1. The Government of India decided to grant Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) commonly known as ‘Dual Citizenship’ to Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs). PIOs of certain category who migrated from India and acquired citizenship of a foreign country other than Pakistan and Bangladesh, are eligible for grant of OCI as long as their home countries allow dual citizenship in some form or the other under their local laws.
2. Persons registered as OCI have not been given any voting rights, election to Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha/Legislative Assembly/Council, holding Constitutional posts such as President, Vice President, Judge of Suprrement Court/High Court etc. Registered OCIs shall be entitled to following benefits:
- Multiple entry, multi-purpose life long visa to visit India;
- Exemption from reporting to Police authorities for any length of stay in India; and
- Parity with NRIs in financial, economic and educational fields except in the acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties.
Any further benefits to OCIs will be notified by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) under section 7B(I) of the Citizenship Act 1955.
A person registered as OCI is eligible to apply for grant of Indian citizenship under section 5(1)(g) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 if he/she is registered as OCI for five years and has been residing in India for one year out of the five years before making the application.
Fee for Registration as OCI will be AED.1020/-. However, PIO Card Holder will have to pay AED. 100/- only for the purpose.
The application form has been hosted on the MHA website. The form has two parts, Part A and Part B. Part A has to be filled in for each applicant of the family and Part B is common for all applicants of the family. Part A can be submitted online whereupon a Reference Number will be generated and it can be printed along with Part B. Online registration may be done by logging on to website: http://www.mha.nic.in/oci/oci-main.htm and click on ‘Online Registration’. If an applicant does not have the facility or does not want to fill the application online, entire application form can be downloaded and filled in by hand. For application form, please visit http://www.mha.nic.in/oci/oci-main.htm and click on ‘Download Application Form’. For more information, please visit: http://www.mha.nic.in/oci/oci-main.htm or www.indembassyuae.org or http://www.cgidubai.com or contact: Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi (Tel.02-4492700) and Consulate General of India, Dubai ( Tel. 04-3971222 and 04-3971333). Status of the application later can be checked by logging to website: http://www.mha.nic.in/oci/oci-main.htm and clicking on ‘Online Status Inquiry’.
The Embassy and the Consulate will start accepting applications w.e.f. 18th December 2005.
