Yesterday I stopped by at the high commission office in Ottawa to talk to someone reg. the overseas Indian citizen issue. Here is what I heard:

1. More guidelines are coming, so wait for couple of months.

2. You are only registering as an overseas Indian. You will get a certificate that may take a year to get since all applications go to New Delhi for processing.

3. Still you need a visa to visit India (this baffled me). There is no mentioning of getting Indian passport after becoming overseas Indian citizen. High commission has no clue about this.

Now I am wondering if there is any difference between PIO card and the overseas Indian certificate.