Is it a good idea to apply for British Citizenship while surrendering your Indian nationality and having an OCI card?

Apart from the good comments from Shefaly Yogendra, I would like to add that you need to list the benefits of a UK passport against the benefits of retaining your Indian one. You have already identified what some, including me, may consider the most important benefit of a UK citizenship; the ease of travelling to many countries across the globe with minimal visa hassels. You should aslo check what benefits you may be entitled to as a British citizen, such as pension, medical benefits, and the ability to pass on the status to your children. By giving up your indian citizenship you will not be able to vote in India, you cannot file a RTI application, cannot have a subsidised lpg ( cooking gas) connection in your name. If you wish to reapply for Indian citizenship later you can do so after a year of living in India, on the basis of your earlier Indian passport. Those are the facts, my opinion is that if you are benefiting from the British citizenship you should take it. Hopefully 10 - 15 years down the line India will move to a full dual citizenship arrangement and we can then hold citizenship of both countries. I waited for 20 years for the OCI, though it entailed painful visits to the FRRO for registration and visa costs, and am today glad I did it. Do check what TYPE of citizenship you would be getting, There are more than one.

It all sounds great, I had American n British passport but I just gave back my British passport . They sre c all the v same. U can get any visa it's only a matter of a few days. I wish I could get an Indian pass port. My mother is Indian my father an Iranian I was born in India but cannot get an Indian passport. Saddddd......

I am a naturalised Australian citizen and previously held Indian passport. There is a practical and emotional side of changing your citizenship. I’ll mainly address the practical side of things.Others have already commented on what you can do and what you cannot do with the OCI. In your situation, if you are not interested in either ‘working for the government’ or ‘farming’ or ‘voting’, then surrendering your Indian passport will not cause any inconvenience in India.When you become a naturalised citizen of another country, you are bound by certain laws of your adopted country, which are not applicable to permanent residents. In Australia every citizen must vote in an every election (YES!! It’s compulsory) and must serve a Jury Duty, when called for. You may not like many such laws. I’m not sure about the conscription laws of the UK.In general permanent residency VISA is not lifelong. If you come to India, you may not be able to go back to the UK later. Australian permanent residency VISA is generally lifelong but re-issued every five years. As a permanent resident, the Australian government expects you will show significant commitment to the Australian community and you must prove that you were in Australia for at least 3 of the 5 years prior to renewal. If you don’t stay in Australia for 3 years in the past 5 years, your permanent residency VISA will not be re-issued (there are exceptions though).The biggest advantage of staying in India with a foreign passport (and an OCI) is you can always go back to the UK if you feel like or if you are forced to (war/ rioting/ persecution/internal conflict). Australian law allows me to register my children as ‘Australian by Descent’ and get Australian passports (and OCI). When they come to age, they can choose to do whatever they feel like. Your children as OCI will be treated on parity with citizens in terms of educational opportunities (IIT’s, Medical schools etc.).I cannot comment on the emotional aspect, since every person will be affected in their own unique way, some cry and some are simply too happy to give it up.Hence my take on this matter:1. Take the British passport if you want to come back to India (on an OCI). 2. Take British citizenship if you have to travel a lot. I took up Australian citizenship, simply because I had to travel a fair bit for one of my projects to Europe and Japan, South Korea, etc. It was getting annoying to get a VISA for every small little country. With my Australian passport, I just check the visa rules, hop onto the plane and go where I want to. I have also started working on defence projects, which requires me to be a citizen.NOTE: My view of being able to take refuge in case of problems (war/ rioting/ persecution/internal conflict) is partially influenced by my grandparents (and their stories). During partition, they decided to stay in East Pakistan (Bangladesh), however the 1965 war changed things terribly for them. They made it to India (some of their children didn’t). He was smart, had his paper work (Pakistani passports and Indian VISA’s) ready. Other villagers who didn’t have the paperwork ended up like this:

This is a country where your born,did subsidized education ,learn everything nd when it come to repay to your nation you flew just because you want to serve western country with few extra moneys ..??Remember 'Living in 3rd class country as 1st class citizen is far better than living in 1st class country as 3rd class citizen'  Since I lived in UK also so I hope you and many NRI knew what is the meaning of this statement :)Note : I am also working here as PhD so I have already decided I will move to India because current situation of India is very good and in future it is going to better so don't think about just about money think about what you will get just by being in India for example compare the UK healthcare with India healthcare you will find Indian healthcare is far far better than UK healthcare...  likewise we have many advantages...  :)