282. Which is better - PIO or

OCI for British Citizen

Q: Mr Chand, Your website and your knowledge is excellent. After having studied pros and cons of PIO and OCI, I have decided to apply for OCI for myself and my family. Both PIO and OCI are visas. My relatives, including my parents who are OCI, advised me not to go for OCI as they fear if anything adverse happens in the UK, the UK government may erode some of our British Citizenship rights as we would have OCI, which mentions the words Indian and Citizenship. Please can you confirm that PIO and OCI are only visas. Having compared costs and benefits I can not see why anyone would want to go for a PIO, except for false fear of losing British citizenship. OCI is for lifetime, PIO lasts only 15 years, yet OCI costs are much cheaper compared to PIO! Please can you confirm if I am right in my views and in dismissing PIO in favour of OCI? What is the point of a PIO? Why would anyone go for PIO? Many thanks, Dilip. London,UK A. Your observation is correct. PIO cards were launched in 1999 when there were no provisions for OCI. In 2005 OCI scheme came into affect. Many people had by this time already got PIO cards and I believe that his probably the reason it has continued to this date. Both PIO and OCI can be considered to be long term visas. OCI being for lifetime. If you are currently a British citizen, you need not worry about loosing your citizenship rights if you take OCI.