Going from PIO to OCI !!!!

Hi Folks,

I currently hold a PIO Card along with a UK passport but i am considering upgrading my pio card to oci status.

Has anyone done this?

How long does this procedure take?

I would imagine the procedure to be quicker than applying for OCI from scratch but is this the case?

I would appreciate any info on this or experiences from anyone that has upgraded from PIO to OCI.

Many Thanks in advance,

Remy.

Remy, one cannot "upgrade" as such from a PIO to an OCI. One has to qualify for an OCI on his/her own basis.

This has affected me, I am a UK citizen living in London and born in Kenya and have never held an Indian passport. All of my four late grandparents were born in India and lived there, while my late mother was born in Bihar, India, so on paper I qualified for an OCI. My two visits to the Indian High Commission were unsuccessful (spending long hours there on each occasion), as the only documents I had to prove the above facts were copies of old British passports, as my late father had migrated to Kenya when India became independent.I was told to produce an affidavit from a Magistrate First Class in India to substantiate these facts !

I went to India on a tourist visa, procured the affidavit from a Magistrate of a similar standing (as the post of "Magistrate First Class" no longer exists at least in the Indian state of U.P. and it cost me Rs 10,000/- or £130 through my Indian lawyer) at Lucknow, U.P., India and re-applied at the Indian High Commission at London. I was turned down one more time and
was told in the Indian state of Gujarat, apparently anyone could procure these affivadits for a few hundred rupees, with any Magistrate's rubber-stamp one wished for !

Now, anyone wishing to apply for an OCI on their parents'/grandparents' grounds will need to produce a so-called "Nativity Certificate" from the appropriate authority of the place in India where they were born or lived. My late mother was born in the thirties, I have never been to the obscure place in Bihar where she was born, so getting this Nativity Certificate seems well nigh impossible right now. This is another battle I'll have to face upto at some future date.

It seems Indian documents are vital in establishing links with India, at least at the mission in London. And an OCI is relatively easily obtained by someone (like my wife) who was previously an Indian passport holder and can prove that.

Finally, after 3 reversals, I had to concede defeat in my attempts to get an OCI. However my desire to get a long-term visa made me opt for a PIO card, as my wife and children are OCIs; even this required a joint affidavit, declared by both of us before a Notary Public in London costing £100! My application was finally accepted last week (PIO fees: £215) and I was told to collect the PIO card on March 1st, 2011.

I had decided to continue with my struggles to obtain an OCI (as I really qualify for one, according to Indian govt. rules) once I got the PIO card in my hands, but the latest news about India's intention to merge the PIO/OCI status into one at some undetermined future date has once again thrown my situation into turmoil ! The Indian govt. truly moves in a mysterious way !!

Offtopic, but...
An Affidavit is a statement made under oath (as if speaking before a judge in court) before an officer of the law qualified to supervise it. That officer has no responsibility whatsoever for the truth of your statement, and, as such, a false affidavit can be made anywhere in the world that has this system.

A lie is a lie, but a lie told under oath before a court or in an affidavit may be a criminal offence --- if anybody catches you, and sees any point in prosecuting you.

Remy, last yr my 18-yr American son did the paperwork to switch/upgrade from PIO to OCI. It was very simple. I wrote about it on the forum. Took around 4 weeks. Good luck to you!

NC, I re-iterate it is not possible to 'switch' or 'upgrade' from PIO to OCI (based on the original PIO application). Many qualify for a PIO card but not for OCI status.

Anyone who is qualifies to be an OCI invariably is also eligible for a PIO card, but the reverse is not always true.

Your son, to begin with based on his background, probably qualified for OCI and hence also for a PIO card. Therefore, for him to go from PIO to OCI proved to be easy.

You read way more into my post than I ever posted or implied, steadyfriend! There are many cases that are simple, and my son's was one of them. When he got his PIO, there was no OCI anyway.

For those that do qualify there is an upgrade path with a special price. This is what is being referred to. I didn't see any implication that any PIO-holder can upgrade: we know we can't.

You are absolutely right, Nick ! I was under the impression that an easy way to upgrade from PIO to OCI was been suggested, till I discovered other threads discussing this topic at length.

Whether or not an upgrade can be implemented depends on one's personal circumstances, that is what I wanted to emphasise.

We can call join with you in that emphasis

Read in the times that the PM is planning to scrap PIO and OCI, for a new entry visa card...

We have a thread on the possibility of the amalgamation of the two schemes.

Here.

But !! but !!! I use Amex Card will it help ? It allows entry everywhere I swear, I saw it at Delhi Airport, or was in Hyderbad ? ... oh heck it must have been Bangalore !!! One of them airports in India !!!!

NEW CARD TO REPLACE OCI/PIO CARDS (?)

Since Manmohan Singh announced replacing OCI/PIO cards with a new one in January 2011, I suppose there is no need to upgrade a PIO card to an OCI one, am I right ?

This is generally the case. However, looking at the government's PIO/OCI comparative chart it would seem that some people with family links to the neighbouring countries could be eligible for OCI but not PIO cards. A PIO card would be denied to anyone with a parent or grandparent who was a citizen of one of the blacklisted neighbouring countries. The OCI eligibility criteria stipulate only that the applicant must never have held the citizenship of Pakistan or Bangladesh, and make no reference to the citizenship of parents or grandparents.

It depends on how you judge the probability of it happening any time soon. I have my doubts. The problems of implementation, alignment of eligibility criteria etc., present formidable difficulties. My suspicion is that the government had not given the much thought to the detail or made any preparation before the Prime Ministerial pronouncement. The result is a chaotic situation: in the midst of continuing uncertainty over how it will work, and when it will take effect, people are confused; and Indian consular officials seem as much in the dark as anyone. See for instance this article that appeared in Indian Newslink: http://www.indiannewslink.co.nz/inde...io-merger.html

Rob, I agree with you. GoI seriously lags behind in implementing any task, be it the OCI/PIO fiasco or organising a Commonwealth Games ! Voters of India should vehemently urge GoI to outsource the implementation stage to foreign bodies, such as the Japanese or the Koreans !