OCI card holders affected by new rules – Indian families facing hardship

[Project_A]

We would like to seek your support on the following matter.

Indian consulates are advising OCI card holders (minors whose both parents are Indians) to apply for PIO card by paying full amount and by putting all paperwork again. This is causing hardship to lot of Indian families. Also, this recommendation doesn’t make sense especially after recent announcement from the Prime Minster of India stating that OCI and PIO cards will be merged in the near future.

We worked with affected Indian families and prepared the following petition to be submitted to the Prime Minister of India.

Grievance related to reissuance of OCI's issued to children of Indian passport holding parents. Petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/oci12/petition.html)

We request your kind support to save several affected Indian families from this hardship. Request you to read the petition, sign and forward it to your family and friends.

Thank you



Below please find the petition:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Hon. Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Prime Minister of INDIA, New Delhi - INDIA


Subject : Grievance related to reissuance of OCI's issued to children of Indian passport holding parents.

Respected Sir,
We have a grievance in relation to reissuance of OCI's issued to children of Indian passport holding parents and request your kind attention to address the problem.

Related details are as follows:

Background Information :
-----------------------------------------
As you are aware, the Govt. of India introduced the lifelong OCI scheme late in 2005. At that time, there was no restriction that denied issuance of OCI's to children of Indian passport holding parents. Several children of Indian passport holding parents like us were granted OCI cards at that time. Some of the children also had valid PIO cards that were cancelled in the process of the OCI card issuance.

In the second half of 2006, OCI grant qualifying criteria was changed to make it mandatory that at least one parent of an Indian origin minor had to hold a non-Indian passport for the minor to qualify for an OCI Card. There was no mention of the status of minors with both parents holding Indian passports and already granted an OCI card. All of us who enquired about this at that time received verbal clarification from the Indian consulates that such OCI's would continue to be valid.

A new requirement was also added that the OCI be reissued each time the passport is renewed till the age of 20 or above the age of 50. As the passports held at the time of the original OCI grant expired, many of us attempted to reissue the OCI per this requirement. A few cases were accepted by the Indian consulates, including the New York Indian Consulate and the OCI's were reissued. Subsequent applications were rejected by the consulates indicating that the concerned child is ineligible for an OCI card (despite the fact that he/she already holds an OCI card) as both parents hold Indian Passports.

The common recommendation received from the various Indian Consulates was to cancel the OCI and to apply for a fresh PIO card paying the full fee and doing related paperwork all over again.

The Issue :
-----------------------------------------
This recommendation seems to imply that the status of those already granted an OCI card with both parents holding passports was perhaps overlooked by mistake at the time that the OCI grant policy was changed.

This policy is however putting many Indian families like us in undue hardship for no fault of ours. We are being asked to repay the full fee and put in paperwork again for a new visa despite our children already having a visa with promised lifelong validity. Additionally, some of the children already had valid PIO's that were cancelled when the OCI's with promised lifelong validity were issued. If we choose not to renew the OCI on the other hand, we are worried about stay restrictions or denial of entry that may be imposed by Immigration officials on affected OCI holders at the time of their next visit to India.

Possible Solutions :
-----------------------------------------
We therefore request your help to address the situation and to help make the related policy more fair.

The right thing to do in our humble opinion is to address this issue in one of the following ways :
a) Allow renewal of OCIs issued to affected minors under the old policy guidelines OR
b) Issue a new policy memorandum clarifying that minors with Indian passport holding parents already holding an OCI could gain entry by carrying and showing the old passport with the OCI card at the port of entry in India OR
c) Take corrective action for all affected parties free of cost in terms of reinstating PIO's that were cancelled or issuing new PIO's free of cost to those holding OCI's like our children OR
d) Remedy this situation in the forthcoming guidelines for the new combined PIO-OCI card that was announced by the honorable PM recently.

Immediate helpful step :
-----------------------------------------
Irrespective of the manner in which the issue is resolved, it would be greatly helpful to us if an official announcement could be released exempting affected OCI holders with Indian passport holding parents from the reissuance requirement till a decision is made on the resolution and a reasonable timeframe allowed after that point(say 6 months) for the relevant compliance actions to be performed.

We look forward to a positive action to remedy this matter from your distinguished office at the earliest.

Thanking you


Sincerely,
The Undersigned

[pappu]

Are you kidding.

