In limbo – ID card hits Indian expats in the pocket

“Two or three other vendors also told me the same thing. I was staying with my relatives, so the next day, thankfully one of them came down and I managed to get a number, but there may be others who are not so lucky,” she added.

Another resident tried to access banking services in India, but he was denied on the grounds of not having an Aadhaar card.

But banks still ask for it as a form of ID, despite most bank forms only listing the card as optional.

“I wanted to avail of certain banking services for which I had travelled to India, but the staff there insisted that I produce the Aadhaar card for them,”

he revealed.

“When I told them that as an NRI, I wasn’t eligible for a card, they very told me they couldn’t help me if that was the case.

“I even raised this with the bank manager, but he seemed more interested in actually following procedures by the book than actually helping his customers,” added the resident.“These are basic services that should be given to everyone, but the banks refused to help us.”

we reached out to the Indian Embassy in Oman for clarification.

“It is not really the responsibility of an individual to remind the companies of the non-eligibility of Aadhaar cards for services in India, but since this seems to be the case for many people, we would advise people to take with them a copy of the government circular which says that NRIs are not eligible for Aadhaar cards,” said an embassy representative.

“This is of course not ideal, but there seems to be no other alternative when services are not provided to people, so I’d ask them to show this circular to service providers in India,” he said.

The circular, issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), says that NRIs, Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are not eligible for Aadhaar cards, unless they’ve spent 182 consecutive days in India.

“Most of the NRIs/PIOs/OCIs may not be eligible for Aadhaar enrolment as per the Aadhaar Act, 2016,” said Dr Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of UIDAI.

“If an Aadhaar number is not assigned to an individual, the individual shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification for delivery of subsidy, benefit or service.

“Aadhaar as an identity document may be sought only from those who are eligible for it as per the Aadhaar Act, 2016, and most of the NRIs/PIOs/OCIs may not be eligible for Aadhaar enrolment as per the Aadhaar Act, 2016,” he added.