OCI Card and U Visa
 

Hi All,

Recently received my Overseas Citizenship of India. The Indian consul in Sydney have issued me with a OCI booklet and a "U" Visa in my Oz passport. Both the OCI booklet and the visa bear the same details and number.

Do I need to carry both when I visit India?

The VFS officer was not able to give me a clear answer.

Thanks,
Lev

you need to carry both

Thanks Pantanal,

I wonder what's the logic behind this?

I assume they will stamp my Oz passport as the OCI booklet has only a couple of pages. I understand for a PIO you need to show proof as PIO allows visa free travel.

Lev

I always carry the booklet. Although I have handed the immigration officer the OCI booklet each time, they have always just handed it right back to me (over 20 times in the recent past). During my last visit, the immigration officer just told me that it was not "needed" if the original passport containing the visa was current. However, I still plan on carrying the booklet with me anyway.....

The entry and exit stamps go on your passport, not the OCI booklet.

dude..this is India..there is no logic ..its bureaucracy at its best.

otherwise why would you need to renew the OCI sticker every time when you renew the passport when the OCI card is meant for life. They should say OCI is for the life of your passport not your life. every time your passport expires you need to go get a new sticker and go through the BS again.

would be simple just give a small laminated card like the US green card or the passport card and and that would be the end

there is no clear logic & unfortunately that's just how things work here....just carry both....

I thought they swipe the OCI booklet?:confused::confused::confused:

You don't need to renew the OCI sticker when your passport containing the OCI sticker expires; you produce the expired passport along with the OCI booklet (passport like document) along with your current valid new passport. I've entered India about 8 times with these three documents where the OCI sticker was in an expired passport.

You have the option of transferring the OCI sticker from your expired passport to a valid one but this is not necessary. The reason you need to carry the expired passport with the OCI sticker is that the OCI booklet has the passport number of the original passport against which the OCI booklet was issued.

interesting experience..you actually DO need to get it reissued once you reach the age 50. before that you still need to get it reissued but if you want to carry two passports, I guess you can use the old one

below are the actual rules

http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/FAQs-200709.pdf

look at #16 page 4/5

Here's an interesting story.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/o...h-oci-card.htm

And the Indian Government is now planning to bring in Overseas Indian Card by merging PIO and OCI.