Any OCI holders here?
 

I'm just checking my eligibility to getting an OCI card from the UK. My father was born in india, and held a PIO card, so it looks like I may be able to get one.

I'm just wondering if there are any negatives to having one? any potential tax implications etc?

I can't think of any negatives, but there is one thing you should be aware of. I wouldn't say it's a negative, it is just an annoyance.

Even though the OCI says "Lifetime" validity, it's really not.

There's some talk about this issue here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/indi...s-renewed.html . Nobody to my knowledge has been caught, but leave it to the Indian Government to do something like this.

So far, I've found the OCI to be worth it. :)

no tax implications & no negatives that i can think of....

Just gathering documents to apply for OCI for whole family; can't see any negatives.

Passed through DEL recently, flight landed around 11pm, evisa queues were absolutely horrendous, at least a couple of hours.
OCI counters were completely empty, for me this is reason enough to obtain the OCI.

I hope that this is still the case. I wonder if there is another website or chat board where people might be discussing this OCI business.

I hope that they will do away with the "renewal" of the Lifetime visa sooner rather than later. Other than that, I find the OCI card to be a complete blessing.

I switched to OCI last year after nearly 15 years of having a PIO. Both are a great benefit and with higher automation of border control the OCI is linked to the passport number. I'm pretty certain they can provide a better way to update the data easily in the mid term when the 5-10 million PIO/NRIs raise a stink about it. The benefits of OCI/PIO by far outweigh the current hassle of having to renew the document post 50. When my mother died last year the PIO/OCI card was very valuable for me in dealing with banks/authorities/courts etc. In an ideal world I would love for the OCI card to be equivalent to the Aadhar card, but that would be asking for a bit much.

If aceman falls under certain classes of British nationality, acquiring OCI status may present complications for upgrading nationality to a full British Citizen. The UK seems to be the only country that treats OCI status as something akin to a citizenship rather than a visa (which is what it is, despite its name). See Wikipedia.

There are no other negative complications I am aware of. It really is a great convenience for frequent travelers to India as it affords travel to India for most typical purposes (family visits, business, employment, tourism) for any length of time with hardly any restrictions such as any residency requirements. If your ties to India are stronger and you are contemplating moving there the OCI also allows you to move to and reside in India indefinitely without needing to show a job offer or anything like that.

There are no tax implications for short visits. Of course, if you stay in India using the OCI for longer periods of time you may end up triggering tax liabilities for yourself based on the length of stay (more than 182 days in a year, etc.). But that's an effect of the residency rules for the Indian tax authorities, not anything special about the OCI visa.

Tax residency is easy though, I always get a tax residency cert from the German tax authorities and submit it in India with my bank. If your country has a DTAA with India youre OK.

No direct negatives, although there may be some rare situations where a person eligible for OCI may find the application for OCI or holding OCI status provides material available for exploitation that wouldn’t otherwise be there if just being a common tourist using an evisa to visit India.

Any tax implications generally wouldn’t be a direct result of being OCI or not; rather any tax implications would be a product of rubbing against changed physical presence and/or economic activity conditions that may change the taxation picture for the person in India and/or country of citizenship and/or country of residence. For those using OCI as a super tourist visa of sorts, generally it would come with no negatives.