OCI rules changed in April and the card is now digital: what it means for new Indian-Australian citizens

In 2024-25, 23,015 people holding Indian nationality became Australian citizens. India was the second largest source country after New Zealand, out of more than 190 nationalities represented.

Every one of those 23,015 people has to give up their Indian citizenship, because India does not permit holding both. And every one of them who wants to keep going home without applying for a visa each trip has to apply for an Overseas Citizen of India card.

On 30 April 2026, India rewrote the rules governing both processes.

What was notified, and what it is not

The instrument is G.S.R. 323(E), the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2026, notified on 30 April 2026 under section 18 of the Citizenship Act, 1955. It amends the Citizenship Rules, 2009, and it came into force on the date of publication, with no transition period.

One warning before anything else. A second instrument, G.S.R. 369(E) dated 18 May 2026, carries the same short title, the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2026. It deals with declarations about Pakistani, Afghan and Bangladeshi passports under the citizenship amendment framework and has nothing to do with OCI. The one that matters to Indian Australians is the April instrument.

Everything moves to one portal

The rules name a single website, ociservices.gov.in, repeatedly, and route application, renunciation and the acknowledgment of renunciation through it.

Applications for registration as an OCI cardholder are now made in Form XXVIII electronically on that portal. The requirement to submit documents in duplicate has been removed from the rules entirely, which ends the practice of preparing two full document sets.

The card itself has changed form. The amended rule provides that a person may be issued an OCI card in physical form or an electronic OCI registration, described as e-OCI, and from 8 July 2026 only e-OCI has been issued to new applicants. The register of cardholders is now kept in electronic form.

Renunciation of OCI is now a declaration in Form XXXI lodged on the portal with the Indian mission or the local registration office, with an acknowledgment issued in Form XXXII electronically. Where a physical card was issued, the original card must still be surrendered.

Cancellation follows the same split. A physical card must be delivered up on written notice, and if it is not, the government may direct that it be treated as cancelled. A new sub-rule does the equivalent for electronic registrations.

A Government of India notice reproduced by the Consulate General of India in Chicago on 9 July 2026 describes the practical effect: a cardholder no longer needs to carry the physical booklet everywhere and can present the digital card on a mobile phone alongside the passport. The same notice states that from 8 July 2026 only e-OCI is issued to new applicants.

Two changes worth reading closely

The first is a new review procedure. Section 15A of the Citizenship Act has long allowed a person aggrieved by an order of the Central Government to seek a review of it. The April rules substitute the existing revision provision, rule 42, and insert a new rule 42A setting out the procedure for a review under section 15A, including an opportunity to be heard.

The second sits in the application form. Form XXVIII now includes a two-option declaration in which the applicant consents either to the sharing of biometric information captured during OCI registration for registration under India’s Fast Track Immigration Programme, or to automatic registration under it, with the applicant deleting whichever does not apply. Applicants should read that paragraph before signing it rather than after.

The provision Indian-Australian families need to read

Buried in the same instrument, and not about OCI at all, is a new proviso concerning minors, mirrored as a new item in Form I, the form used to register the overseas birth of a minor child as an Indian citizen by descent.

It states that the minor child cannot at any time hold the passport of any other country while also holding the Indian passport.

For an Indian-Australian family with a child born in Australia, this is the provision that bites. A child born in Australia to a parent who is an Australian citizen or permanent resident at the time of birth is an Australian citizen by birth under section 12 of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 and eligible for an Australian passport. Registering that child’s Indian citizenship has required, since 2004, a declaration by the parents that the child holds no other country’s passport.

India has never allowed dual citizenship. What the April rules add is a forward-looking note, in rule 3 and in Form I, that the child cannot at any time hold another passport while holding the Indian one.

Why renunciation is compulsory, and what it actually involves

Article 9 of the Constitution of India denies citizenship at the Constitution’s commencement to anyone who had voluntarily acquired a foreign citizenship, and section 9(1) of the Citizenship Act 1955 provides that an Indian citizen who voluntarily acquires another country’s citizenship ceases, on that acquisition, to be a citizen of India. The Ministry of Home Affairs states the position plainly: the Constitution does not allow holding Indian citizenship and the citizenship of a foreign country simultaneously.

