Embassy of India
Cairo
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Advisory on Exension of PIO Card Validity up to December 31, 2024
According to the recent guidelines issued by Government of India (Gol), handwritten PIO cards will be accepted as valid travel documents along with valid foreign passport at all Indian Immigration Check Post(s) till December 31, 2024, instead of earlier circulated deadline of December 31, 2023.
2. As per these recent guidelines, Bureau of Immigration (Bol) will accept PIO card as a valid travel document till 31.12.2024 along with valid foreign passport and the Indian Immigration Check Post(s) will continue to consider all PIO cards (which were valid as on January 9, 2015) valid for exit from/entry into India till December 31, 2024. This extension of timeline is subject to the condition that if in the meantime, any deadline is notified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) thereby making handwritten PIO cards invalid, then PIO cardholders may have to obtain appropriate visa from Indian Missions/Posts.
3. Nevertheless, all PIO cardholders with valid PIO cards as on 09.01.2015 are advised to urgently apply for conversion of their PIO card to OCI card as per the guidelines being issued by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) from time to time.
2nd January, 2024
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