As notified in the Gazette Notification No. 26011/01/2014-IC.I dated 09.01.2015 all the existing Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) cardholders till 09.01.2015 shall be deemed to be Overseas Citizens of India Cardholders.

All the applicants who intended to apply for PIO card are requested to apply for OCI card henceforth as PIO card scheme is dispensed with.

Advisory for PIO Card holders in Jordan

Consequent upon withdrawal of PIO card Scheme and merger of PIO card with OCI card, it was recommended to the erstwhile PIO cardholders to apply for registration for OCI card. The OCI card is a smart card which will facilitate quicker immigration clearance at the ICPs and also for obtaining various consular services from the Indian Missions abroad.

The competent authority has extended the date for submission of applications by the PIO Card holders for OCI cards till 31.12.2017. All the PIO Card holders who are resident in Jordan are, therefore, advised to apply online (url: https://passport.gov.in/oci/) for registration as OCI cardholder and, thereafter, submit the hardcopy of the applications to the Embassy before the due date.

It is also brought to the notice of all that from October 2018, International Civil Aviation Organization will accept only machine readable travel documents. The existing PIO Cards which are handwritten will, therefore, become invalid travel documents.  All PIO Card holders are thus advised to apply for conversion of their PIO Cards to machine readable OCI cards before 31.12.2017.