South African Indian PIO help

[Rajeee]

Good day all, am south African full Indian whose ancestors came down as sugar cane labourers to SA. Always been a dream of mine to one day move to India and settle with my small family permanently, really thought as Indians we would qualify for PIO but those dreams were dashed when we told we would have to trace back our roots to which ancestors came down and provide documents 😭 with no elders alive hundred years down and no paper trail for me to follow our dreams turned to dust. My question is, how in world can PIO like us whose ancestors were exploited then, with docs gone astray or lost in colonial years have any chance of being back in our motherland, is PIO cards only for the rich whose family trees are documented meticulously as they were more educated even then? Is there no hope for descendants of the poor ancestors like us that have educated ourselves wanting to go back to our roots?

Really hope the ministry of India could look into this and know the sadness of this type of criteria being so unfair to those that sweated blood in the past.

[vexpat]

if your grandparents were moved to SA from India, then you should be eligible for PIO. Of course you need documentation, or anyone could get a PIO card. Not justifying the wrongs of the Indian government, by any means.

Maybe you should go to the Indian Embassy, tell them your case, and ask how you can get official documents needed for PIO or maybe how you can get a letter that will stand in place of those documents. It may be a struggle. Best of luck.

[Rajeee]

Good day all, am south African full Indian whose ancestors came down as sugar cane labourers to SA. Always been a dream of mine to one day move to India and settle with my small family permanently, really thought as Indians we would qualify for PIO but those dreams were dashed when we told we would have to trace back our roots to which ancestors came down and provide documents 😭 with no elders alive hundred years down and no paper trail for me to follow our dreams turned to dust. My question is, how in world can PIO like us whose ancestors were exploited then, with docs gone astray or lost in colonial years have any chance of being back in our motherland, is PIO cards only for the rich whose family trees are documented meticulously as they were more educated even then? Is there no hope for descendants of the poor ancestors like us that have educated ourselves wanting to go back to our roots?

Really hope the ministry of India could look into this and know the sadness of this type of criteria being so unfair to those that sweated blood in the past.

Update... was a difficult but fulfilling and spiritual research for me but have found and traced documented ancestral roots via archives /ship lists etc.