💬 Finally renewed my OCI card after 15 years

I put off my OCI renewal for years. The old sticker card sat inside the same passport for 15 years. This year I finally sat down and did it. Friends kept saying the online process was better now. They were right about the portal. Most of the form filled itself once I typed my old registration number. I felt smug for about 10 minutes, and then the passport question showed up. My passport has been reissued twice since I got the card, each time with a new number. The portal wanted something linking my current passport to the one the card was first made on. The checklist didn't make that clear, so I ended up sending scans of my 2 old expired passports. I added a short note explaining the history. Then I paid and crossed my fingers. The wait was about 10 weeks, counting courier time both ways. It felt long. I checked the status twice a week. It went from submitted to under process to dispatched. Each little change calmed me down for a day or so, then I'd check again. Everyone I asked had a different story about how long it should take, so I stopped asking. The new card looks nothing like the old one. It's a proper laminated card now, much sturdier. I keep it in the passport folder now, and I've checked twice that it's there. If your passport was reissued like mine, find the old ones before you start the application. I lost a whole afternoon digging through a filing folder. Nothing dramatic went wrong though.

10 weeks sounds reasonable to me. A cousin waited much longer, closer to 5 months, though she applied during a busy season. Her biggest headache was photos. The first set got rejected for the background, and the second for the size. After that she paid for a proper studio and had no more trouble. Maybe tell people to budget for that, since it's a small thing that eats a week.

Mine is 12 years old too and I keep saying I'll renew it. This post just pushed me. Did you have to send scans of both old passports, or just the latest one before this one? I've changed passports 3 times and one is in a drawer in Hyderabad, my brother has the key. Might be a good excuse to visit. Or I could ask him to scan it.