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Old Feb 19, 2017, 8:39 am
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MOST URGENT: OCI Question

I am a EU citizen resident in the USA and also hold an OCI card. I happen to have two valid passports (from the same EU country) and my OCI was issued on the basis of my older passport and is cross-referenced to that passport.

Yesterday, I started my trip from the USA to India, with a stopover in London for a couple of days.

Upon arrival in London I realised that the passport I am travelling on is the newer passport, i.e. NOT the one referenced in my OCI card. The other passport is at home in the US.

What will be the likely scenario when I land in India with this incongruent combination of passport & OCI card?

Complicating the issue is the fact that I will be landing not at a major airport like DEL or BOM, but at LKO, which has very few International flights and ergo, I presume, not very experienced immigration officers.

Any knowledgeable advice would be much appreciated.

Last edited by NuWat; Feb 19, 2017 at 8:48 pm
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Old Feb 19, 2017, 4:58 pm
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Old Passport may not be required according to revised rules in 2015 and is age based. Read this for details.
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Old Feb 19, 2017, 11:56 pm
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Originally Posted by NuWat
I am a EU citizen resident in the USA and also hold an OCI card. I happen to have two valid passports (from the same EU country) and my OCI was issued on the basis of my older passport and is cross-referenced to that passport.

Yesterday, I started my trip from the USA to India, with a stopover in London for a couple of days.

Upon arrival in London I realised that the passport I am travelling on is the newer passport, i.e. NOT the one referenced in my OCI card. The other passport is at home in the US.

What will be the likely scenario when I land in India with this incongruent combination of passport & OCI card?

Complicating the issue is the fact that I will be landing not at a major airport like DEL or BOM, but at LKO, which has very few International flights and ergo, I presume, not very experienced immigration officers.

Any knowledgeable advice would be much appreciated.
what do you mean by 2 valid passports from the same country????

ideally you should not have a problem but landing in lko may be a bit of a challenge....
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 2:34 am
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Germany issues multiple passports for its citizens if required (example: you travel to GCC countries, Iran and Israel frequently). The OCI 'visa' is tied to your passport (number). If you have a different passport with you, you have to enter that passport number using the OCI website. Processing that change may take a while though.
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 2:37 am
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Originally Posted by oliver2002
Germany issues multiple passports for its citizens if required (example: you travel to GCC countries, Iran and Israel frequently).
interesting....i didn't know that....
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 7:36 am
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Originally Posted by Keyser
interesting....i didn't know that....
India does the same if you request. They don't advertise it, but it is possible.
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 8:50 am
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Originally Posted by B747-437B
India does the same if you request. They don't advertise it, but it is possible.
Rule 13 of the passport rules, 1980 even has a section on it:
13. Issue of additional passport or travel document in special circumstances.-A person holding a passport or travel document shall not be entitled to another passport or travel document unless he surrenders to the passport authority the passport or travel document already held by him:
Provided that separate passports or travel documents may be issued to the same person in respect of different countries if it is necessary to do so to facilitating his visits to such countries.
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 2:49 pm
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Originally Posted by NuWat
I am a EU citizen resident in the USA and also hold an OCI card. I happen to have two valid passports (from the same EU country) and my OCI was issued on the basis of my older passport and is cross-referenced to that passport.
[...]
What will be the likely scenario when I land in India with this incongruent combination of passport & OCI card?
As another poster mentioned, it shouldn't matter. At least at BOM, the immigration official either didn't care or didn't notice.
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Old Feb 21, 2017, 4:53 am
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Originally Posted by oliver2002
Rule 13 of the passport rules, 1980 even has a section on it:
Yes, I've had multiple valid Indian passports myself in the past. It required getting approval from the Head of Mission (which fortunately was simple enough as he understood the reasoning) and it had limited validity (only 2 years IIRC). It was a lot easier when they had the manual passports that could be issued on the spot at the foreign posts - nowadays its all part of the bureaucratic machine.
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