DUBAI 5 October 2019: The Government of India had advised for the conversion of all Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) cards to Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards by September 30, 2019. It is now informed that the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) will now accept PIO cards as valid travel document till March 31, 2020 along with valid foreign passport and the Indian Immigration Check Post(s) will continue to consider all PIO cards valid for exit/entry into India till March 31, 2020.
This extension of timeline is subject to the condition that if in the meantime any deadline is notified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) thereby making hand written PIO cards invalid, then PIO cardholders may have to obtain appropriate visa from Indian Missions/Posts.
All the PIO cardholders with valid PIO cards as on 09.01.2015 are requested to apply for conversion of PIO card to OCI card as per guidelines at the earliest.