Is Indian OCI Renewal Required? How to Update New Passport?

The government of India recently simplified the process and did not require OCI to be reissued for every Passport renewal or change in address.

OCI means the Overseas Citizen of India and allows visa-free travel for Indians who have got citizenship in other countries like the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and others.

Benefits of OCI:

• Get you multiple entries, and a multi-purpose lifelong visa to visit India.
• Allows exemption from reporting to local Indian Police authorities for any length of stay in India; and
• Equality with NRIs in financial, economic, and educational fields except in the acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties.
• OCI is also issued to kids of Indian citizens who do not hold Indian passports.

OCI Reissue is not Required

1. Minor child up to 20 years – OCI renewal is not required for minor children on a change of
   passport. Only upload the latest passport copy and photos on the OCI website.
2. Adult OCI Issued after 20 years of age – OCI renewal is not required for any OCI issued after 20
   years of the applicant’s age.
3. Adult Older than 50 years – OCI renewal is not required after 50 years. However, you should
   upload latest passport and photos ONCE after completing 20 years using the below process.
4. Change of address/contact details – Renewal of OCI is not required for change of address.
   Upload the latest details using the below process.

OCI Reissue is Required

• ONCE after the passport renewal and 20 years of age
• Change of name, father’s name
• Change of nationality

If you are an existing OCI cardholder and require uploading the latest Passport copy and photo, please follow the following steps.

This process needs to be done within 3 months of Passport renewal. Ministry of Home Affairs has granted extensions to use existing OCI without re-issue till Dec 31st, 2021, and anyone planning to travel to India after Dec 31st, 2021 should upload a Passport copy and photo as soon as possible.

Since it takes 2 weeks to 4 weeks to update the system it is better to complete it ASAP.

Documents Required

1. Photo: Non-white background, Square (equal width and Height), Picture size should be less than
   500kb in size. You can use Google Photoscan app.
2. Scanned signature – Sign on plain white paper. Then, use an app like Adobe Scan to scan or click a picture.
3. A PDF copy of the Passport picture page in color – Use Adobe Scan.

New Passport Upload Process

#Step 1

Access the Indian government’s OCI website. Select OCI Miscellaneous Services.

#Step 2

Click Proceed button.

#Step 3

Read the instructions and select ‘I have read the instructions at the bottom of the page’. Then, click the ‘Accept’ button.

#Step 4

Select “Fill New Miscellaneous application”. In case you exit in the middle, you can come back and complete the application by selecting “complete partially filled Miscellaneous Application”. 

#Step 5

A new pop window opens with the application. Please save the Temporary application number so you can use it to come back in case you lost a web connection or to complete a partially filled miscellaneous application.

Enter the Passport number from the last page of OCI.

We recommend entering File No# from the last page of the OCI card. We tried using U-Visa No# and OCI number# but page errors prevented us from going forward.

#Step 6

Select the “Submit” button after filling in all the required information. This will complete Part-A of the application. If you are ready with the picture, signature scan, and passport scan you can select the “Yes I am ready with the image” button. 

If scans are not yet ready, you can select the “Exit Now” button and come back by selecting the “complete partially filled Miscellaneous Application”.

Resizing the image to 500Kb size. If you used the Google Photoscan app, you may already have got a smaller size image. If not, then you can use any photo edit app or the windows photo edit to resize the image to 2×2 inches.

#Step 7

When you select “Yes I am ready from step 11”, the screen will update with an option to upload the image and signature.

Select “Choose File” and upload the picture. Once the picture is uploaded you will see the crop button and you can adjust the picture by clicking the crop button. 

• Picture file size should be less than 500kb and
• The signature scan file size should be more than 10kb – A signature needs to be a 3:1 ratio (width: height) so once the signature is uploaded you can select the crop button and resize it to a 3:1 ratio.

After selecting the upload button and you want to upload again you can select “I want to upload again”. If not select “I have uploaded successfully”.

#Step 8

You will now have the option to proceed to Part B and upload the Passport picture page scan.

#Step 9

Answer the following questions.

The first question is tricky. Select “no” for the following question if the family has only one person with an OCI card.

Have you/any member of your family applied for Overseas Citizen of India registration earlier? * 

#Step 10

The next step is to upload the Passport scan (Only pdf is allowed) and you can upload it by selecting the “Upload Documents” button.

OCI Upload/Reupload

In case you exited before uploading the documents you can also upload by selecting the OCI document upload/Re-upload button on the main page here:

OCI Status Enquiry

You can check the status by selecting the “Status Enquiry” button and selecting proceed button.

Enter the passport number and File the reference number to check the status. It will take 2 to 4 weeks to get updated in the system.