Do you really think by signing an online petition some issue will be resolved? Who cares about such online petitions. Have you even researched this before starting a new thread asking people to sign an online petition. Are you personally going to collect all signatues and meet the PM of India and deliver those signatures? And even if you were to do it, do you think PM of India will be influenced by such junk information from anonymous people? I can put 10 different email Ids and sign the petition 10 different times to increase the number. Have you researched what the online petition website will do after collecting your email IDs. Are they going to sell it to someone? Is this petition website going to deliver your petition to PM of India and get your work done?

Time and again I see our members post such links to other sites and we delete them. It just shows how naive these members are about advocacy despite all their degrees and education. I hope other members reading this post try to educate people on forums on advocacy. I request the poster to remove the link to his online petition and if he is serious about doing something to resolve the issue then organize an advocacy group with real people and faces and meet officials who take decisions and help you. Do not ever expect some rule to change or any law be passed by simply signing an online petition. You could do that on other forums that only care about getting more traffic by allowing your post, making more money or selling their products. However on an advocacy website like IV such online petition campaigns are not recommended.

[delhiguy]

We would like to seek your support on the following matter.

Indian consulates are advising OCI card holders (minors whose both parents are Indians) to apply for PIO card by paying full amount and by putting all paperwork again. This is causing hardship to lot of Indian families. Also, this recommendation doesn’t make sense especially after recent announcement from the Prime Minster of India stating that OCI and PIO cards will be merged in the near future.

We worked with affected Indian families and prepared the following petition to be submitted to the Prime Minister of India.

Grievance related to reissuance of OCI's issued to children of Indian passport holding parents. Petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/oci12/petition.html)

We request your kind support to save several affected Indian families from this hardship. Request you to read the petition, sign and forward it to your family and friends.

Thank you



Below please find the petition:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Hon. Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Prime Minister of INDIA, New Delhi - INDIA


Subject : Grievance related to reissuance of OCI's issued to children of Indian passport holding parents.

Respected Sir,
We have a grievance in relation to reissuance of OCI's issued to children of Indian passport holding parents and request your kind attention to address the problem.

Related details are as follows:

Background Information :
-----------------------------------------
As you are aware, the Govt. of India introduced the lifelong OCI scheme late in 2005. At that time, there was no restriction that denied issuance of OCI's to children of Indian passport holding parents. Several children of Indian passport holding parents like us were granted OCI cards at that time. Some of the children also had valid PIO cards that were cancelled in the process of the OCI card issuance.

In the second half of 2006, OCI grant qualifying criteria was changed to make it mandatory that at least one parent of an Indian origin minor had to hold a non-Indian passport for the minor to qualify for an OCI Card. There was no mention of the status of minors with both parents holding Indian passports and already granted an OCI card. All of us who enquired about this at that time received verbal clarification from the Indian consulates that such OCI's would continue to be valid.

A new requirement was also added that the OCI be reissued each time the passport is renewed till the age of 20 or above the age of 50. As the passports held at the time of the original OCI grant expired, many of us attempted to reissue the OCI per this requirement. A few cases were accepted by the Indian consulates, including the New York Indian Consulate and the OCI's were reissued. Subsequent applications were rejected by the consulates indicating that the concerned child is ineligible for an OCI card (despite the fact that he/she already holds an OCI card) as both parents hold Indian Passports.

The common recommendation received from the various Indian Consulates was to cancel the OCI and to apply for a fresh PIO card paying the full fee and doing related paperwork all over again.

The Issue :
-----------------------------------------
This recommendation seems to imply that the status of those already granted an OCI card with both parents holding passports was perhaps overlooked by mistake at the time that the OCI grant policy was changed.

This policy is however putting many Indian families like us in undue hardship for no fault of ours. We are being asked to repay the full fee and put in paperwork again for a new visa despite our children already having a visa with promised lifelong validity. Additionally, some of the children already had valid PIO's that were cancelled when the OCI's with promised lifelong validity were issued. If we choose not to renew the OCI on the other hand, we are worried about stay restrictions or denial of entry that may be imposed by Immigration officials on affected OCI holders at the time of their next visit to India.

Possible Solutions :
-----------------------------------------
We therefore request your help to address the situation and to help make the related policy more fair.

