DUBAI 10 October 2018: All PIO [Person of Indian Origin] cardholders with valid PIO cards as on 09.01.2015 are deemed to be OCI [Overseas Citizen of India] cardholders, the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has clarified.
Hence the PIO card, which is a deemed OCI card, continues to be legally valid as per law. However, all PIO cardholders with valid PIO cards are advised to apply for conversion of their PIO card to OCI card, according to an advisory issued by the Consulate General of India in Dubai.
Indian immigration authorities will accept PIO cards as valid document till March 31, 2019 along with valid foreign passport. In the meantime, if any deadline is notified by the ICAO, thereby making hand written PIO cards invalid (due to ICAO guidelines regarding machine readable travel documents) then PIO cardholders may have to obtain appropriate visa from our Consulates/Embassies, if they have not converted their PIO card to OCI card.
It is confirmed that the Indian immigration checkposts will consider all PIO cards valid for exit/entry into India till 31st March, 2019. Situation would be reviewed in March, 2019 and appropriate instructions will be issued later on, said the advisory.