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ATTENTION ALL PIO CARD HOLDERS

ATTENTION ALL PIO CARD HOLDERS

DISCONTINUATION OF HAND WRITTEN TRAVEL DOCUMENT BY THE INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANISATION FROM OCTOBER 2018

All PIO cardholders with valid PIO cards as on 09.01.2015 are deemed to be OCI cardholders.  Hence, the PIO card, which is a deemed OCI card continues to be legally valid as per law.

Machine-readable electronic travel document is mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) guidelines.  It is not a precondition prescribed by Ministry of Home Affairs / Bureau of Immigration for entry into India.

All PIO cardholders with valid PIO cards as on 09.01.2015 are advised to apply for conversion of their PIO card to OCI card. 

As far as Bureau of Immigration (BoI) is concerned, it will accept PIO cards as valid document till March 31, 2019 along with valid foreign passport.  If in the meantime, any deadline is notified by the ICAO, thereby making hand written PIO cards invalid, then PIO cardholders may have to obtain appropriate visa from the Indian Missions concerned, in case they have not converted their PIO card to OCI card.  However, the Indian immigration check posts will continue to consider all PIO cards valid for exit/entry into India till 31stMarch, 2019. 

All PIO Card holders are, therefore, urged to apply for conversion of their PIO cards to OCI cards at the earliest.  The fee chargeable for conversion of PIO card to OCI card is MAD 3145/- (currently MAD 3115/- + ICWF-MAD 30/-) w.e.f 01 January 2018.

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