Press Releases
Embassy of India
Baku (Azerbaijan)
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25 September 2017
PRESS RELEASE
Change of existing PIO cards to OCI cards
Attention is invited to previous notifications of the Government of India notifying that all PIO cards would soon become invalid. It was advised that all existing PIO cardholders should obtain OCI card in lieu of their PIO card. According to the notifications, the change of PIO card to OCI Card is free (for gratis) before 31.12.2017.
2. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has informed that in future it would accept only machine readable travel documents. As the existing PIO cards are hand written, these cards would soon become invalid as travel documents. Hence, all PIO cardholders who are yet to obtain OCI cards, are urged to apply for OCI cards without further delay to avoid any inconvenience.
3. Please note that the last date for free conversion of PIO cards into machine readable OCI cards is till 31.12.2017.
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