Good News for Indians Living Outside!!
As per the new law mentioned in The Hindu, Indians living outside of the country and having OCI (Overseas Citizens of India) card do not have to get visa issued while returning to the country. Although carrying passport is mandatory, having visa stamped on it to enter India will not be required. Indian Government has recently made a decision to get rid of the entire process once the OCI and PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) were combined in the year 2015.
Earlier, even those with OCI or PIO had to get a visa affixed when they planned to travel back to India. This, however, will not be the case now, as in the words of Indian Government’s senior official – people with OCI card will not be needed to apply for visa when planning to visit India.
As per the website of VFS Global, that manages functionality of Visa, OCI, Passport and other respective services, stated – “It has been decided by the Government of India to dispense with the requirement of producing foreign passport containing the ‘U’ Visa sticker in the case of OCI Cardholders while they enter/exit India.”
As from 2015 PIO card have been discontinued and merged with OCI for which card holders were given time of a year to switch to OCI which has been further extended to 30th June
