No more PIO only OCI

Back in 2010, right around the time Avni was born, I started researching the options for her as she will be born in USA and the parents were Indian citizens. People had all different solutions, some were crazy as suggesting that she can pick her citizenship when she is 18 years and others that she can get Indian citizenship if registered right at birth.

Turned out all were wrong, since she would be born on US soil, by default she would be citizen of USA and also India does not support dual citizenship.  In the end she could become either a PIO (person of Indian origin) or an OCI (overseas citizen of India).

We the parents were Indian citizens and not foreign passport holders, she could only apply to be PIO. Even further, for some reasons un known,  being PIO had way more restrictions than being an OCI, few from top of my head are, it had to be renewed every 15 years and if the person had to stay for more than 180 days in India then they had to register with nearest police station. The only saving grace was that PIO was 1 step and OCI was a 2 step and longer process.

It always pinched me that the fact that we are citizens of India and my daughter had to be PIO but if we gave up our Indian citizenship then my daughter can be an OCI. To say in another way, government of India government rewarded non-Indian citizens better than Indian citizens. I was so annoyed with this that the last 3 times I took my daughter to India, I went with a visa for her.

Thanks to Modi and the new Indian government there is no more of PIO, only OCI and all PIO’s are being converted to OCI’s.

Great going, I am happy with this. I believe it is time to make Avni an OCI.      

PIO, Indian visitor visa – some learning

I recently went through the process of applying for a PIO card for my daughter and for reasons beyond my control, I ended up just satisfied with a visa, but in the process I did learn a thing or two

• If both parents are citizens of India then the kid can only get a PIO and not an OCI
• Consulate General of India doesn’t handle the PIO cards or anything of that sort anymore, they have outsourced it Travisa (I found it the hard way when the consulate returned my application without even opening it)
• Unlike the old times, The new regulations require to send the passport along with the application for PIO card
• The Travisa website is well documented a complete opposite of CGI Houston which left things to imagination on requirements for either a PIO or a visa
• The Travisa office is also very professionally maintained, when I went to apply for a visa I was in and out of the office in less than half hour. They send you an email every step of the way (I got 3 emails in total, one saying they received the application, second saying they received from consulate and last one saying they have shipped along with tracking number)
• The only forms of residency proof they accept are drivers license or a utility bill, cable bill or DSL bill won't work
• Visitor visa is the simplest and fastest thing to get (I personally dropped the application I got it the very next day)
• One thing I didn’t like was the fact that they were willing to hand over the passport back to anyone who had the receipt. 
• Tuesday is a bad day to go to Houston as most Indian outfits in Houston are closed on Tuesday
• In spite of clear instructions I witnessed quite a few people sent back due to lack of things they were supposed to get

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