Lok Sabha Question No. 301 (STARRED), answered on 2018-08-08
Subject: Overseas Citizens of India
Ministry: EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Asked by: DEVUSINH JESINGBHAI CHAUHAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.301 TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.08.2018

## OVERSEAS CITIZENS OF INDIA

- *301. SHRI DEVUSINH CHAUHAN: Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:
- (a) whether  it  is  a  fact  that  a  number  of  applications  of  the Overseas  Citizens  of  India  (OCI)  are  lying  pending  with  the High Commissions of India abroad;
- (b) if so, the details thereof for the last four years, year-wise and the reasons therefor; and
- (c) the  details  of  OCI  status  given  to  the  applicants  during  the said period?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (SHRIMATI SUSHMA SWARAJ)

- (a) to (c) A Statement is laid on the table of the House.
- *****

## PRIORITY-I

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF  THE LOK  SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.301  REGARDING  'OVERSEAS CITIZENS OF INDIA' FOR ANSWER ON 08.08.2018

- (a) Yes, there are some Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card applications pending with some of our Embassies/High Commissions/Consulates abroad, while most of our Missions/Posts have no pending applications of OCI card applicants. The number of pending applications at some of our Missions/Posts issuing large number of OCI cards have reduced significantly during the last few years.
- (b) The  number  of  OCI  card  applications  pending  with  our  Embassies/High Commissions/Consulates  abroad,  year-wise,  for  the  last  four  years  are  given  in  the following table:

|   Year |   Number of normal OCI card applications pending |   Number of spouse-based OCI card applications pending |
|--------|--------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|
|   2014 |                                             1321 |                                                      0 |
|   2015 |                                              436 |                                                     35 |
|   2016 |                                              375 |                                                     66 |
|   2017 |                                              472 |                                                    475 |

The OCI card applications are pending at our Embassies/High commissions/ Consulates for various reasons, including those that require action at the end of the applicants. Most of the OCI card applications are pending on account of incomplete documentation or non-submission of certain mandatory documents by the OCI card applicants. Our Embassies/ High Commissions/ Consulates abroad continue to follow up  with  the  applicants,  to  seek  necessary  documents/information  for  clearing  the pendency.  However, in several instances, the applicants could not be contacted or the applicants  do  not  contact  the  respective  Embassy/  High  Commision/  Consulate  for long  periods  thus  resulting  in  pendency.    Some  of  the  applications  are  pending  on grounds  of  technical  rejection.  The  pendency  in  case  of  spouse-based  OCI  card applications  is  mainly  because  of  non  furnishing  of  necessary  documents  by  the applicants, such as apostilled Marriage Certificate, passport details and native details of the foreign spouse. Applications which are put on hold because of pending security clearances by the security agencies, are also included in the table above.

- (c) The year-wise details of OCI cards issued during the last four years are given in the following table:

*****

|   Year |   Number of OCI Cards issued |   Number of OCI Cards issued in- lieu of PIO cards |
|--------|------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|   2014 |                       220859 |                                                  0 |
|   2015 |                       329725 |                                              60830 |
|   2016 |                       410150 |                                             156841 |
|   2017 |                       399915 |                                             114590 |