One point of legal accuracy that matters practically. Section 9 of the Citizenship Act deals with termination of citizenship. What a person naturalising in Australia actually files is a renunciation under section 8, using Form XXII under rule 23 of the Citizenship Rules. Loss of Indian citizenship under section 9 is automatic on naturalisation; the renunciation declaration and the passport surrender are the paperwork the missions require to record it.

The process runs in two steps and in a fixed order. First, renunciation is lodged online through the Ministry of Home Affairs module, with INR 1,000 paid on the MHA site and, under VFS Global’s November 2021 guidance, a further AUD 147 plus AUD 4 to the Indian Community Welfare Fund collected by VFS, producing a renunciation certificate in 30 to 60 days. Second, the Indian passport is surrendered, with the renunciation certificate attached. VFS Global’s May 2026 surrender checklist does not restate the renunciation step, so confirm the current sequence and fees with the High Commission before lodging.

VFS Global’s renunciation guidance for Australia puts it plainly: once a foreign citizenship is attained, every Indian national should apply for renunciation of Indian citizenship and surrender of the Indian passport.

The consequence of not doing it is stated in the current consular checklist. Keeping an Indian passport, acquiring one, or travelling on one after acquiring foreign citizenship constitutes, in the checklist’s words, an offence under the “Indian Passport Act, 1967”, the Passports Act 1967, and attracts penalties.

The Consulate General of India in Sydney publishes a schedule for OCI services: AUD 414 for a new OCI registration, AUD 151 in lieu of a valid or lost PIO card, AUD 38 for a new passport after turning 20 or a change of personal particulars, AUD 151 for a duplicate card and AUD 25 for renunciation of an OCI card, plus AUD 5 to the Indian Community Welfare Fund. That page still lists an outsourcing service charge of AUD 4.60. The High Commission of India in Canberra announced on 23 July 2026 that, in addition to the Government of India fee, a VFS Global service charge of AUD 115 per application applies at the new centres. The fee for surrendering an Indian passport is not on that schedule, so ring the consulate for it before relying on any figure.

Two further consequences are worth knowing. Where a person ceases to be an Indian citizen on renunciation, every minor child of that person also ceases to be a citizen, with a right to resume within one year of attaining full age. And a former citizen is required to surrender documents acquired on the basis of Indian citizenship, including a voter card.

What an OCI card gives you, and what it does not

The Ministry of Home Affairs description of the scheme, published on 22 July 2021, is precise about the limits.

OCI cardholders have no voting rights, cannot stand for the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha or a state legislature, and cannot hold constitutional posts such as President, Vice President or judge of the Supreme Court or a High Court. They are not eligible for appointment to public services and posts under the Union or a state unless the Central Government specifies otherwise by special order; the ministry lists teaching posts at IITs, NITs, IIMs, central universities and the new AIIMS as such an exception.

What the card gives, under the gazette notification of 4 March 2021 that replaced the 2005 rights notification, is a multiple entry lifelong visa for visiting India for any purpose, and exemption from registration with the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer for any length of stay. Both carry provisos: special permission is needed for research, missionary, Tabligh, mountaineering or journalistic activities, internships or employment with foreign missions in India, and visits to protected or restricted areas, and cardholders normally resident in India must tell the registration officer by email of any change of address or occupation.

Since March 2021 the parity with non-resident Indians is limited to a listed set: inter-country adoption, sitting all-India entrance tests for NRI or supernumerary seats, buying or selling immovable property other than agricultural land, farmhouses or plantation property, and practising as a doctor, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, advocate, architect or chartered accountant. In every other economic, financial or educational matter not covered by Reserve Bank of India rules, a cardholder has, in the notification’s words, “the same rights and privileges as a foreigner”. Cardholders have parity with Indian nationals on domestic air fares and entry fees to national parks, sanctuaries, monuments and museums. After five years as a cardholder plus twelve months ordinarily resident in India, a holder becomes eligible to apply for Indian citizenship under section 5(1)(g) of the Citizenship Act.

What has actually changed for applicants in Australia

Two Australian-specific developments matter more to readers than the gazette itself.

