This petition is to bring to your kind attention and to request a temporary reprieve till 31st March 2020 regarding the travel restrictions faced by Overseas Citizens of India (OCI Card Holders) as per the new directives from the Consulate General of India.

Most of Airline companies are barring the travel of OCI card holders with a renewed passport and NOT reissued OCI Cards (current OCI cards have the old passport number) from boarding the plane to India.  Considering the holiday season in the US and the several weeks of time required in re-issuance of the OCI card, it is highly challenging for OCI card holders to get their OCI card renewed on time for their holiday travel plans to India.

We kindly request the Government of India, External Affairs Ministry, Indian Ambassador and the Consulate Generals in USA to compassionately give strict directions to all the Airline companies to allow the OCI card holders unrestricted travel to India with the following documents - the renewed US passport, old US passport and their OCI Card (with old US passport number) till 31st March 2020.

https://www.indianembassy.org/pages.php?id=20

http://mha1.nic.in/pdfs/GuidelinesOCI.pdf

https://www.in.ckgs.us/oci/oci-categories.shtml

Recently this policy has been posted as a "Travel Advisory" on the Indian consulate websites. Under this policy Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card, which has a LIFETIME VALIDITY endorsed by the same government, now requires reissuing EVERY TIME when the OCI card holder's US passport is renewed before 21 years of age and once after 49 years of age! This means the OCI card holders are required to go through the entire process of applying for OCI card/visa ALL OVER AGAIN, every time when their foreign passport is renewed: This policy will create lot of burden mostly for children and senior citizens.