India

No. India does not permit dual citizenship. Article 9 of the Constitution ends Indian citizenship automatically, by operation of law, the moment you voluntarily take on a foreign nationality. There is no application, no notice and no discretion involved. It has already happened. Families who assume they can keep an Indian passport alongside a new one are not bending a rule. They are committing an offence under the Passports Act 1967.

No. Despite the name, Overseas Citizenship of India is emphatically not citizenship. It is a lifelong, multiple-entry visa with no stay requirement, giving the diaspora visa-free access without restoring citizenship. It confers no Indian passport and no consular protection from India, and it carries no citizenship rights. You cannot vote, hold constitutional office or take most government employment, and you cannot buy agricultural land, plantations or farmhouses except by inheritance. OCI exists precisely because Article 9's bar on dual nationality is absolute.

Broadly, this covers the Indian diaspora by descent. It includes a child, grandchild or great-grandchild of a person who was an Indian citizen on or after 26 January 1950, or who was eligible to become one, along with spouses of Indian citizens or OCI holders where the marriage has subsisted at least two years. The application fee is about USD 275 outside India, and each eligible family member applies individually.

Yes, and it quietly catches many families. Anyone whose parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were ever citizens of Pakistan or Bangladesh is permanently ineligible for OCI. This is an absolute statutory bar with no waiver, and it disqualifies a very large number of otherwise-eligible families with Punjab, Sindh or Bengal ancestry. Check the whole parental line before applying.

Using an Indian passport after acquiring a foreign nationality is a criminal offence under the Passports Act 1967, and it will complicate or defeat a later OCI application. You must surrender the Indian passport and obtain the surrender certificate. This is the most common and most damaging error families make. Indian citizenship ended automatically the moment the foreign nationality was acquired, whether or not the passport was ever used again.

Harder. An August 2025 Gazette notification broadened the grounds and window for cancellation. OCI can now be cancelled at any time on charge-sheeting, not conviction, for an offence carrying a penalty of seven years or more. Cancellation was previously limited to within five years of registration. That is a materially weaker status than before. OCI cancellation has been used against journalists and academics for speech the government disliked. It is a revocable privilege, revoked politically, not a right.

India taxes residents on worldwide income, with an effective top rate around 39% under the new regime. Returning NRIs, though, get a valuable window. Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident (RNOR) status shelters foreign income for typically 2–3 years, the key planning period for anyone repatriating. There is no wealth tax (abolished 2015) and no inheritance tax (estate duty abolished 1985), though the latter is periodically rumoured to return, with nothing enacted. Long-term capital gains were restructured in the July 2024 Budget to 12.5% on most assets, with indexation largely withdrawn.

The only path is giving up your other passport. OCI holders registered for five years and resident in India for twelve months (relaxable) may apply to register as Indian citizens. But this requires renouncing your existing citizenship. The door only swings one way. OCI is designed for people who have already chosen a foreign passport and want lifelong access to India, not a back route to holding both.