Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Dual Citizenship - Check is in the mail

Image courtesy: business line

It has been more than three years since India declared its intent to allow dual citizenship, but there has been no change in the ground realities. Successive Prime Ministers have made grandiose announcements in the annual Pravasi Diwas only to forget it soon after.

An immigration officer in the Chennai Office told me today that, no order has been issued till date. The Officer further mentioned that "Till an order is issued and published in the Government of India gazette, dual citizenship will remain only as intent". While this is the case at the ground level, Ministry of Home Affairs of Indian Government has published an application for the dual citizenship called overseas citizen of India.

I don't know where the hiccup is, but I can only deduce that dual citizenship is not high on the agenda of the Indian Government. Till then the check in the mail..

BTW, I am yet to clearly understand the benefits of dual citizenship. What benefits does dual citizenship provide that PIO card doesn't? Do you know?

3 comments:

  1. Ram, I am not sure what dual-citizenship gives more than
    PIO! IMHO, if a person decides to renounce his citizenship
    to get the host country's citizenship for better prospects,
    there is no point in giving the dual citizenship. It might
    psychologically give a feel of belonging to the first
    generation of migrated group. I dont see anything more than
    that.

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  2. Sundaresan

    For people like me, who straddle both worlds, dual citizenship makes the life easier..

    Even with the PIO card, there is still a lot of administrative hurdles..

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  3. Clueless!!! I am a long way from all that.!! By the time I reach the stage..I hope the dust will settle down.!

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