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Travel to India
- Thread starter jeevs007
- Start date
Folks,
Do we need to carry the OCI document when we travel to India for a brief vacation (<2 months)? Since the US passport already has the "lifelong" visa, what's the point of carrying OCI booklet?
The official embassy guideline is to carry the booklet with you, though I personally know of many people who have traveled to India on U-visa (and without carrying the booklet) and no one ever asked them to show the OCI booklet.
U Visa is only for entering the country. Once you are in India, if you want to do any transactions (e.g. open bank accounts etc.) they will ask for your passport and since you have an foreign (non-Indian) passport, you can't claim to be an NRI. In that case, you have to show your OCI booklet to claim NRI benefits.
TheRealist
Registered Users (C)
U Visa is only for entering the country. Once you are in India, if you want to do any transactions (e.g. open bank accounts etc.) they will ask for your passport and since you have an foreign (non-Indian) passport, you can't claim to be an NRI. In that case, you have to show your OCI booklet to claim NRI benefits.
Not sure if the above explanation is entirely correct.
Question: Is the U visa also issued to non-OCI people, such as foreign tourists, businesspeople, journalists, actors, students, foreign diplomats etc. etc.?
If the answer to this question is 'No', then that means that the U visa is sufficient proof of NRI status since it can only be possessed by an NRI. From what I have heard/read, the U visa carries some registration numbers that are unique to a person's OCI application.
But if the U visa is issued for multiple purposes, then you need to carry the OCI booklet.
All this aside, knowing Indian (or other country for that matter) bureaucracy, you never know when some official might get in the mood to ask for your OCI booklet. So maybe it's a good idea to carry it along, overall.
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All this aside, knowing Indian (or other country for that matter) bureaucracy, you never know when some official might get in the mood to ask for your OCI booklet. So maybe it's a good idea to carry it along, overall.
BINGO! Well said!
Also I believe the U visa is for OCI only. I did hear of people opening NRI bank accounts by just showing the U visa and the bank people did not ask for the OCI booklet. But as you said, it is wise to carry it along anyway.
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