My Story
India raised me. A foreign country trained me. And now a stamp on a piece of paper stands between me and home.
I left India for my education — not because I wanted to leave, but because an opportunity opened a door I had to walk through. I packed a suitcase, the taste of my mother's food, and the certainty that I would always be Indian.
Years passed. To study, to work, to stay legally in the country that had become my second home, I had to take its citizenship. It was a paperwork decision, not a change of heart. India was still where my parents lived, where my grandmother's voice waited on every phone call, where my childhood streets still knew my name.
And then I learned the cost. Because India does not allow dual citizenship, the moment I accepted that foreign passport, I stopped being a citizen of my own country. Now, when I want to visit my own home, I must apply for a visa. Stand in a queue. Pay a fee. Be allowed in — as a guest — to the country that made me.
That is what breaks my heart. Not the distance, not the paperwork — but the quiet, official reminder that the country I love no longer counts me as its own.
I am still Indian. Millions of us are. We are simply asking India to see us that way too.
This story is shared by millions of overseas Indians. What's yours?
Appeal for Dual Citizenship
To the Government of India and the Hon'ble Prime Minister,
We are overseas Indians — doctors, engineers, students, parents, entrepreneurs and professionals — who left India not out of choice, but out of circumstance. We went abroad to study, to work, to build families, and to contribute to the world. Yet in doing so, many of us were forced to surrender the one identity we hold most dear: our Indian citizenship.
Under Section 9(1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, the moment an Indian citizen voluntarily acquires foreign citizenship, Indian citizenship is automatically terminated. This law was written in a different era. Today, India is a global power with over 32 million citizens living abroad, contributing over $125 billion in remittances annually. We are not less Indian because we live elsewhere. We are India's bridge to the world.
We therefore respectfully appeal to the Government of India to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, and allow overseas Indians to hold dual citizenship. We are not asking for voting rights in multiple countries or divided loyalties. We are asking for the right to remain legally and emotionally connected to the country that made us.
- Amend Section 9(1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 to permit dual citizenship for overseas Indians.
- Replace the limited OCI framework with full dual citizenship rights, including unrestricted entry, residence, and economic participation.
- Recognise that love for India and integration abroad are not mutually exclusive.
The section of Indian law we want changed
Section 9(1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 — which automatically terminates Indian citizenship the moment a citizen voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country. As explained in the Government of India's official notice on dual citizenship, India does not currently permit dual citizenship, and OCI is only a limited workaround.
Read the official Government of India notice →Add your voice
Tell us why you left — and tell India you still belong. Every signature is a line in a letter we are writing together.
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