Just when the busiest travel season of the year started, the Government of India has waived the $25 late fee for OCI Cardholders with delayed passport updates on the OCI portal. Usually, the 2026 OCI Card rules include a $25 penalty for updating passport details online after 3 months of a new passport issued to an Overseas Citizen of India. However, the late fee waiver is a one-time relief.
OCI Passport update late fee waiver timeline
India announced the $25 penalty waiver for two months, from 1 November to 31 December 2026. The OCI Card rules require you to update the passport details on your OCI Card within 3 months of receiving a new passport every time or pay a penalty of $25 for missing the deadline. However, you can apply to update your new passport information through the e-OCI portal any time until 31 December 2026 without paying the late fee, even though the passport was renewed three months ago.
There is no certainty about possible extension of the penalty waiver window. Late OCI Passport update applications will resume attracting the late fee from 1 January 2027.
All OCI Cardholders should know
The temporary fee waiver for late updation of new passport details should not be mistaken for applicable fees for other OCI services, like duplicate OCI Card issuance, OCI Card renunciation, and OCI Card reissuance after 20 years of age. Even a $25 fee continues to apply to OCI Cardholders seeking to change personal details like name, nationality, parents’ or spouse name. Applications for changes in personal details must be made under the “updation of personal particulars’ category.
OCI Cardholders who submitted late applications for updating new passport details before 1 November 2026 are not eligible for the penalty waiver.
Can OCI Cardholders travel to India with pending passport updates?
Recently, the Government of India clarified that OCI Cardholders can travel to and from India even though they delayed updating new passport details on the OCI portal. There are no travel restrictions for them while their applications for updating new passport details are under process.
