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Govt extends deadline to accept PIO cards

The Bureau of Immigration (BoI), Government of India will continue to accept Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) cards as valid travel documents till September 30, 2019 along with valid foreign passport, according to a press release issued by the Consulate General of India, Dubai.

This is an extension of the earlier deadline of March 31, 2019 conveyed by BoI.

The extension of the timeline is subject to the condition that International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) does not make handwritten PIO cards invalid. It is also reiterated that all PIO cardholders with valid PIO cards as on January 9, 2015 should apply for conversion of PIO card to OCI card at the earliest, the statement added.

In January this year, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told overseas Indians that his government is making efforts to ease the processes concerning their social security, passport, visa, PIO and OCI cards and that work was on to issue chip-based e-passports.

“Our embassies and consulates are being connected to the Passport Seva Project worldwide,” he had pointed out.

“This would prepare a centralised system connected to the passport service for all of them.” He had indicated that along with passport, the rules related to visa were also being simplified.

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