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OCI Miscellaneous Services launched from today

New Delhi
January 1, 2008
(Press Information Bureau)

The Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) Scheme was operationalized on 2nd December 2005 and formally launched by the Prime Minister during the Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas, 2006 at Hyderabad on 7th January 2006. The scheme has generated enthusiastic response and so far as on 1st January 2008, more than 1,99,500 OCI certificates have been issued.

2. Subsequent to the launch, suggestions/representations have been received from Indian Missions/Posts and registered OCIs regarding facilities/procedures for re-issuance of OCI registration certificate/visa in the following situations.

(i) In case of issuance of new passport.

(ii) In case of change of personal particulars viz. nationality etc.,

(iii) In case of loss/damage of OCI registration certificate/visa.

(iv) In case of filling of wrong personal particulars while submitting online applications viz. name, father’s name, date of birth etc.,

(v) In case of manually filled in applications (discontinued now) mistakes have been committed by the Indian Mission/Post/Office while entering the personal particulars.

(vi) In case of change of address/occupation

3. The suggestions and representations have been duly considered and an on-line supplemental service, namely the OCI Miscellaneous Services have been launched from today which can be availed by all registered OCIs. The OCI Miscellaneous Services have been made available on the Home Ministry’s website www.mha.nic.in/oci/oci-main.htm Salient features of the services are:

(i) Registered OCI shall make the application online selecting the requisite service(s).

(ii) Hard copy of application along with requisite enclosures to be submitted to the concerned Indian Mission/Post/Office.

(iii) Application can be submitted in Indian Mission/Post/Office in whose jurisdiction the applicant is ordinarily residing irrespective of the fact whether the same Mission/Post/Office has issued the original OCI documents or not.

(iv) Fee for re-issuance of OCI documents is US $ 25 or equivalent in local currency and it is US $ 100 or equivalent in local currency for issuance of duplicate OCI documents. 

(v) After receipt of application, Mission/Post/Office shall issue File (Acknowledgement) Number to the applicant by e-mail.

(vi) The status of the requisite service(s) can be checked by the applicant on Online Status Enquiry.

(vii) After grant of the requisite service(s), new OCI documents shall be issued after cancellation of the old documents.

4. It is expected that the launch of OCI Miscellaneous Services would address the problems faced by registered OCIs in obtaining new set of OCI documents.