Right, just like other visas most often dont expire with the expiration of the passport. With the OCI, however, since the status never expires, having a booklet as well as a stamped visa on the passport means that one has to carry that particular passport with the stamped visa, for their entire lifetime, since the validity of the OCI status is a lifetime.

I'm confused about your "ten year valid visa" - is it an OCI visa?

And I believe you're right, the PIO card allows for visa-free travel (no visa in passport).

Sorry for the confusion. The ten-year visa is the visa that I had before I became an OCI.

I do question the logic of the "Lifetime" visa that comes with the OCI booklet. Its pretty pointless. One additional travel document to carry in case when the passport with the (forever) valid OCI visa is expired. Just the OCI booklet should be enough, in my opinion. I wonder why both are necessary.

read my post # 12....

I did, thank you.
My question is, and it is purely in the interest of discussion, where would you say a particular person was born if they were born in pre-partition "Pakistan". Now I dont know the exact language of the question on the visa application is, but if they ask "were they born in Pakistan" as against "were they Pakistani", what's the right answer? Also, what if one's grandparents never moved to India in '47, possibly because they died before the partition?

before 1947, anyone who was born in now what is called pakistan but moved after independence, will not be considered a pakistani....

my grandmother was born in lahore in the 1920s but has always had indian citizenship....i even remember her filling up a form many years ago when we were going to pakistan for a relative's wedding....at place of birth she wrote lahore (pre-partition)....

India has been very strict in considering visa applications by anyone with a Muslim name for about ten years now. In my case, both my parents were born in British India. I am British by birth and I have had trouble whenever I have applied for a tourist visa to visit India. My wife, also being the offspring of Indian born parents but being born in North America has had an Indian business visa refused in the last year. In both cases, we understand the reason is due to heavy travel to Pakistan. As I say, this is long before the Headley days discussed above.

wow, that's a shame, IMHO. Your wife would qualify for OCI (multi-purpose visa) and maybe you as well, but they ask the same questions re Pakistan. Not sure if the approval criteria are any different, however.

I would say India, now in Pakistan.

Yes, we had been advised about OCI, but I was told recently, any applications flagged as suspect (by individuals suspected of ties to Pakistan) would require both passport and application be forwarded to New Delhi for consideration and approval. If that is indeed the case, I can well do without the humiliation and profiling (not like I don't get enough of that as it is :D).

I believe the visas are all sent out from Delhi and that the application (or part of it) it forwarded to them for final decision on whether to grant or not. This is true for all applicants. I do not know if they will forward your passport due to Pakistani ties. Generally, you mail in your passport once the visa has been approved and arrived at your local consulate (or perhaps, go in person if that's convenient for you).

EDIT to add: Actually, I think the visas are issued "locally", but instead the OCI booklets are sent from Delhi. In any case, all applications are forwarded to India and the decisions are made by MHA in India.

If your parents have Pakistani citizenship at any point? If they did, you will not be eligible for OCI (possibly PIO also). The same applies to your wife's situation also. If you are eligible, apply and fight for it. You have to establish your Indian heritage. Since you were born in the U.K. the only way you can establish your Indianity (:D) through your parents. If they went to U.K. before the partition, you are eligible for OCI. However, if your parents held Pakistani citizenship before going to U.K., you are not eligible.

There are Indians with ties to Pakistan through marriage in extended families. It is true that Pakistani ties will generate extra scrutiny. But once you get the OCI, no one will know in India about your Pakistani ties, except the guy who stamps you in at the immigration. Not sure what they will do if you presented yourself with OCI and a passport full of entry stamps to Pakistan.

As far as humiliation and profiling is concerned, why is humiliation or profiling from Indian bureaucrats less welcome than those the U.S. ;)

I think you are missing the point. The thread was started to discuss requirement of a birth certificate for applying for visa to India. My question was a bit OT but it wa in response to Athena53 sayi8ng something about transfering a 5 year visa from an expired passport to the current passport.

But to answer my question by citing OCI and comparing the situation with OCI to that with a muti-year visa is strays further from the topic, does not answer my question and causes unnecessary confusion.. There are many things that OCI are allowed but people with a multi-year visa are denied.

OCI is meant for a select group of people. It's a lifetime visa. A multi-year visa is available to anyone, even those not of Indian origin. Rules that govern entry of those with OCI have absolutely nothing to do with rules of entry for other visas.

It would be silly to call it a lifetime visa, if you had to apply for it every time your passport expired. Ability to use your visa in an expired passport was not always there. One cannot take it for granted that something that's allowed to an OCI is allowed to a person holding a multi-year visa

Mixing up OCI with ten-year visa is causing confusion among more than a poster or two.

Are you questioning the logic of the life time visa or the logic of requiring a booklet?

What do they do with the booklet? Does it have multiple pages? Do they stamp you in and out on that booklet? I cannot make a comment about requiring the booklet unless I knew what it is used for.
If the visa is stamped in a passport, how would the booklet be enough? The booklet would be enough only of the visa was stamped in the booklet. But visa cannot be stamped in a booklet, for it's not a passport.

The OCI booklet is officially a "certificate of registration" or something similar. It is not a passport and it never gets stamped. It contains all of the information that is on the OCI visa, which is affixed in the passport (looks just like a tourist visa but different code for type (U) and contains the statement that the person is an OCI). The pictures on the visa and in the booklet are the same. The OCI booklet even has a field for the passport number that the visa was originally put in. Seems silly to require presenting the booklet when the visa has all the same information anyway.