Draft bill to merge OCI & PIO cards to be placed before Cabinet soon

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed up on his promise of merging the OCI and PIO cards - he had set a January deadline for this during his Australia visit - by stating on Tuesday that a draft bill that will enable the merging of two schemes is expected to be placed before the Cabinet for approval soon. “Narendra Modi has made a number of announcements for PIOs and OCIs recently.

Pursuant to this, a draft Bill for amending the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which will enable merger of the PIO ( Person of Indian Origin) and OCI ( Overseas Citizenship of India) schemes, is expected to be brought to the Cabinet for approval shortly,” according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office shortly before Modi left for Kathmandu.

The statement also noted that the government has already announced fulfilment of the following announcements made by the Prime Minister - granting visa for life to PIO card holders; exemption for PIOs staying in India for long term from police reporting; and issuance of long term (10 year) visas to US nationals on reciprocal basis.

In another major initiative, Visa-on-Arrival and Electronic Travel Authorization in respect of 43 countries, including the US, and Australia, besides Russia and European and some Latin American and Southeast Asian countries, is expected to be launched this Thursday, the statement said.