reclaim Indian citizenship

kmalik

From personal experience, there is no trickery required. No one asked for the Indian passport during the naturalization process; nor should they as the US does not have a problem with dual citizenship. I never used the Indian passport after that, except to send it to the Indian consulate several years later for the PIO card. They gave PIO without fuss, and even sent back the (expired) Indian passport!

Back to the OP, I agree with the sense that OP's daughter would be well advised to get OCI and see after enough years whether she wants to change citizenship again. Chalk it up to the lesson that citizenship change should be undertaken with a little more consideration than changing of dupatta (scarf).

Nick-H

Dilliwala's post makes a lot of sense. Well, he provides references, so I guess it would!

I cannot imagine that the govt of India would simply turn away a recently-ex citizen from taking up that citizenship again.

(Although, the British standpoint on this is that, if you change your mind, you can get your citizenship back once --- if you do it again, then tough, baring very special application).

The only PIO/OCI restriction I would like a reference for is "Can't hold a govt job" --- that one comes up from time to time, but I am not sure it is right. We have one OCI member who holds a government job as a prof in a govt college.

edwardseco

We had the directly opposite experience as did a Bengali neighbor. However, they had the presence of mind to say it was lost. You must have got an absent minded employee & more power to you..

Dilliwala

I wasn't addressing the "no voting" part, rather the "enough for her purposes" part. We don't know what's enough for the OP's daughter, she may want to become Head of State, or a judge, or a govt minister.

Ease of travel isn't the only consideration for any citizenship.

I daresay in the last 7 years it's been a lot safer to travel the world with an Indian pp than with an American pp.

In fact I have scoured the Act and found nothing that expressly requires (former) citizens to surrender their identity documents upon TERMINATION of citizenship (as opposed to RENUNCIATION of citizenship*), altho it's understood that they just become invalid. I guess that's why Indian bureaucrats aren't hung up about it, altho it's logical to prevent misuse.
Personally I think, also keeping in mind edward's examples, that such ID docs shud be stamped 'Cancelled' or 'Invalid' and returned to the holder.

* There are differences - termination happens automatically when someone acquires the citizenship of another country. Renunciation is a deliberate act, e.g. if another country requires it upon acquiring that country's citizenship. In this case minor children of such a person also lose Indian citizenship (I guess if the spouse also renounces or is non-Indian). Can be regained within a year of turning 18 though.
Ref Sections 8 and 9 of Citizenship Act.

In other words, regaining Indian citizenship is not like changing a dupatta, but giving it up in the first place is (as wud be the case for minors, who had the decision made for them).

I imagine the Indian govt's reaction wud be similar if someone made a habit of changing back and forth.

In fact I deliberately broad-brushed that clause to avoid giving a complicating explanation - exceptions are allowed. The full text reads:
Section 7B. (2)

"An overseas citizen of India shall not be entitled to the rights conferred on a citizen of India --

(a) under Article 16 of the Constitution with regard to equality of opportunity in matters of public employment;

.

.

.

(i) for appointment to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of any State except for appointment in such services and posts as the Central Govt may by special order in that behalf specify."

Best for any such persons to check with potential employers.
Of course there have been cases reported (even on this site) of PIOs/OCIs concealing their being such from employers in India.

Nick-H

Thanks for that; very interesting.

Does section 'a' sound to you like it is referring to reservation? Like OCIs who come from a sc/st/other-to-whom-reservation-is-due community are not allowed to use it as a way to claim entitlement to a reserved job?

Dilliwala

Good point.

Article 16 basically falls under Part III of the Constitution - Fundamental Rights, sub-heading: Right to Equality.

This talks about a whole lot of things, including reservations. But reservations in any case are for those covered by the Constitution only, i.e. Indian citizens. Nevertheless if an express exclusion for OCIs from reservations were still needed, I wud agree that the a.m. 7(B).2(a) of IC Act does that.

Full text of Article 16 here for those who want to decipher it:

"16. (1) There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State.
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State.
(3) Nothing in this article shall prevent Parliament from making any law prescribing, in regard to a class or classes of employment or appointment to an office
[under the Government of, or any local or other authority within, a State or Union territory, any requirement as to residence within that State or Union territory] prior to such employment or appointment.
(4) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State.
[(4A) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for reservation [in matters of promotion, with consequential seniority, to any class] or classes of posts in the services under the State in favour of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes which, in the opinion of the State, are not adequately represented in the services under the State.]
[(4B) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from considering any unfilled vacancies of a year which are reserved for being filled up in that year in accordance with any provision for reservation made under clause (4) or clause (4A) as a separate class of vacancies to be filled up in any succeeding year or years and such class of vacancies shall not be considered together with the vacancies of the year in which they are being filled up for determining the ceiling of fifty per cent reservation on total number of vacancies of that year.]
(5) Nothing in this article shall affect the operation of any law which provides that the incumbent of an office in connection with the affairs of any religious or denominational institution or any member of the governing body thereof shall be a person professing a particular religion or belonging to a particular
denomination."

http://india.gov.in/govt/documents/e..._part_full.pdf
(page 7)

mazha

Universities and colleges are autonomous institutions, but funded by the central/state governments, so university employees don't work for the government.

akd_2009

Thanks a lot to everyone , in particular to Dilwala, who has brought in many solid points. With all these lead/collections I will approach one immigration lawyer very shortly.

tinajulie

Hi

This topic is interesting. Does anyone know if you actually (by law) have to surrender an old unvalid indian passport if you are now a foreign national and hold a overseas passport. i am trying to find this info on the government of india website but cant find it.

nycank

You cannot, or not that I know of. I do know that if you apply for OCI, and have a valid & active passport (which 9 out of 10 desis do) then they will probably stamp it, and return it back to you.

With an expired passport; it is used as a original and returned when collecting an OCI booklet and the U visa in your non-indian passport Expired indian passport is of no use in matters related to travel. It serves as a reminder of how dorky you looked decades ago

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crvlvr

Yes. It says so in the Indian passport. I don't have mine handy. So, I cannot quote the exact verbiage.

Haylo

Even an expired passport? Are you absolutely sure, because that seems unlikely*.

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crvlvr

I think the thought process is that the Indian passport will have to be active in order for the holder to obtain citizenship of another country. Since India does not allow dual citizenships, the holder is required to turn in the passport when he/she accepts citizenship from another country.

nycank

Was not really in the previous century.
Not in the case of green card-->Naturalization It will be active if you are a frequent traveller with a Green card. No one checked my passport validity; I know this to be true in a couple of South American countries as well.

crvlvr

I looked through my passport and this one issued in San Francisco has a stamp on Page 3: I don't believe the original passport that was issued in India had this stamp.

@nycank: I don't really understand your post above. BTW the green card is valid only with a valid passport. If the passport expires, the green card becomes invalid.