Kind attention PIO card holders

    All existing PIO card holders under the consular jurisdiction of CGI Shanghai, are hereby informed that as per the Gazette of India published on 09/01/2015, all existing PIO card holders with valid PIO cards as on 09/01/2015, shall be deemed to be Overseas Citizens of India - OCI cardholder. However, all PIO cardholders are also advised to apply for conversion of their & PIO card to OCI card due to the reasons below.

1. As per International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Guidelines, Machine readable travel document is now mandatory for International travel. This makes a hand written PIO card invalid for International travel. In the meantime, if any deadline is notified by the ICAO, making hand written PIO cards invalid then PIO cardholders may have to obtain appropriate visa from Indian Missions, every time they travel to India.
2. Bureau of Immigration(BoI) will accept PIO cards as valid travel document till 30th March, 2020 along with valid foreign passport and the Indian Immigration check posts will continue to consider all PIO cards valid for exit/entry into India till 30th March, 2020. This extension of timeline is subject to the condition that if in the meantime any deadline is notify by the ICAO thereby making hand written PIO cards invalid the PIO cardholders may have to obtain appropriate visa from Indian Missions/Post abroad.

Also, it may be noted that the “U” Visa sticker on the foreign passport of an OCI card holder, is now not necessary to enter India. An OCI card holder can enter/exit India by producing a valid foreign Passport along with an OCI card at Immigration. Immigration authorities have been instructed not to insist on production of “U” Visa sticker on a foreign passport in case of an OCI cardholder.

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