Delhi FRRO to cover Noida, Ghaziabad OCI card services

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Wednesday announced that the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Delhi will cover matters relating to services

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Wednesday announced that the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Delhi will cover matters relating to services with respect to Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders residing in Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts.

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OCI allows people of Indian origin to live and work in India and avail certain benefits at par with non-resident Indians and resident Indians. According to rules, those who wished to apply for OCI benefits, including permission for research work, and change in particulars, would be required to approach their respective FRRO for their applications to be processed.

“So far, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts of Uttar Pradesh were under the jurisdiction of FRRO, Lucknow for the purpose of receiving and processing of applications for various services in respect of OCI card holders. This was causing inconvenience to OCI card holders residing in these districts,” read an MHA press statement. It said that the two districts will now be brought under FRRO, Delhi. “These measures are expected to greatly facilitate foreign nationals residing in the National Capital Region (NCR) for availing visa and OCI related services”

The FRRO, Delhi already services the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, apart from the Capital itself.

In response to persistent demands for “dual citizenship”, the central government had launched the OCI cardholder scheme in 2006 to register Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs), provided they satisfied certain conditions as laid out in the MHA website. The OCI cardholder, however, does not have certain rights, such as political rights or equal opportunity in matters of public employment.

The MHA press statement said that during the last few years, the central government had taken a number of measures to facilitate the stay in India of foreign travellers.

“The central government has introduced various measures recently such as launching of an e-FRRO module throughout the country bringing various visa related services being granted to foreigners within India on the online platform, permitting foreigners on any category of visa to avail indoor and outdoor medical treatment up to 180 days without conversion of their visa to medical visa,” it read.