Nationality and OCI

Becoming Dutch, losing Indian citizenship and the OCI card.

India does not allow dual citizenship. Anyone who becomes Dutch thereby loses Indian citizenship and has to surrender the Indian passport and apply for a surrender certificate.

After that you can apply for an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card. This is not citizenship but a lifelong visa that lets you travel to India without limit and live and work there, with some exceptions such as voting and buying agricultural land. Children and grandchildren of Indians, and spouses, may also qualify under certain conditions; a broader arrangement applies to Surinamese Hindustanis.

Useful links

• IND – Dutch citizenship ind.nl
  Naturalisation and option: requirements and procedure.
• OCI Services ociservices.gov.in
  Official online OCI application.
• Embassy of India – OCI card indianembassynetherlands.gov.in
  Requirements and applying from the Netherlands.
• Government of the Netherlands – Dutch nationality (Dutch) rijksoverheid.nl
  Acquiring and losing Dutch nationality.