The Indian government has set December 31 as the final deadline for free-of-charge conversion of PIO (Person of Indian Origin) cards into OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) cards, and no further extensions will be considered, the Indian embassy in Qatar has said.
In a statement yesterday, the embassy also noted that “PIO community/PIO cardholders travelling to India on the strength of their PIO cards (handwritten)” may be refused entry at Indian immigration counters and sent back after International Civil Aviation Organisation rules/guidelines on travel with machine-readable travel documents come into effect.
PIO cardholders have been requested to obtain their OCI cards before the deadline as any request for conversion after December 31 will attract a fee of $275, which is the same as the fee charged for the issuance of a fresh OCI card, the statement adds.
