Glossary
OCI card
Also called: Overseas Citizenship of India, OCI
An OCI card (Overseas Citizenship of India) is the registration that gives people of Indian origin who hold a foreign passport lifelong, visa-free travel to India. It is not dual citizenship: OCI holders cannot vote in India or hold government jobs, under section 7B of the Citizenship Act. The card is issued once; after a passport change the OCI record is updated rather than renewed, and the physical booklet is no longer re-issued for a passport change.
Who needs it
Former Indian citizens, people of Indian descent up to the third generation, and the foreign spouse of an Indian citizen or OCI holder can generally apply. In the UK this is usually someone who became British and has surrendered their Indian passport, or a UK-born child of Indian-origin parents. A first-time application is a Fresh OCI, usually submitted at a VFS appointment; the spouse route uses a High Commission appointment.
What Matrix Solutions does
We prepare Fresh OCI applications from the UK for £125 per applicant: checklist, forms, photo formatting and the VFS booking.
UK service — applications through UK visa centres