Untitled Document
Government of India has extended the time limit for conversion of PIO Cards to OCI cards, several times before. As of now, the extended such time limit is 31.12.2017.
International Civil Aviation Organization will accept only machine readable travel documents from October, 2018. The existing PIO cards, which are hand written, will, therefore, become invalid travel documents.
Hence, it will be necessary upon PIO cardholders to obtain machine readable OCI cards in lieu of existing hand written PIO cards before October, 2018 to avoid any inconvenience.
Those travelling to India on the strength of PIO Cards (handwritten) after ICAO’s rules/guidelines (with respect to travel with machine readable travel documents) come into effect from October, 2018, will be refused entry at the Indian immigration counters and sent back.
In order to take advantage of getting such PIO cards converted into machine readable OCI cards on GRATIS basis, it will be advisable to get these converted before 31.12.2017.
Any request for conversion of PIO card to OCI card after the expiry of the current deadline of 31st December, 2017, will attract a fee of US $ 275, which is same as charged for issuance of fresh OCI Card.
OCI application form is available on the website: https://passport.gov.in/oci/
