Get Your Exact OCI Document Checklist For Your OCI Application

What Is An OCI Document Checklist?

An OCI document checklist is nothing but a synchronized list of papers that you shall upload on the government portal while submitting your OCI application. This document checklist is not fixed for all. The Indian Missions publish separate checklists for every applicant category, and the difference between them is exactly where all the applications go wrong.

The applicant shares a small core: the signed application form, a current foreign passport with at least six months of validity, signature images, a square photograph, proof of the present address, and the fee receipt. What sits on top of that core is decided by a few things.

• Whether the application is a fresh or a reissue
• Who you qualify for OCI
• Whether the applicant is an adult or a minor
• >Which mission handles your jurisdiction.

Our OCI Document Checklist Generator Tool resolves the four variables and provides you with only the set of documentation that is applicable to you.

OCI Document For First Time Applicants

First-time applicants are categorized into two very different groups, and using the wrong one is to one of the fastest ways to have an application returned.

If you have previously held an Indian passport

• You add your last held Indian passport (the first and the last two pages of the passport)
• Your Naturalization or the registration certificate
• Renunciation or surrender certificate.

Along with this, the applicants also submit proof of marital status and evidence of employment or occupation, plus an undertaking to surrender any Indian voter ID and ration card. If you no longer have your Indian passport, submit copies of the documents you used to obtain the surrender certificate.

If you were born a foreign citizen and never held an Indian passport.

You shall prove your lineage from India. This means that you must provide your birth certificate showcasing the names of your parents, your date of birth, and your nationality. Just know that any kind of hospital-issued certificate is not accepted, together with the proof of your Indian origin for your grandparents, great-grandparents, and your parents.

Acceptable evidence includes your Indian passports, a domicile certificate, a nativity certificate from the competent authority, or their PIO or OCI card, along with the documents that it was issued on. In case your family lineage is not established from the forms you have submitted, your application is very likely to be rejected.

If You Qualify Through Your Spouse

For this, you will need an apostilled birth certificate, birth certificates establishing your spouse's Indian origin, a registered marriage certificate, your spouse's passport, and the OCI card or Indian passport. Along with this, you will also need a notarised joint affidavit that the marriage still subsists. Ensure that your name is on your spouse's OCI card or Indian passport; if it is not, they must have their respective document(s) reissued first.

OCI Reissue Documents

Before you compile any set of documents required for OCI card, check whether you actually need a paid reissue of the documents, because many people end up paying for the one they do not actually need.

A reissue is required if you have obtained your OCI card before you turned 20 and have since received a new passport after you turned 20, if the card is either lost or damaged, if your name changes for any reason including marriage, if your nationality changes, or if there is an error or something else on the card.

An OCI card reissue is not required for a routine new passport, a change of address, or a change of occupation. In such cases, you have to upload a copy of the new passport and a recent photograph through the OCI Miscellaneous Application process on the government portal within three months of receiving the passport.

If you need to reissue the OCI card, the OCI reissue/renewal documents checklist includes your existing OCI card: original plus copies of the first and last two pages, and documentary proof of any particulars that are changing.

OCI Documents For Minors

Any individual under the age of 18 is treated as a minor. The most definitive document is the parental authorization form, which is a notarised original signed by both parents, whose signatures must match those on their passports and then on the application form. A signature mismatch is the most common reason behind delay and rejection of the OCI Application.

One of the parents can sign alone under three circumstances: the parent has the sole legal custody of the child after the divorce, evidenced by a court order, or the death of a parent, evidenced by the death certificate, or a single adoptive parent, evidence of Indian origin, the parent's marriage certificate, the copies of both parents, and your current passports and, where relevant, proof of the parent's legal status in the country of application.

A minor child who is still not able to sign any application can place his left thumb impression in the signature box. The parents should not sign in the child's signature box on their behalf.

Lost Or Damaged OCI Card Documents

For a lost OCI card, please submit the first and last two pages of your OCI card, if you have them, along with a copy of the complaint lodged with the police or the relevant foreign police department.

