Indians living abroad will no longer need a visa affixed on their passports to travel to India.
According to a report in The Hindu, Indian government has decided to do away with the process after Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and the Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) were merged in 2015.
The OCI card is enough to enter the country. Earlier, authorities use to issue lifelong “U” visa stickers in passports along with OCI Cards.
All OCI applied lodged from September 2015 onwards, will only receive OCI cards and no ‘U’ visa stickers.
However, carrying your passport will be mandatory.
“Till now, every OCI card holder also had to get a visa affixed from the Indian High Commission whenever they planned a visit to India. Now, only the OCI card will be needed,” a senior government official said to the newspaper.
VFS Global which manages the administrative function of the Visa, Passport, OCI & other Miscellaneous Services application process too has shared this information on their website.
Their website , “It has been decided by the Government of India to dispense with the requirement of producing foreign passport containing the 'U' Visa sticker in the case of OCI Cardholders while they enter/exit India.”
Indian government amended the Citizenship Act last year, wherein OCI and PIO were merged into one.
PIO card is no longer in existence and the deadline to migrate from PIO to OCI has now been extended to June 30.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE TO READ:
Do you want to convert your PIO card to OCI card? ... then hurry up!
