt. of India by some of the foreign Governments that the nomenclature "Overseeas Citizens of India" is a misnomer since they are not citizens of India but actually foreign citizens of Indian origin. Against this background, the Govt. of India decided to merge the PIO Card Scheme and the OCI Scheme into a new category called "Overseas Indian Cardholder (OIC)". The merger is proposed to be achieved by amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955. A Bill to amend this Act has been passed in the Upper House i.e. Rajya Sabha and is awaiting the approval of the Lower House i.e. Lok Sabha. Obviously, the Bill will come up for consideration of the Lok Sabha after the new Parliament is constituted. I hope I have made things clear for removing the doubts. Regards (U.D. Kamat) Director for NRI Affairs