With respect to the damaged OCI card, the original card is surrendered along with the copies of the first and the last two pages. Apart from this, all other documents follow the standard reissue set, such as the application form, current passport, signature, photograph, address proof, occupation, proof for the adults, the parental authorization for the minors, and the fee receipt.

OCI Photo Requirements

The requirement for the photographs with respect to the OCI application is the single most common upload failure, because an Indian passport photo will not work. Those are 35*45 mm rectangles which are not appropriate for the OCI. Whereas an OCI photo is a square of at least 51*51 mm on a white, plain, light-colored background that is not white, and the face must cover roughly 80 percent of the frame.

• JPEG or JPG only, with a maximum of 500 KB.
• Height and width must be equal, from 200*200 to 1500*1500 pixels.
• Clear front view of the head and shoulders; face must be in the center, no border and no staple. Ensure that nothing is written across it.
• The photo must have been taken within the last six months. You will need two copies of the photo: one affixed to the printed form and one uploaded.

OCI Signature Requirements

You shall sign in blue or black ink only, staying inside the printed box. The uploaded signature must match the one on the printed form and on your passport.

• JPEG or JPG, maximum 500 KB.
• Aspect ratio should be 1:3; the images must be almost three times wider than they are tall.
• From 200*67 to 1500*1500 pixels.
• A minor who is still not able to sign may use the left thumb impression instead.

OCI Proof Of Address

From the following giving options, any one of the following is accepted; however, it must match the present address on your application: a state-issued identity card, a driving license, a utility bill which must not be more than three months old for gas, water, electricity, a valid lease agreement, mortgage papers, or an income tax return.

Students who are living in the university housing can submit a letter from their respective institution on the official letterhead. If you live with your parents, children, or relatives, a notarised undertaking from them, along with their address proof, works.

Three things that are not accepted under any circumstances are expired documents such as a lapsed lease or license, a PO Box Number, and a photocopy of a driving license that has been shrunk to a smaller size. If you are applying from a country other than the one that is issued to your passport, you will also need proof of your legal status there and proof of your native address.

OCI Supporting Documents

Supporting documents are the ones that are not on every list but become mandatory the moment they are applicable to you. The most frequently missed is the name change document; this is needed whenever your current legal name is different from yours in any way from the name on your Indian passport and the English Translations, needed for any document in another language and only from an authorized translator.

Documents that are issued outside India need to be apostilled by the issuing government or attested by the relevant foreign mission. You shall send the self-attested copies of the apostilled documents, and never the apostilled originals. All supporting documents must be uploaded to the portal as PDF files, and each must be no more than 1000 KB.

Common OCI Mistakes

• The very first and the most common mistake applicants end up making is using an Indian passport photograph instead of the square OCI format.
• Preparing each and every document but never uploading them to the government portal.
• Applying for the OCI card before getting the surrender or the passport renunciation certificate.
• When you end up paying for the reissue when a free online passport update would have been enough.
• Leaving Part B unsigned or the parent signing in the minor's signature box.
• Submitting a marriage certificate issued by the religious body, as it is not taken into consideration for the marriages solemnized in India.
• Sending along the original apostille documents instead of self-attested copies.

Why OCI Application Gets Rejected

For the OCI applications being rejected, the mission has rolled out a list of all the common rejection causes, and all of them are clerical rather than substantive.

• Poor-quality photo or signature uploads fail, and then the portal's automatic checks fail.
• When the supporting documents are missing from the portal in such a case, the application is returned unprocessed.
• An incorrect passport date of issue or number.
• A date of birth not matching the last heald indian passport date of birth. This is non-negotiable; if this flags, the application goes under immediate rejection.
• A previous name undeclared. You need to declare it even when there is a difference of one letter, an initial replacing the middle name, or a reordered first and last name.
• The full name of the applicant and the surname missing do not match their current submitted documents.
• An incomplete postal address or a missing proof of your native address when you are applying outside of your home country.