A Journo's Diary

The term “Visa” is such that it can surely bring a frown on the face of any International traveller. I am sure that every individual who has ever applied for a visa to no matter whatever country will have an anecdote to share. I have been in UK for about a year and a half and have come across many British Indians who are very unhappy with the long waiting time and mountain load of paper work to get a visa to India. And at this moment, I always start wondering that why can’t travelling to your home country be simple enough?

Well, it surely isn’t as tough as we think it is. Especially for those who themselves or through their parents, grandparents or even spouse, trace their origin back to India. Once they apply for an OCI or a PIO card, depending on their eligibility, they don’t have to worry about those long queues at the VFS visa centres or making innumerable visits to the Indian High Commission. But in order to apply for this card, many of them will have to surrender their Indian passports. And that is what seems to be holding back many in this case.

In fact, sources from the High Commission of India have encouraged more and more British Indians to apply for the OCI and PIO card. One needs to plan their visit in advance, maybe like 3-4 months in advance so that there is enough time to carry out the paper work for the process. The High Commission of India has also suggested that it takes almost two months to get the cards processed and thus applicants should be ready for such a time. But it also gives you a lifelong visa to visit India in the case of OCI and fifteen years in case of PIO card.

A lot of times many of us get confused between both the cards. Well, to start with, there are differences in terms of eligibility, process, cost and benefits and restrictions of both the OCI and PIO card. Persons who belong to Indian origin either through parents, grandparents, great grandparents or spouse can apply under PIO category, while those overseas Indians who migrated from India after 26th January, 1950, except from Pakistan and Bangladesh come under the overseas citizen’s criteria. For them to be eligible under OCI category, they must belong to Indian origin through either their parents or grandparents. The clause of spouse does not exist in this case.

The Indian government has always been very sensitive towards the issues of the NRI community that is spread all across the globe. In fact the OCI and PIO card scheme is the cornerstone in its policy on Diaspora. The government actively encourages Indians settled abroad to apply under these schemes. This also helps lessen the burden of missions abroad that look into a number of visa issues every day. Frankly, if every person of Indian origin living in this country applies for an OCI or PIO card, imagine how easy it will be for the mission to deal with other matters.

But there are many Indians worldwide who have faced extremely tough situation in the hands of immigration officer even after having an OCI card. In fact just a couple of months back I had read about an Emeritus Professor from US who was travelling on his OCI card and had not carried his old passport with him because under the rules it states that if you have a OCI card, you don’t need a visa. But apparently the immigration officer at the counter asked for his passport and on the failure to produce the passport, the Professor was given a seven day temporary visa in India and was asked to produce his old passport at the earliest.

There have been similar cases that came to light regarding OCI and PIO card. This is not to baffle anyone but it is just to make people aware that there might be a gap between what the government decides and what the immigration officials know. At that moment, rules and policies of the government doesn’t work. It is the question of whether you can produce the asked document or not.

Well, there would always be such cases floating around in the newspapers and online portals. But that shouldn’t deter the fact that this scheme has been brought into action to benefit the Indian diasporic population that is settled worldwide. I think a lot of us are intimidated by any government policy till we actually pick up the rules and read it. Because we are afraid that if it is a government scheme it will need a lot of paper work and running around. But sometimes it is for a long term benefit as well. I think for the British Indian population, this scheme might just be worth a try.