Press Release by GOI
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, made a number of announcements on consular and visa issues during his address at the Madison Square Garden in New York City on September 28th, 2014. The Union Government has moved swiftly to implement these announcements.
According to a Gazette notification issued on September 30th, 2014, all PIO cards are now valid for the lifetime of the cardholder, instead of 15 years. This effectively fulfils the Prime Minister's announcement that PIO cardholders would enjoy a lifelong visa to India.
Further, following the Prime Minister's announcement that PIO cardholders would be exempt from police reporting, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued instructions through the same Gazette notification dated September 30th, that PIO cardholders would not be required to report to a police station even if their visit to India exceeds 180 days.
Fulfilling yet another announcement made by the Prime Minister, instructions have been issued to Embassies and Consulates that unless there are exceptional circumstances, visas to US nationals should normally be given for 10 years.
Systems are in place to introduce visa on arrival for US tourists in October itself.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is working on a new scheme that will merge the PIO and OCI schemes.
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A Proud Indian Canadian
Location: God's own country
Posted on: 08-10-14 08:45:15
People who got PIO instead of the OCI, have won a lottery then.
For OCI I filled in forms, went to BLS a number of times, stood in the queue etc..
For PIO is was a straight forward application (then in 2009). Wish I took the PIO instead of the OCI.
Anyways, PIO will be seamlessly integrated into the OCI system.
Let us wait for further details.
Murali The krishna
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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.
I doubt if this will help in any way. I am sure present PIO holders will have to visit the concerned embassy/consulate to get an endorsement on their PIO cards for a life long visa - or else, after the current expiry, no one except the Indian immigration will know that PIO means life long visa. The other countries immigration and non-Indian airlines will simply consider this as an expired document.
That being the case, one will still require to go to the concerned authority and am very sure will have to pay a fee for that. Getting this done free of cost is unimaginable. In that case, wouldn't it be better to get the PIO converted into OCI rather?
Moreover, they say that they are working on a new scheme to merge PIO and OCI - if that be the case, why announce the lifelong validity of PIO now if soon it will be merged with OCI and a new document issued!!!
Very confusing, and present step, in my view, absolutely unnecessary.
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Chandresh
Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!
It looks like some big mess up is coming and BLS and consulate will make some money in between!
How will they merge the rules?
1. OCI and PIO have weird rules, if one one of the parents is foreign citizen only then the child can get OCI, if both parents are Indian citizens then the child who is a foreign citizen can only get PIO.
2. For OCI, dual citizenship has to be allowed by the foreign country whose citizenship you are taking (no idea why this rule is even there when OCI is in no way citizenship of India).
3. PIO is processed in the consulate outside India whereas as OCI processing is done in India.
4. Persons under the age of 21 have to reapply for OCI everytime they get a new passport. When a person crosses age of 50 they have to reapply for OCI once. Only endorsement is required for PIO.
5. Rules for attaining Indian citizenship back are different for both card holders.
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Give free food http://www.thehungersite.com ||
Not doubting the good intentions behind the permanent PIO move by Modi.
However, when have they not known for not confusing the hell out of NRIs every few years or so. I think, they should've left NRIs alone and let them renew PIO every 15 years (myself included), rather than banging their heads and making unproductive rounds of BLS and/or Consulate.
Even today, when the GOI is shouting from the rooftop, there's no official word as to how this would be implemented. The same babudom ensues.
Laugh as you may, but the BLS/Consulate confusion galore and in the offing. Pace yourself for it.
Quote:
Originally posted by tamilkuravan
People who got PIO instead of the OCI, have won a lottery then.
For OCI I filled in forms, went to BLS a number of times, stood in the queue etc..
For PIO is was a straight forward application (then in 2009). Wish I took the PIO instead of the OCI.
Anyways, PIO will be seamlessly integrated into the OCI system.
Let us wait for further details.
Murali The krishna
Hind sight is always 20/20 . At that time & place, OCI was the best option for you. You can't go back in time.
The present OCI which you have , allowed you to stay in India for 180 + days without any issues. But if you had PIO instead of OCI, that would have never been possible for you. They would have harassed you at the police station and would have asked for a bribe, when you went there.
So in your case the OCI has definitely been more beneficial for you as opposed to the PIO for the last few yrs that you are in India.
Don't worry about what the future PIO can or can't do , as it wouldn't have helped you in the last few yrs.
Quote:
Originally posted by adamthorat
Hind sight is always 20/20
Looks like, you seem to spend too much time on Reddit.
