> On 8 Feb 2016, at 11:46, Nikhil Mehra <nikhil.mehra...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On 08-Feb-2016, at 11:39 AM, harry <listmans...@gmail.com > <mailto:listmans...@gmail.com>> wrote: > >> On 8 February 2016 at 09:36, Nikhil Mehra <nikhil.mehra...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> There was a recent drive to convert a PIO card to OCI. I'm assuming your >>> friend is actually of Indian origin whose has foreign citizenship. Doesn't >>> matter where he was born. PIO actually has more grounds for cancellation >>> than an OCI. But assuming your friend acquired PIO status due to his Indian >>> origin, they would at least have to give some cause because this is >>> effectively a revocation of his PIO status. >>> >> >> The person is a PIO because she is married an Indian citizen (not indian >> origin), and the children are in India (with the husband). >> So effectively banned from her children - there is a very clear human >> rights angle. She does work for an NGO but its doing nothing controversial >> like environment / human rights / religion / research / raise funds locally >> etc... and the NGO itself has never received any adverse notifications or >> such. >> >> The PIO/OCI seem like a glorified visa ...it does not grant any legal >> privileges like a passport does ? >> > > This is an egregious case. She must file a writ before the High Court. That > will, at the very least, compel the Govt to respond with an actual reason for > barring entry which is required to stand up to scrutiny in court. I'm doing > an OCI holder's divorce from the perspective of retaining her status, and so > far I've found that an OCI needn't be returned on divorce, that it is in fact > a status for life though there is no clear legal declaration by a court to > this effect. A PIO oddly enough has to be surrendered on divorce. But that is > not the circumstance in your friend's case. Which means they have to have a > completely different reason for barring her entry. Please advise them to > approach the local high court under Article 226. If they're in Delhi, I'd be > happy to take this up. The OCI has many more rights beside a VISA like the > right to own property, vote etc. > >
Absolutely agree with Nikhil. The bureaucracy have no incentive to help your friend. Unless you have Minister level connections to go over their heads, your friends are simply wasting time (and if they waste too much time and go to Court, the Government will try telling the Court that they waited too long, although I doubt you’re at that point yet). I can understand why this is happening..it’s very seductive to think that “something will happen” if they keep talking to bureaucrats - it feels like taking action because so much effort is going into it, and it feels like court will be an unnecessary escalation. But you have two lawyers telling you now that your friends’ best bet is to file a case. This is one of the circumstances where the Indian legal system actually works (more or less) as it is supposed to (as opposed to, say, trying to recover a commercial debt). On the OCI/PIO thing that’s quite interesting because my wife is actually a PIO holder who is not of Indian origin, in a similar position to your friends. The OCI/PIO merger is a mess - from what we can tell (lots of contradictory information), they HAVE merged OCI and PIO statuses together, so that all PIO cards are now treated as OCI cards and PIO basically doesn’t exist anymore. But there’s also a lot of contradictory information saying that it is preferable to get an “official” conversion to OCI just in case..it’s on our list of things for my wife to do. It can’t hurt, is my view. And yes Harry - OCI, despite the name, is roughly the Indian equivalent of having a US green card and grants (broadly similar) rights and restrictions. It is NOT citizenship or nationality and does not entitle the holder to a passport.
