DualCitizenship

Citizenship or Dual Citizenship One of the primary reasons for allowing dual citizenship is to allow persons of Indian Origin to freely travel and invest in India among many other things ..

On the occasion of first Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas on 9th January 2003 , former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made an announcement for grant of dual citizenship to PIOs . the necessary Legislation was introduced by the Government of India in Parliament in May, 2003. On January 7th 2005 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the government has decided to offer dual citizenship to all overseas Indian who migrated from the country after January 26th, 1950 , as long as their home countries allow dual citizenship under their law.

The concept of dual citizenship, now phrased as Overseas Citizenship of India, will grant overseas citizenship to persons of Indian origin belonging to certain countries as well as Indian citizens who may take up the citizenship of these countries in future. At present this facility is being extended to Person of India Origin (PIO ) of 16 specified countries, namely, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Republic of Cyprus, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America.

Eligibility

The Central Government on application made in this behalf may register any person as an overseas citizen of India if;

1. that person is of Indian origin of full age and capacity who is a citizen of a specified country;
2. that a person is of full age and capacity who has obtained the citizenship of a specified countries on or after the commencement of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 and who was a citizen of India immediately before such commencement;
3. The person registered as an overseas citizen of India shall be an overseas citizen of India as from the date on which he is so registered.

No person who has been deprived of his Indian citizenship under this Act shall be registered as an overseas citizen of India except by an order of the central Government. For this purpose, the expression "person of Indian origin" shall mean a citizen of another country who;

1. was eligible to become a citizen of India at the time of the commencement of the Constitution;
2. belonged to a territory that became part of India after the 15th day of August, 1947; and
3. the children and grand-children of a person covered under clauses ( i ) and (ii), but does not include a person who is or had been at any time a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh or such other country as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify.