The government of India has announced an extension of deadline for conversion of the PIO cards to the OCI.
The Ministry of External Affairs, India has extended the last date for applying for converting Person of Indian Origin cards to Overseas Citizens of India cards to December 31, 2016.
"I feel that the coversion will not be completed by June 30. So we have decided to extend the last date to December 31 2016," India’s External Affairs minister, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj said in a statement.
Earlier, the deadline was extended to June 30 from March 31 this year.
The conversion of PIO cards to OCI cards is free-of-charge until December 31, 2016. However, the applicant will have to pay service charges for the outsourcing agency, ICWF besides the postal charges.
The time taken to complete the conversion process may vary between four weeks and two months, depending upon where the PIO card was issued.
“In case a person already had a PIO card issued from a particular mission in Australia and is seeking to have it converted to OCI from the same mission, it would take about 3-4 weeks from the date of submission. In case, the PIO was issued from some other mission/posts in Australia, this process would take about six weeks. Further, in case the PIO was issued in another country, the issuance could take up to eight weeks,” said an official of the Indian High Commission in Canberra.
For those under the age of twenty, the OCI card need to be reissued each time a new passport is issued. It needs to be issued only once after completion of 50 years of age. This is necessitated in view of changes in appearance of the applicant.
Those between the age of 21 and 50 do not have to apply for reissuance of OCI each time a new passport is issued.
