Ask a Question
Yes, the Government of India discontinued the issuance of new PIO cards as of January 9, 2015. The PIO card is now merged with the OCI card. Therefore, applicants who already hold an OCI card must apply for a PIO to OCI conversion to obtain an OCI. According to the Indian government gazette notification 11 of 9 January 2015, all the PIO (Person of Indian Origin) cardholders will be considered as OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) cardholders.
As per the government of India gazette notification number 26011/01/2014, on 09/January/2015, all the PIO cards published until 9 January 2015 are considered as OCI cards. For this, the PIO cardholders need to apply for a conversion application before 31 March 2016. After this, if any PIO cardholders want to travel to India, then he or she need to have a valid visa.
I have a PIO card before, but after the notification from the government of India, I quickly applied for the conversion application for PIO to OCI card, and it helps me to travel safely to India with some more benefits.
Share Your Thoughts and Connect with Others.
My wife and I are Indian-origin parents living in Texas on H-1B and H-4 visas, and our daughter was recently born in the United States. We completed her U.S. birth...
My 12-year-old daughter has had an OCI card for several years, and we recently renewed her Canadian passport because it was about to expire. Now I'm a little confused about...
Quick question on Minor OCI (VFS USA). VFS asked for below: Joint marriage affidavit notarized : Please Provide Joint NOTARIZED Affidavit (Both spouse's INK signature) indicating the reasons for non-availability...
I'm applying for an e-OCI card for my 9-year-old son from the UK after we became British citizens earlier this year. We completed his Indian passport surrender process first and...
We're getting ready to apply for an e-OCI card for our 6-year-old daughter from the USA, and I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to make sure we've gathered every required document....
I'm trying to register on the new e-OCI portal to apply for an OCI card after becoming a British citizen, but I've been running into several technical glitches over the...
I'm applying for an OCI card from Canada after becoming a Canadian citizen, and I've been having repeated problems with the new e-OCI portal over the past few days. I'm...
I'm an American citizen of Indian origin and recently renewed my U.S. passport. After receiving the new passport, I completed the required OCI update process because my old passport had...
I'm hoping someone here has dealt with this before. While trying to register on the e-OCI portal, I accidentally ended up creating multiple accounts using different email addresses because I...
I'm a British citizen of Indian origin and recently downloaded my e-OCI card after successfully generating it through the OCI Services Portal. Before my trip to India last week, I...
Let Visament guide you to the perfect solution for all your queries.
All the individuals who have a PIO card have to apply for the conversion of the PIO to an OCI card because the government of India has discontinued the new issuance of the PIO card, and merged the PIO and OCI cards from 9 January 2015, and all the individuals who have a PIO card are considered OCI cardholders from 9 January 2015. Applicants can apply for a conversion application through the OCI services website by filing out an online application form.