As per the law in India, it is not allowed to hold two citizenships at the same time. It is being allowed in some other countries like the United States, but to hold two passports are not allowed under Indian Law. There are various other ways, like OCI (Overseas Citizen of India), through which an individual can enjoy same rights as NRI’s but he or she cannot hold a dual citizen Indian Passport.

NOTE - We are currently providing passport assistance/service for Mumbai-based issuance only.

No Provision for Dual passport

Indian government has many programs such as OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) and PIO (Person of Indian Origin), but none of them should be confused with the dual citizenship policy.

A person is considered to be Indian citizen only if:

• The person is born in Indian territory
• The person is living in India for more than a duration of 5 years, or
• He or she has parents who were born in Indian Territory

Various Programmes

OCI cards initiated by the government of India are primarily awarded to the people who became the citizen of India post 26 January 1950. They enjoy the following rights among the many other:

• They have a free visa entry for their entire life in India
• They need not report to the police about their stay when they are in India.
• They enjoy the same rights as NRI’s enjoy on property investments, education and other stuff.

Important things to remember

As soon as the citizen of India tries to seek the citizenship of any other country in the world, from then onward his citizenship of India will no longer be valid, as Indian government does not entertain dual citizenship.

The people in Goa have repeatedly demanded to have dual citizenship of India and Portugal together as they claim that the Portuguese ruled that territory and they wish to enjoy the rights of both the countries.

However, the Indian government is quite strict in their laws and it still holds the policy of single citizenship.