From 1 April 2026, applications for registration as an OCI cardholder are no longer accepted by post. The official notice requires applicants to attend their VFS centre in person by prior appointment for submission and document verification. Passport surrender applications, and under the High Commission’s 31 August notice OCI passport-detail updates lodged after three months, are still accepted by post; the in-person rule applies to new registrations, where original documents are checked.

Pooja Choudhary, a Melbourne resident, described the stakes for the community: “OCI is a very important document for us. It helps us stay connected to our roots in India and makes travel much easier,” she told SBS Hindi.

Vivek Asthana, another resident quoted by SBS Hindi, identified who bears the cost of the change: “If you submit the application in person, there is no risk of fraud but for those living in regional areas it will be a big change to deal with.”

In practice, a family in Mildura, Townsville or Alice Springs must now travel to one of the six capital-city centres for a submission that used to go in the post.

The second development was a three-week shutdown. All Indian visa, passport, OCI and consular services delivered through VFS Global in Australia were suspended from 1 July 2026, after the operator’s contract expired on 30 June and a Delhi High Court status quo order, in a tender challenge brought by two eliminated bidders, E Trav Tech and Verasys, stopped the new contract awarded to VFS Global on 23 April 2026 from starting. The company’s own notice said services were suspended until further notice. On 15 July the High Court set aside the tender and ordered a fresh one, and on 20 July the Supreme Court declined to interfere, directing a fresh tender “preferably within three months” and allowing temporary arrangements in the meantime. On 22 July 2026 the High Commission of India in Canberra announced that from 23 July 2026 consular, passport and visa services in Australia would be provided by VFS Global at six Indian Consular Application Centres, in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, and that VFS Global is the only authorised service delivery provider. That arrangement is interim until the new tender is decided. None of the High Commission’s notices gives a figure for the backlog created by the shutdown.

VFS Global’s published processing times, on a page that is undated and still live, are an average of eight weeks for a new OCI registration, six weeks for a miscellaneous service plus about seven working days after the passport is resubmitted, five working days to renounce an OCI card, and six to eight weeks for an online passport or photograph update. The same guidance states that card payments attract a 1.95 per cent surcharge and that personal cheques are not accepted. Confirm both on the new centres’ pages before relying on them.

The question readers keep asking

If you renew your passport, do you still have to update your OCI record.

Yes. The Consulate General of India in Sydney’s guidance is that a cardholder must upload a copy of the new passport and a recent photograph online each time a new passport is issued up to twenty years of age, and once after completing fifty years, and that the upload should be done within three months of receiving the new passport.

The OCI portal’s own FAQ says the same and names the cost of missing the window: “Miscellaneous services for updation of details will be provided on gratis basis. In case of updation of passport details after 3 months of the receipt of new passport, will be processed by charging a fee of US $ 25.” For applicants in Australia, the High Commission’s notice of 31 August 2026 puts the late-update fee at AUD 38 plus AUD 5 to the Indian Community Welfare Fund, AUD 43 in total, with the update free and requiring no documents inside the three months.

Reports that the passport-update requirement has been removed refer to something narrower. A Ministry of Home Affairs announcement of 15 April 2021 dispensed with the requirement to physically re-issue the card when a new passport is obtained at those ages; the surviving obligation is the online update. One exception remains under that announcement: a person who was registered as an OCI cardholder before turning 20 and who obtains a new passport after completing 20 years of age must apply for a re-issued OCI card, not merely upload the details.

One risk that has grown

In a gazette notification dated 11 August 2025, reported by Akashvani on 13 August, the Ministry of Home Affairs provided that OCI registration will be cancelled where a holder is sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more, or is charge-sheeted for an offence punishable with imprisonment of seven years or more. The provision applies whether the conviction occurred in India or abroad, provided the offence is recognised under Indian law. The framing used was that OCI is a privilege rather than an entitlement.

The Citizenship Act’s own earlier ground, in section 7D(d), is narrower: a sentence of two years or more within five years of registration. The 2025 notification, made under section 7D(da), carries no such time limit in the ministry’s announcement.

For Australian cardholders, that means an Australian conviction can cost an Indian travel document.