Advisory |
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(for Indian nationals who are in the process of obtaining nationality of other country or have already obtained citizenship of other country) Indian passport holders are required to surrender their passports to the nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate immediately after acquisition of foreign nationality as Indian Constitution does not allow dual nationality (there is sometimes a misconception that Overseas Citizenship of India(OCI) Card is dual citizenship). However, it has been observed that many individuals continue to retain their Indian passports and some even use to travel on Indian passports; there are yet others who get fresh Indian passports issued by suppression of information even several years after they acquired foreign citizenship. Since misuse of the Indian Passports, as described above, constitute offences under Section 12(1A) of the Passports Act 1967, the Government of India decided to impose penalty on a graded scale for such violations as per details given below:
2. In view of the above, all concerned are advised to surrender their Indian passports on obtaining foreign nationality to the nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate at the earliest lest they become offender under the Indian Passport Act and later pay huge penalty. The Indian Embassy/Consulate will issue a Surrender/Renunciation of Indian Citizenship Certificate to such individuals. A grace period of three months only is allowed from the date of acquisition of foreign citizenship, for the purpose of travel on Indian passport and hence no penalty will be levied for travel on Indian passport within three months of acquisition of foreign passport. |
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Embassy of India Damascus, Syria |
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