Indiancitizenship Thru PIO

[rrastogi20]

I just want to clarify that if a child in india is staying on PIO card, is there any chances that he can apply for indian citizenship ?

What will be the required docs for this ? I heard that if somebody is staying for more than 5 yrs on PIO then he can apply for the indian citizenship.

Please advise me on this or let me know any link I can refer to .

[tamtom]

I just want to clarify that if a child in india is staying on PIO card, is there any chances that he can apply for indian citizenship ?

What will be the required docs for this ? I heard that if somebody is staying for more than 5 yrs on PIO then he can apply for the indian citizenship.

Please advise me on this or let me know any link I can refer to .

The following questions are pertinent to your case.
(1) Is one of the child's parents an Indian citizen?
(2) What is the child's current citizenship?

If the answer to (1) is yes, then the 5 year waiting period does not apply.

If the answer to (2) is the US or Canada, then there may be a major problem because those particular countries don't let young minor children renounce citizenship. So you won't be able to cancel the child's US or Canadian passport and get an Indian one.

Hope this helps,

Tamtom

[immihelp]

Can anyone please explain why do you want Indian citizenship for your child?

[tamtom]

Can anyone please explain why do you want Indian citizenship for your child?

With Indian citizenship, the child has a set of rights guaranteed by the Indian constitution. With a PIO card, the child has only privileges which can be taken away arbitrarily as with any other visa . Also, the privileges granted are not equal to citizeship - the PIO holder is treated as a "foreign national" and so there are paranoid restrictions on travel to protected areas, higher fees in museums, freedom of speech is not guaranteed, etc. and further forms of discrimination can be added easily in the future.

Also, if the child has a different citizenship than both parents, one isn't guaranteed that all family members have the same rights to reside in the same countries.

Further, if one decides "take Indian citizenship only if another country's isn't granted", what does that teach the kids about India's position in the world?

Frankly, this question surprises me.

--Tamtom

[milli]

It does not surprise me and I keep reading responses(not same as citizenship, can be taken away, can not visit protected areas(dunno how many times any citizens have visited protected areas!!!!) etc.) for this question.

I can definitely understand the emotional feeling of losing indian citizenship but it is hard to buy other reasons. Gosh if people can think so much in to the future and about things they would never come across(travelling to protected areas!!! LOL), why can't they spend some time thinking about all these before having a baby here? Wouldn't it make easier to have the baby in India and retain the citizenship? I know some people would say what if he/she wants to go to college here in the future. It is hard to be satisfied these days with what we have and we spend so much time and energy in thinking about what we don't have.

[tamtom]

It does not surprise me and I keep reading responses(not same as citizenship, can be taken away, can not visit protected areas(dunno how many times any citizens have visited protected areas!!!!) etc.) for this question.

I can definitely understand the emotional feeling of losing indian citizenship but it is hard to buy other reasons. Gosh if people can think so much in to the future and about things they would never come across(travelling to protected areas!!! LOL), why can't they spend some time thinking about all these before having a baby here? Wouldn't it make easier to have the baby in India and retain the citizenship? I know some people would say what if he/she wants to go to college here in the future. It is hard to be satisfied these days with what we have and we spend so much time and energy in thinking about what we don't have.

milli,

Thanks for those comments. I partly agree, partly disagree.

I do agree the emotional feeling our daughter will have by being labeled as a "foreign national" while living in India is a very important part of it for us. So is the emotional message the child will get by being told that her US status is primary and the Indian one is secondary.

I don't agree that we should LOL about travel restrictions. I know a family where one of the parents is from a protected area. If they get a PIO card for their daughter, she will be able to visit her grandparents only for 10 days at a time. The protected areas are pretty big and include some entire states of India.

I don't agree that we should LOL about lack of constitutional protection. 18 years is a pretty long period for which to assume that no Indian government will think of adding new restrictions on foreign nationals. Certainly the fact that today's government stands by idly while the US effectively tries to cancel these children's Indian citizenship, does nothing to build my confidence in that regard.

I agree that having the kids born in India is a solution for some people, but not for everybody. In my family's case, one parent is a US citizen so EVEN IF BORN IN INDIA the child would have acquired mandatory US citizenship and we would face this problem.

I don't agree that most people facing the problem are deliberately "double-dipping", hoping to gain US citizenship for their kids to send them to college there later. People who are thinking that way probably would accept the solution of US passport plus PIO card if they're already thinking about a US career for their child.

In many cases, the people in this situation are Indian couples of child-bearing age working in the US or Canada on temporary assignments. I doubt they gave a lot of thought to the question of their kids' citizenship before they accepted their jobs. Many assumed that their children would keep Indian citizenship and choose at 18.

When having a child in most countries other than the US or Canada, that isn't a problem. The problem arises only because of a very quirky combination between these countries' laws, and most people are surprised when they learn about it.

In the India-US case, there are some easy technical ways to fix the problem if the two countries decide to do so. But it's not going to happen unless the public expresses its opinion. So far, I think the governments are seriously underestimating people's attachment to Indian citizenship.

--Tamtom