About Us News

PIO to OCI conversion

Back | Print

The PIO Card Scheme has been discontinued. International Civil Aviation Organization will accept only machine readable travel documents. The existing PIO cards which are handwritten will, therefore, become invalid travel documents. Hence, it will be necessary upon PIO cardholders valid as on 09/01/2015 and currently residing in Colombia and Ecuador to obtain machine readable OCI cards in lieu of existing handwritten PIO cards before 31/12/2017 on gratis basis. Registration for OCI is an online process. Only after successfully registering and uploading the relevant documentation to the platform, the applicant will be considered for registration as an OCI. The complete application must be presented at the Indian Embassy of Bogotá, along with the valid PIO card. For OCI registration, please visit http://passport.gov.in/oci/.