Q.1020 Aadhaar card

requirement for NRIs

Question: Dear Madam/ Sir, I am a resident of Australia but an Indian citizen. I have been unable to get my Aadhar card while I was resident in India in 2011 when they first started in spite of giving in finger prints and retina scans. They say they lost the data. Since then I have tried twice to get the card after standing in lines but never managed to get scanned again (by the time I reached the pandal after queuing for 3 hours, their time was up). My father, who resides in India said there is a new rule coming up which makes it mandatory to have an Aadhar card and the pan card may become nullified. I and my husband alongwith our daughter are residents here in Sydney Australia and file income tax returns regularly in India. We also hold property in India. Are we expected to have an Aadhaar Card? My reading of Q and A on your website says otherwise. We are not planning to visit in the near future but will be filing tax returns with our CA's help. Kindly inform me of the procedure. Can we get Aadhaar cards here in the consulate? Is it mandatory for us to have them? thank you and regards Vaishali Hingmire Answer: Aadhaar Card is available to all residents of India. Foreigners, OCI holders, Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) just about anyone can apply for Aadhaar Card if they reside in India. Aadhaar card does not have anything to do with citizenship status. Just because a person has an Aadhaar card does not mean that he/she is an Indian citizen. NRIs or PIOs who now hold foreign citizenship and reside abroad can apply for Aadhaar Card if they are in India. All Aadhaar Card applicants must be physical present in India as personal appearance at an Aadhaar Card center is required to complete the biometrics data recording. Rules and regulations keep changing and the requirement to link PAN to Aadhaar is relatively new. I am not aware of any official firm date as to when PAN cards not linked to Aadhaar cards will be canceled. Some news outlets state unidentified sources to say that December 31, 2017 is the date being considered for such cancellation. However I would not put much emphasis on such dates unless something concrete is announced by the government. Currently there is no provision for non-residents to get Aadhaar Card at Indian consulates abroad. More information on this topic is posted in two articles which may be helpful if you chose to read them. 1. NRIs, OCI, PIO Filling Tax in India if Unable to get Aadhaar Card >>> 2. How NRIs, OCI & PIOs can link PAN Card to Aadhaar >>>