The government of India’s Foreigners Division of the Home Ministry issued a message on Tuesday, December 17 directing the airlines and the government related that the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card holders below 20 years or above 50 years of age and renewed their passports can continue their travel to India as the date has been extended up to June 30, 2020.
However, both the old and new passports must be carried by the travelers along with their OCI card.
Deputy Counsel General of the Consulate General of India, Rajesh N. Naik told indica, “We have been receiving many complaints since mid-November. We do not have a count as these complaints/queries were received through several means such as WhatsApp, phone calls, emails and through community contacts.”
He said that, a sincere effort has been made to reach out to the affronted individuals and helped by assisting them in sorting out issues as they have been guided through the process of e-visa and they would be given an emergency visa as per the procedures that have been established, if needed.
Naik said that the rules of OCI have been announced earlier, when asked about what was that which went wrong about the issue of cancellation of the tickets by travelers.
“OCI card holders did not anticipate the strict enforcement and hence, believably, led to confusion,” Naik said.
Naik said that, the numbers on the OCI card and the passports did not match and that all the OCI cards has been issued against the passports that are valid at the submission time of applying for OCI card and therefore the number on the renewed passports will not be reflected by the OCI cards.
“Up to the age of 20, OCI card holders must get the OCI card reissued each time their passport is renewed,” Aniyan George, president of Kerala Chamber of Commerce, USA stated. Initially, the petition has been started and a temporary reprieve until 31st March has been requested by Aniyan George.
OCI cards has to reissued for people over 50 years of age mandatorily only once and for people between 21 and 50years of age the OCI card re-issuance is not required every time the renewal of the US passport has been done. Carrying the old and the new passports along with the OCI card is advisable.
George said that, it was a great news and the petition has received 23,000 signatures which stated to remove the travel restrictions of the OCI card holders.
The petition to “Remove the travel restrictions of OCI cardholders(under 21 years and above 50 years old)” received thousands of phone calls and signatures concerning the OCI card issue.
“in the last 13 days, I personally attended more than 1000 calls and I know 19 families that were sent back to the US,” George said to indica.
George said that, relief was asked until March 2020 but the government approved and extended until June 30, 2020.
George stated that under the policy that has been posted as Travel Advisory in the Indian websites, the OCI card holders having a lifetime validity which had been endorsed by the Indian government, is now requiring reissuing every time the US passport is renewed.
The OCI card holders are required to undergo the procedure for applying OCI card every time the US passport get renewed. George said that, the process will create burden mostly for children and that it should be changed.
“This policy will create a lot of burden mostly for children,” he said. “We need change in this.”
 card holders below 20 years or above 50 years of age and renewed their passports can continue their travel to India as the date has been extended up to June 30, 2020.){kind=link}