OCI and indian central govt. jobs

Hi everyone,
Can a US citizen with OCI work in jobs under the indian central govt?
The following are some of the answers i found.

"Is the OCI entitled to hold Government posts in India?
No,except for the posts specified by an order by the Central
Government."
"OCI is allowed to hold some govt positions (published by a govt. order".

What are these govt. positions? There is no info on that.

thanks in advance.

From what i know these jobs are more of a Consultant/Advisor nature, are for a specific period/purpose and have the pay and other benefits clearly defined. These jobs don't give any pension or other benefits that may be available to a Govt employee because they are not considered employees.

There is a lot of misinformation out there. I am speaking from my own experience with a PIO card and working as a Professor at IIT, Kharagpur.

People with OCI/PIO can work in GOI positions - all it takes is for the employer to petition MHRD. It is very much like in the US or Canada were an employer shows that no qualified, suitable Indian citizen is available - ofcourse they do not say this aspect clearly - let the employer handle this.

There is one thing that is always confusing. Indian employers have had this standard statement in their advertisements "Application are invited from Indian nationals......" IMO, this is long-standing phrase that has been used to disuade people with citizenship from neighboring countries (who else would be interested in applying?). OCI/PIO are treated on par with Indian citizens except for voting rights and holding agricultural land. Some of the IITs spell it out that OCI/PIO can apply, others still go with the old phrase in quotes above.

I do know of a few jobs that deal with research on defense related subjects and OCI/PIO cannot get these (my own personal experience). Other than that, it is all fair game. There are no issues regarding pension (all new employees are covered under the New Pension Scheme in which the Govt contributes an equal amount to that by the employee and not the old Provident Fund).

Cheers

Nattusbs

@Nattusbs" Thanks for clarifying. My post was based on what i had heard. Obviously there is a lot of misinformation or wrong info out there.

That is not entirely correct. OCI/PIO are treated on par with NRIs. Although an NRI is an Indian citizen there are restrictions on what a NRI can do. India does not treat an NRI as a normal citizen of India unlike western countries which don't differentiate between their resident and non-resident citizens.

A regular central Government job is out of bounds for OCI/PIO holders. The jobs that are available to OCI/PIO are like the one you are doing at IIT and those at IIM and other institutions.

State Government jobs have even more restrictions due to the fact that almost every state in India has domicile/residency requirements for anyone wanting to get a government job. Some states require you to have been resident in that particular state for 10 years or more. This means that even Indian citizens are restricted from applying for a job in a neighbouring state.

I thought OCI was the same as Citizenship in all respects* except the right to vote or hold political office?

AndyD 8-)#

* except for dentistry apparently.

No. You can't climb mountains or be a missionary either. I think there is the same restriction on buying agricultural land as applies to PIO.

Visa-for-life (including employment and study) would have been a better description, because that is, effectively, what it is, but they were selling the idea of connection with the mother country, and politics didn't permit actual dual citizenship

Apart from any legalities, just as a practical matter it is hard to see how an NRI could be in permanent full-time employment in India.

Yet another illustration of how the PIO and (especially) OCI schemes were not properly thought out.

Notwithstanding references that were made to dual nationality, my guess is that, if they thought about it all, the people who set up these schemes envisaged that in practice OCIs and PIOs would only wish to engage in activities for which they would otherwise be able to obtain a specific visa.

I think it was the wishes of the politicians that counted, rather than the wishes of possible applicants. This, the schemes suffered from compromise as much as lack of thinking.

I think the politicians' wish was to mollify the Indian diaspora lobby. So the wishes of possible applicants did matter, in that limited sense.

True.

The two are not mutually exclusive. They may even be mutually reinforcing. There was no doubt plenty of both.

That's true too! Definately not mutually exlusive

My understanding of the OCI status is that OCI holders cannot hold offices constitutionally barred to foreign citizens i.e. the legislature, judiciary, or executive branches of Central and State governments.

If you're thinking something along the lines of getting a government job in a nationalized bank, for example, I don't think that should be a problem.

(Layman's opinion)

That would make sense, because they are foreign citizens!

Doesnt one of the pol/minister in SriLanka still hold US Citizenship ?

Whilst I might think that Sri Lanka ought to be part of India ...