The right thing to do in our humble opinion is to address this issue in one of the following ways :
a) Allow renewal of OCIs issued to affected minors under the old policy guidelines OR
b) Issue a new policy memorandum clarifying that minors with Indian passport holding parents already holding an OCI could gain entry by carrying and showing the old passport with the OCI card at the port of entry in India OR
c) Take corrective action for all affected parties free of cost in terms of reinstating PIO's that were cancelled or issuing new PIO's free of cost to those holding OCI's like our children OR
d) Remedy this situation in the forthcoming guidelines for the new combined PIO-OCI card that was announced by the honorable PM recently.

Immediate helpful step :
-----------------------------------------
Irrespective of the manner in which the issue is resolved, it would be greatly helpful to us if an official announcement could be released exempting affected OCI holders with Indian passport holding parents from the reissuance requirement till a decision is made on the resolution and a reasonable timeframe allowed after that point(say 6 months) for the relevant compliance actions to be performed.

We look forward to a positive action to remedy this matter from your distinguished office at the earliest.

Thanking you


Sincerely,
The Undersigned

Go to some other forum , These threads only divert the main objective of this forum.
Just pay the PIO fees , and forget about it. Are u sending a similar petition to President Obama for USCIS charging u every year for EAD..

[ivgclive]

Not seeing any such intentions in the Embassy web site.

Prime Ministe can tell anything he wants every day, but it will be executed only if Sonia approves. So don't worry. Sonia has been busy with thousand other things. It won't happen anytime soon.


We would like to seek your support on the following matter.

Indian consulates are advising OCI card holders (minors whose both parents are Indians) to apply for PIO card by paying full amount and by putting all paperwork again. This is causing hardship to lot of Indian families. Also, this recommendation doesn’t make sense especially after recent announcement from the Prime Minster of India stating that OCI and PIO cards will be merged in the near future.

We worked with affected Indian families and prepared the following petition to be submitted to the Prime Minister of India.

Grievance related to reissuance of OCI's issued to children of Indian passport holding parents. Petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/oci12/petition.html)

We request your kind support to save several affected Indian families from this hardship. Request you to read the petition, sign and forward it to your family and friends.

Thank you



Below please find the petition:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Hon. Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Prime Minister of INDIA, New Delhi - INDIA


Subject : Grievance related to reissuance of OCI's issued to children of Indian passport holding parents.

Respected Sir,
We have a grievance in relation to reissuance of OCI's issued to children of Indian passport holding parents and request your kind attention to address the problem.

Related details are as follows:

Background Information :
-----------------------------------------
As you are aware, the Govt. of India introduced the lifelong OCI scheme late in 2005. At that time, there was no restriction that denied issuance of OCI's to children of Indian passport holding parents. Several children of Indian passport holding parents like us were granted OCI cards at that time. Some of the children also had valid PIO cards that were cancelled in the process of the OCI card issuance.

In the second half of 2006, OCI grant qualifying criteria was changed to make it mandatory that at least one parent of an Indian origin minor had to hold a non-Indian passport for the minor to qualify for an OCI Card. There was no mention of the status of minors with both parents holding Indian passports and already granted an OCI card. All of us who enquired about this at that time received verbal clarification from the Indian consulates that such OCI's would continue to be valid.

A new requirement was also added that the OCI be reissued each time the passport is renewed till the age of 20 or above the age of 50. As the passports held at the time of the original OCI grant expired, many of us attempted to reissue the OCI per this requirement. A few cases were accepted by the Indian consulates, including the New York Indian Consulate and the OCI's were reissued. Subsequent applications were rejected by the consulates indicating that the concerned child is ineligible for an OCI card (despite the fact that he/she already holds an OCI card) as both parents hold Indian Passports.

The common recommendation received from the various Indian Consulates was to cancel the OCI and to apply for a fresh PIO card paying the full fee and doing related paperwork all over again.

The Issue :
-----------------------------------------
This recommendation seems to imply that the status of those already granted an OCI card with both parents holding passports was perhaps overlooked by mistake at the time that the OCI grant policy was changed.

This policy is however putting many Indian families like us in undue hardship for no fault of ours. We are being asked to repay the full fee and put in paperwork again for a new visa despite our children already having a visa with promised lifelong validity. Additionally, some of the children already had valid PIO's that were cancelled when the OCI's with promised lifelong validity were issued. If we choose not to renew the OCI on the other hand, we are worried about stay restrictions or denial of entry that may be imposed by Immigration officials on affected OCI holders at the time of their next visit to India.

