By IANS
New Delhi : The government launched Tuesday a special service for registered overseas Indians enabling them to change personal details in their certificates or apply for duplicate documents if the originals have been lost.
There have been many demands for duplicate Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards or for effecting the change of details in the certificates. More than 199,500 certificates have been issued till Jan 1, 2008 two years after the Overseas Citizenship of India scheme was made operational.
“We had a lot of pendency of people reporting that their OCI cards had been lost or that they want to change photograph,” said a senior official of ministry of home affairs.
There were no procedures in place to deal with such applications, said the official.
A press release of the ministry said the online supplementary service was launched Tuesday for all registered OCIs.
“It is expected that the launch of OCI miscellaneous services would address the problems faced by registered OCIs in obtaining new set of documents,” said the ministry.
The services can be availed if the applicants want new passport, change of nationality, replacement for lost OCI certificates, filing of personal particulars and change of address or occupation.
The OCI miscellaneous service has been made available on the home ministry’s website www.mha.nic.in/oci/oci-main.htm.
After submitting the application online, a hard copy along with enclosures has to be submitted to the local Indian embassy or consulate, which will issue a file number to the applicant by mail that can be used to check the status of the enquiry online.