Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday launched the new Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) portal in the city.

On the occasion, he said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is continuously striving to provide world-class immigration facilities to its OCI cardholder citizens.

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He said a revamped OCI portal with an updated user interface has been launched to simplify the registration process for Overseas Citizens.

Mr Shah also emphasised that many Indian-origin citizens reside in various countries worldwide, and we must ensure they face no inconvenience when visiting or staying in India.

The new portal will provide enhanced functionality, advanced security, and a user-friendly experience for the existing over 5 million OCI cardholders and new users. The new OCI portal is available at the existing URL: https://ociservices.gov.in.

The Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) scheme was introduced through an amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955, in 2005. The scheme provides for the registration of Persons of Indian Origin as Overseas Citizens of India, provided they were citizens of India on or after 26th January 1950, or were eligible to become citizens on that date.

However, individuals who are or have been or whose parent or grandparent, or great-grandparent citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh, are not eligible.

The existing OCI Services portal was developed in 2013 and is currently operational in over 180 Indian missions abroad as well as 12 Foreigners Regional Registration Offices (FRROs), processing approximately 2000 applications per day.

Given the significant technological advancements over the past decade and feedback received from OCI cardholders, a revamped OCI portal has been developed to address existing limitations and enhance the user experience.