Possible Solutions :
-----------------------------------------
We therefore request your help to address the situation and to help make the related policy more fair.

The right thing to do in our humble opinion is to address this issue in one of the following ways :
a) Allow renewal of OCIs issued to affected minors under the old policy guidelines OR
b) Issue a new policy memorandum clarifying that minors with Indian passport holding parents already holding an OCI could gain entry by carrying and showing the old passport with the OCI card at the port of entry in India OR
c) Take corrective action for all affected parties free of cost in terms of reinstating PIO's that were cancelled or issuing new PIO's free of cost to those holding OCI's like our children OR
d) Remedy this situation in the forthcoming guidelines for the new combined PIO-OCI card that was announced by the honorable PM recently.

Immediate helpful step :
-----------------------------------------
Irrespective of the manner in which the issue is resolved, it would be greatly helpful to us if an official announcement could be released exempting affected OCI holders with Indian passport holding parents from the reissuance requirement till a decision is made on the resolution and a reasonable timeframe allowed after that point(say 6 months) for the relevant compliance actions to be performed.

We look forward to a positive action to remedy this matter from your distinguished office at the earliest.

Thanking you


Sincerely,
The Undersigned

[Project_A]

Thank you for the constructive criticism. No, we are not kidding. In fact we are planning to send a written copy to the prime minister’s office as well as MOIA and Indian consulates. We are also actively working with local and other Indian communities and associations to prevent these kind of issues down the road with the new proposed scheme to merge OIC and PIO cards. I cannot comment on the emails, but recently there was a similar petition submitted by a group based in Chicago protesting against retroactive enforcement of new rules for surrender of Indian Passport. Many Indians supported that petition by signing it.

Also, back in 2005 the same PM announced OCI scheme and within 6 months the Govt has introduced the OCI scheme. We are hopeful that the new scheme to merge OCI and PIO cards will address the issues mentioned in the petition and we are trying our best to lobby and seek support from as many Indians as possible. Even if they do not sign it, at least it will increase the awareness.

[imh1b]

Thank you for the constructive criticism. No, we are not kidding. In fact we are planning to send a written copy to the prime minister’s office as well as MOIA and Indian consulates. We are also actively working with local and other Indian communities and associations to prevent these kind of issues down the road with the new proposed scheme to merge OIC and PIO cards. I cannot comment on the emails, but recently there was a similar petition submitted by a group based in Chicago protesting against retroactive enforcement of new rules for surrender of Indian Passport. Many Indians supported that petition by signing it.

Also, back in 2005 the same PM announced OCI scheme and within 6 months the Govt has introduced the OCI scheme. We are hopeful that the new scheme to merge OCI and PIO cards will address the issues mentioned in the petition and we are trying our best to lobby and seek support from as many Indians as possible. Even if they do not sign it, at least it will increase the awareness.

I do not think you really understand what pappu told you. You are still justifying your trash on online petitions. If you were really working with local and other Indian communities you would not be wasting your time on trash online. You would be taking your Indian community to Washington DC and met the Indian Ambassador in person.

If you think you will collect an online petition, print it and send it to McMohan ji. There is no better ignorant person than you.

[sunny1000]

Thank you for the constructive criticism. No, we are not kidding. In fact we are planning to send a written copy to the prime minister’s office as well as MOIA and Indian consulates. We are also actively working with local and other Indian communities and associations to prevent these kind of issues down the road with the new proposed scheme to merge OIC and PIO cards. I cannot comment on the emails, but recently there was a similar petition submitted by a group based in Chicago protesting against retroactive enforcement of new rules for surrender of Indian Passport. Many Indians supported that petition by signing it.

Also, back in 2005 the same PM announced OCI scheme and within 6 months the Govt has introduced the OCI scheme. We are hopeful that the new scheme to merge OCI and PIO cards will address the issues mentioned in the petition and we are trying our best to lobby and seek support from as many Indians as possible. Even if they do not sign it, at least it will increase the awareness.

Instead of online petitions, go to the MOIA website and write a complaint regarding OCI/PIO cards. Atleast some real person will see your complaint.

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (http://www.moia.gov.in/Complaints.aspx)