Thursday, April 28 2005 20:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The proposal of granting 'Overseas Indian Citizenship (OIC)' under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 has been put on hold until further notice. Hence, applications for Overseas Indian Citizenship will not be received by the Embassy of India, with effect from January 24, 2005 until further notice.

There has been a lot of speculation regarding this issue. According to S Krishna Kumar Secretary in the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs "The necessary clearances and notifications for the simplified form are being secured and they will be made available at Indian missions overseas in a couple of months," as told to Agencies.

"We have not abandoned the grant of dual citizenship at all," the secretary clarified, when asked if the process has been temporarily put on hold for a decision to be taken on the new form.

"Since we now have much better procedure to be followed, the Union Home Ministry wants that all applications be filed according to the new form so that there is uniformity in processing of requests," he added.

From what we see the proposal has been mainly put on hold as the forms and the process are being revised. This process should be complete by April end hopefully. The missions have been accordingly briefed. One can get in touch with the missions around May for updates.