CONVERSION OF PIO CARD INTO OCI CARD

All Person of India Origin (PIO) card holders with valid PIO cards as on 09.01.2015 are advised to apply for conversion of their PIO card to OCI Card.

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Notification No.26011/01/2014-IC.1 dated 09.01.2015, all PIO cardholders with valid PIO cards as on 09.01.2015 are deemed to be OCI cardholders. Hence the PIO card, which is a deemed OCI card continues to be legally valid as per law.

Meanwhile, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has mandated that all travel documents should be machine-readable electronic travel document from October 2018. This is a precondition prescribed by the ICAO and not by the MHA/BoI.

Bureau of Immigration (BoI) will continue to accept PIO cards as valid document till March 31, 2019 along with valid foreign passport. If in the meantime, any deadline is notified by the ICAO, thereby making hand written PIO cards invalid, then PIO cardholders may have to obtain appropriate visa from the nearest Indian Embassy if they have not converted their PIO card to OCI card. Therefore, it is advised to convert the PIO card to OCI card at the earliest to avoid inconvenience during travel even though all Indian immigration check posts will continue to consider all PIO cards valid for exit/entry into India till 31st March, 2019.

For further details please log on to: https://mha.gov.in/MHA1/OCI.html   

For online application of OCI card please visit: https://ociservices.gov.in/