E-Paper
India receives 8,000 forms for OCI
Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Oscar Fernandes added that they are expecting around 50,000 more applicants for OCI.
India has received some 8,000 applications for overseas citizenship from its Diaspora and the forms will be processed soon, Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Oscar Fernandes said in Hyderabad on Saturday.
"More than 8,000 have applied and we expect around 50,000 more applicants for overseas Indian citizenship (OCI)," Fernandes told a press conference on the margins of the 4th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.
"The applications are mainly from the US," he added.
Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh handed over the documents related to the grant of overseas Indian citizenship — comprising a passport and a card - to two Indian Americans — Nivruti Rai and Iftekhar Shareef.
The prime minister recalled that he had declared at last year's event his government's intention to make sure that every person of Indian origin living anywhere could aspire to become an Indian citizen.
"As an important first step, we have delivered on our promise to grant the status of overseas citizen of India to eligible applicants," Manmohan Singh added.
Meanwhile, both Rai and Shareef said they were happy receiving the overseas citizenship of India, especially from the prime minister himself.
"It is like reconnecting myself to Indian roots. I have been living in the US for 15 years. I got the US citizenship two years ago. I am really excited to have the dual citizenship," said Rai.
"We have been waiting for the dual citizenship for a long time," she said. Rai expects the OCI card would facilitate her multiple entries to India.
Rai was not bothered about the lack of the voting right. "It does not really matter whether we get voting rights or not," she said.
Rai is presently based in Bangalore and works as senior manager with the Chipset group of Intel India. Hailing from Lucknow, she plans to shift back to the US.
Shareef was also proud to receive in his hometown the OCI card. "The need to have lifelong visa to visit India was being felt for long. The OCI card has fulfilled this need.
"Every time we visit India, we have to go through many formalities and report to police during our stay but with the OCI we will be saved from all this," said Shareef, president of the Chicago-based National Bankcard Corporation.
