The Coronavirus made travelling to many countries around the world quite troublesome since flights were stranded, people were not allowed to go back home, there were various quarantine rules everywhere, many states and countries shut their borders. The world had not seen a pandemic like this in a very long time. During this pandemic there were a lot of people who were nationals in one country, travelling and staying in another. When borders shut, all countries began looking at options of bringing their citizens back home. Logistics was quite challenging since they were chartering flights to bring their people back home. At this point, many people with roots to India wanted to travel to India and were disappointed that they were not prioritised, with India agreeing to bring their nationals home first.

The Government worked on their extraction program in several phases and started with their nationals first. They were allowing specific categories of Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders to travel to India. These categories included minor children born to Indian nationals abroad who were holding OCI cards, people travelling for family emergencies, and university students who are OCI cardholders but whose parents are Indian citizens living in India. They made these changes in the third phase of the Expatriates Extraction Programme called Vande Bharat Mission. The second phase brought back around 32,000 citizens on more than 160 flights from 47 countries.

What are the benefits of an OCI card?

According to the home ministry’s annual report for 2018-19, a total of 32,53,912 foreign nationals registered as OCI cardholders, with the issuing of 4,14,906 OCI cards to replace the people of Indian origin (PIO) cards till March 2019. Foreign nationals who can prove their roots to India will receive an OCI card. Applicants with these cards obtain most of the rights of an Indian citizen other than applying for an election card, holding a position in Government office and purchasing agricultural land.

One of the main benefits of the OCI card is travelling from one country to the other, as many   times they need, for as long as they want, without applying for a visa, which in many cases can be quite tedious.

What is the process of applying for an OCI card?

 Indian overseas citizens abroad can visit their nearest Indian Mission that would assist them with the process. Additionally, they can apply through the website. All they have to do is fill out the

 OCI application and providing supporting documents to prove their roots to India. The information on these documents and the forms have to match, or there could be issues with the process getting unnecessarily delayed.

While people holding passports in most countries can apply for an OCI card in India, the rules change slightly in some situations. No person, with parents, grandparents or great grandparents who are citizens of Bangladesh or Pakistan are eligible to register as an Overseas Citizen of     India. Furthermore, people who served as a member of any foreign military are also ineligible to receive an OCI card.