Lifelong visas for PIOs to visit India

Most US citizens aspiring to travel to India will now get visas valid for 10 years and persons of Indian origin abroad (PIOs) will get lifelong visas to visit India, with the government moving fast to implement promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent high-profile visit to America.

Modi on Tuesday posted on Twitter that his government had moved swiftly on the announcements he had made on consular and visa issues related to the people with PIO cards as well as the US citizens seeking to travel to India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 28 assured a congregation of Indian-Americans at Madison Square Garden in New York that his government would raise the validity of each PIO card from 15 years to the entire life of the person to whom the card is issued. The government issued a gazette notification just two days later to fulfil what the prime minister had promised.  

A person with a PIO card can visit India without a visa. The new changes in its benefits notified by the government will mean that he or she may travel to the country without any visa throughout his or her lifetime. The benefit was earlier limited to 15 years only.

In the event of continuous stay in India exceeding six months, a person with a PIO card so far, had to get himself or herself registered within 30 days of the expiry of 180 days with the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) or the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).  

Modi had also promised to exempt the PIOs from the hassle of reporting to the FRO or the FRROs across the country.  

The notification issued by the government on September 30 fulfilled the promise of the prime minister.

“I am very glad to share that GoI (Government of India) has moved swiftly on the announcements I had made on consular and visa issues during my USA visit,” Modi tweeted on Tuesday. He also said the Ministry of Home Affairs was also working on a new scheme, which would merge the PIO and the OCI schemes.