534. Required documents in the

OCI application is a valid Indian

visa or PIO card . . .

Question: Dear Mr Chand, I seek your advice regarding the OCI application in India. I need to make an OCI application for my daughter, who was born in India, and is eligible for a UK passport. Her passport should be arriving in a few weeks, after which I would like to file the OCI application. Now, one of the required documents in the OCI application is a valid Indian visa or PIO card. Neither of these is available in the case of my daughter as she was born in India and has never left the country (she has not held any passport prior to the current application that I have made for her UK passport). We currently reside in India, and I hold a UK passport (with OCI) and my wife holds an Indian passport. Do I need to worry about the lack of Indian visa or PIO card on my daughter's passport when I make the OCI application for her? I suppose this would be a common situation for children born in India to foreign nationals. Your advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Sujeet Answer: There is no need to worry! The reasoning behind asking for a valid Indian visa or PIO card in my opinion is due to the past misuse of Indian passports by some people who had acquired foreign citizenship and continued to use their Indian passports to travel to India. To stop this type of thing from happening, several years ago: • When someone of Indian origin applied for an Indian visa on a foreign passport that did not have an old Indian visa stamp on it, the Indian consulate official’s would ask to see the last Indian passport held by the visa applicant to ensure, it was duly canceled when the applicant acquired foreign citizenship. Such a step probably did not stop people. They perhaps just did not applying for an Indian visa and continued to use their Indian passports to travel to India, visa free. • Then about three years back, surrender of the last held Indian passport became mandatory when Indian passport holders acquired foreign citizenship. Applicants now applying for visas for the first time on a passport are required to show proof by way of a surrender/renunciation certificate that they have indeed surrendered their old Indian passports. Even those applying for PIO cards, have to provide proof of passport surrender. In your daughter's case, before applying for OCI, you would have to ensure that the Indian passport that she currently holds is surrendered and she gets a renunciation certificate. This is a requirement when applying for OCI.