We have already provided an update on the merger of PIO and OCI effective January 9, 2015, to our readers. In our Murthy India Bulletin of July 2017, we had published an important update on the conversion of PIO Cards to OCI Cards without payment of consular fees.

In this article, we bring to the attention of PIO card holders that the date for submission of applications for registration as OCI cardholder in lieu of PIO card online has been extended until December 31, 2017. This cutoff date will be only for submission of the applications online by the applicants.

With effect from October 2018, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will accept only machine readable travel documents and hence the existing PIO cards will become invalid. Therefore, it is advisable to obtain machine readable OCI cards in lieu of existing hand written PIO cards on gratis basis (without consular fees) before December 31, 2017. In this context, the existing PIO cards, which are hand-written, will become invalid travel documents, unless the PIO card holders obtain machine-readable OCI cards in lieu of their existing PIO cards before October 2018.

The related update on this subject is found on the website of Cox & Kings Global Services, the official partner of Embassy of India.