Conversion of PIO Card to OCI Card

Starting in October 2018, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will accept only machine readable travel documents.

People who hold handwritten Person of Indian Origin (PIO) cards will need to apply for Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards, which are machine readable.

There is no registration fee for this conversion. However, the applicant must pay service and postage charges.

The deadline to apply online to transfer a PIO card over to an OCI card has been extended to December 31, 2017. There will be no further deadline extensions.

Due to ICAO regulations, handwritten PIO cards will no longer be valid. Persons holding handwritten PIO cards will be refused entry at Indian Immigration Counters and will be sent back.

All requests to convert a PIO card to an OCI card after the current December 31, 2017 deadline will face a fee of $275. This fee is equal to the cost of a new OCI Card.

For more information, please visit the Indian Embassy website.