Generic query - British citizen (PIO) travelling to India

[User]

Hi All,

I am a British citizen and I hold a PIO card (Person of Indian Origin card - its like a "green card" to travel to India).

This is the first time (after my recent naturalisation as British citizen) i am going to travel to India and i want to take with me my cancelled Indian passport (just to show it off to my family there!!! ). Is it OK to take it with me? Of course i am going to keep it in my bag somewhere and obviously I "cannot" and "don't" intent to use it for any travel purposes certainly!

Please let me know.

regards.

[bbdivo]

hmmmmm, personally I wouldnt tempt fate, however I'll let other members respond, they may have a more educated response for you!

[lemess]

Perfectly OK to carry a cancelled indian passport. If it is clearly marked cancelled and you're not misrepresenting your indian citizenship status ( which you're clearly not) this is a non issue. No one searches bags looking for cancelled passports and carrying a souvenir is not a crime !

[MWazir]

I agree with lemess, its no longer a valid travel document and as such has no value of its own. The only point I want to add is, are you by law expected to return your passports to the local embassy after you relinquish your Indian citizenship? If not, then there is no problem in keeping it with you.

[User]

Cheers to All.

Just to summarise my answers to various questions raised on me here:

1. I have no intentions to mis-represent indian citizenship. All i want to do is to take it ot India once and show it off to my family, just as a souvenir.
I have my british passport and have my PIO card to go to India.

2. Yes, the cancelled Indian passport is clearly marked as such - i.e. "cancelled" in several pages including the cover page.

3. There is no such requirement (AFAIK) to surrender the cancelled Indian passport permanantly to the local Indian embassy in UK. Having said that i had personally requested to them that they give the cancelled passport back to me (of course this was an oral request, not in writing though!) - just to keep it as a souvenir and they happily did that after cancelling it (when they sent my PIO card to me in post!)

So, i guess the answer is, yes i can take it to India, just as an invalid document - all it means to me is a souvenir

regards.

[Sunnyboy]

Hello

Just to mention about the PassPort that if it is cancelled by the issuing authrity or concerned authority and then has become a matter of record paper . It has no legal significance so as to entitle to confer you a right . Since PIO being a new system you may more easily clarify your position but I do not think you will get a chance when authority will ask you produce your cancelled passport particularly computer has taken place of past record . For one reason or other either to produce an endorsement or any thing material so many times people have their previous cancelled passport with them and hardly any fear to carry a dead document.