NEW DELHI:- New Delhi. India has launched the ‘Electronic Overseas Citizen of India’ (e-OCI) card system, enabling eligible OCI cardholders to access almost all OCI-related services online. Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched this platform, along with the upgraded ‘FCRA 2.0’ portal, in New Delhi on June 30. Home Minister Shah described this as a significant step towards providing fast and convenient services to more than 5 million OCI cardholders.
According to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, this new system offers a fully online facility for applicants to apply for OCI, upload necessary documents, track their application status, and download a digitally generated OCI card. Existing OCI cardholders can also, in most cases, obtain a digital e-OCI card without needing to submit a new application or undergo physical verification.
Under the revised online service, the requirement to obtain a new physical OCI booklet when renewing one’s passport after the age of 20 has been eliminated; instead, cardholders simply need to update their passport details via the online portal. According to government officials, this new system is expected to reduce the processing time from the previous 6–8 weeks to approximately 15 working days.