Oci for Wife

nayan

28. Would the Indian civil/criminal laws be applicable to persons
registered as OCI?
Yes, for the period OCI is living in India.

I am not a lawyer - but isnt civil and criminal laws of a country applicable to all people in that country(citizens, non-citizen resident and non citizen tourists)? i think civil and criminal laws of India would be applicable to any foreign tourist on Indian soil(irrespective of PIO/OCI)

kmalik

Sorry for being obtuse, but I did not find anything in the reference to draw that implication. Only reference to dual citizenship in the whole document is indirect , saying OCI is granted to countries that allow dual citizenship. At the same time, there are clear statements characterizing OCI as a multi-purpose, multi-entry lifetime visa - affixed to foreign passport. There is no oath of allegiance required for this status either. You remain citizen of whatever country you are - with rights and responsibilities unchanged.

Perhaps, but I fail to find any evidence to justify this belief. If I were a betting man, I'd bet against it. After a great deal of pressure from the Indian diaspora, the government went this far. The talk of dual citizenship is merely a marketing spiel with the product (OCI) offering well short of the label. If something changes, it would be because of the pressure rather than any desire on the part of India.

sakamath

Thats how the world works, isn't it? Only if there is sufficient demand, a product introduced in the market. Otherwise, who would bother?

Lets see how far short of a label does OCI fall:-
- Cannot Vote
- Cannot hold a public office
- Cannot acquire agricultural property
- maybe a few others.

Based on the above, what percentage of the Indian Origin diaspora would refuse to apply for OCI? OCI has its benefits and has its drawbacks too. I found the benefits outweighing the drawbacks. period. Do I think that its crumbs being thrown at us. Hardly so.

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Nick-H

That MHA question is a nonsense question! As Nayan says, the Law of India, civil and criminal is applicable to Everyone in India and that has no bearing whatsoever on citizenship.

They may be obtusely pointing to the negative: that the law of India is not applicable to OCI holders when they are not in India. There may be circumstances in which it applies to citizens, whatever country they are in.

It is not dual citizenship, and does not affect your rights as a citizen of any other country.

skk

Sorry to be pedantic, but the OCI booklet ( correct term as per MHA is registration certificate ) is not ITSELF a multi-purpose, multi-entry lifetime visa. A benefit of OCI status is that you can GET this lifetime visa - they do give you the visa,in your then current foreign passport, at the same time as they grant and process the OCI registration and application but they are separate things.

Edit: replace underlined section( how do I do cross-outs in IM? ) above with:
as the next step in the sequence


I harp on about this because I read of many people,including a friend, and some in this thread, in this forum and in other diaspora forums who get caught out by not having their U-visa with them when they arrive in India, and then get hassled. Some repetition of this fact may reduce the incident frequency.

Some really academically bright people get this wrong. I'm surprised - is it really that difficult a concept ? I think its a diaspora psyche thing that blinds them, but I should leave that for the diaspora forums I suppose.

-skk

kmalik

No offense intended, but you take a partial quote out of context. My statement clearly referred to the link provided by sakamath quoted right above where you got the quote. All the same, your observation is correct and is relevant as others have made this mistake.

skk

Its worse than that - From your other posts its very clear that you know that the OCI booklet is NOT a visa itself.

I had no intention of suggesting that _you_ didn't know what the issue was, but yup it comes across like that; sorry about that.

-skk

kmalik

No problem at all. Having read the trials and tribulations of someone who made the very mistake you refer to - all I can say is that this point ought to be made more often!

On the internet - I have come across a whole campaign to try to "remedy" this situation (i.e., making the OCI booklet sufficient as a visa - when presented along with passport), though I am not holding my breath on that - particularly as I haven't yet bothered to convert my PIO to OCI

danield

A different direction. I have applied for OCI.Did not include my children because they are still in process of getting a passport and I did not want to wait.

Once I get my own OCI what process should I use to apply for OCI for my children. Aged 16 and 12. There doesn't seem to be an application for just children. Just a so-called family application that assumes one is applying for multiple members of a family in one application.

Anyone shed light?

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Stuck on India

sakamath

The awesome power of OCI!


I guess you would have to submit the application on behalf of your kids under the "Individual" category. That means there would be two sets of applications. People having more than two kids also use this category for their 3rd child (onwards).

danield

Thanks. This makes sense.

nycank

Not gonna happen. A visa has to be stuck/stamped/pasted on a internationally accepted passport. The booklet is *shy* of that requirement.

[ The booklet, I've been told, maybe wrongly so, has restricted value and that too, at indian borders - Of interest only to the immigration officer at the border post]

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bade bhaisaheb is outsourced

Nick-H

... the PIO has no visa stuck/etc in the passport, although the passport is endorsed that it has been issued.

But then, the PIO card is not a visa, it is an exemption from needing a visa.