Experiences · Paperwork & admin
OCI card after becoming Belgian: the document checklist for adults and children
Asha MenonCommunity desk
Brussels · Belgium · April 30, 2025 · 5 min read
Once you are Belgian, the OCI card is the lifelong visa that saves you from applying for an Indian visa before every trip home. The form is online, but the decision rests on a paper file you hand over in person in Ixelles — one appointment per family member, with papers from your commune and the surrender certificate for the Indian passport you gave up.
At a glance
Who this is for
India does not allow dual citizenship, so taking Belgian nationality ends your Indian citizenship, and the Indian passport has to be surrendered. The OCI card (Overseas Citizen of India) is what you get back: a multiple-entry visa for life, no police registration in India however long you stay, and the same standing as a non-resident Indian in most economic and educational matters. It does not give you a vote or an Indian passport.
This checklist is for adults and children who are now Belgian and applying for a first OCI card at the Embassy of India in Brussels, which takes applications only from residents of Belgium and Luxembourg. A foreign spouse of an Indian-origin person follows a different list and needs approval from New Delhi, so the 60-day timeline does not apply to them.
The surrender certificate comes first. A copy of it goes in every OCI file, and only the embassy issues it. If you have not surrendered your Indian passport yet, that is your first appointment: apply on the Indian passport portal, then take your last Indian passport, your Belgian passport, three 5×5 cm photos, your Belgian identity card and the certificate from your commune showing the exact date you became Belgian.
Step 1: the online form
Create an account on ociservices.gov.in and fill in one application per person. While you are in the form, upload the scans it asks for: for an adult, the current Belgian passport and the cancelled Indian passport; for a child, also the birth certificate (under “Relationship Certificate”) and the parents’ Indian passports or OCI cards.
Then print the form, sign it, paste a 5×5 cm photo with a light background where it asks, and note the reference number. One signed copy goes to the embassy; keep a copy yourself.
Step 2: the paper file
Bring copies of everything, and the originals to show at the counter. The copies are what the embassy keeps.
| Document | Adult | Child |
|---|---|---|
| Printed OCI form, signed, photo pasted on | Yes | Yes |
| Belgian passport (copy) | Yes | Yes |
| Belgian identity card (copy) | Yes | Yes |
| Cancelled Indian passport (copy) | Yes | Yes, or an embassy affidavit if they never had one |
| Surrender (renunciation) certificate (copy) | Yes | Yes |
| Family composition certificate from your commune | Yes | Yes |
| Birth certificate (copy) | — | Indian, or from the Belgian commune if born here |
| Parents’ marriage certificate (copy) | — | In English, apostilled |
| Both parents’ passports (or OCI cards) and residence cards (copies) | — | Yes |
The family composition certificate is the composition de ménage or samenstelling van het gezin your commune issues. A child who never held an Indian passport needs a sworn affidavit saying so instead, and the embassy issues that as a separate consular service, so book it too.
Two things get a file rejected, and the fee is not refunded
The embassy warns that an application is liable to be rejected if the scans are not uploaded in the online form, even when you bring paper copies. For a child, the parents’ marriage certificate has to be in English and apostilled by the foreign ministry of the country that issued it. For an Indian certificate, that is the apostille of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, so start on it before you book. The apostille guide covers how.
Step 3: the appointment
Book on the embassy’s appointment page. Appointments open two months ahead, and each one covers one applicant, so a family of four books four. Files are handed in between 10:00 and 12:30 on working days at Chaussée de Vleurgat 217 in Ixelles. Bring the confirmation email, and fill in the embassy’s checklist for the service before you come.
Every applicant hands in their own file in person. Everyone aged 12 to 70 also gives fingerprints and a facial photo at the counter; children under 12 and people over 70 are exempt from that part.
There is no card to collect any more. The physical OCI booklet has been replaced by the e-OCI, which you download from the OCI portal once it is granted. Holders of an older card can download theirs too. Travel with your Belgian passport and the OCI.
Fees and waiting
- €254 for a new OCI: €251 plus €3 for the Indian Community Welfare Fund, per application. It is not refunded if the card is refused.
- About 60 working days once the file is complete, if nothing adverse turns up. Where something does, a decision can take up to four months.
- Track it on the OCI portal’s status page, or call the embassy’s OCI line between 10:00 and 12:00.
- A new Belgian passport later means an OCI update, which is a miscellaneous service at €26 and takes about 20 working days.
First shared on the old Namaste Belgium site as a community checklist in April 2025, and checked against the embassy’s OCI page in October 2026. Fees, the document list and the appointment rules change, so read that page before you book. See also the guide to the Indian Embassy in Brussels and the Indians in Belgium guide.
From our desk, not official advice
Written by the Namaste Community desk under our standing byline, from the questions this community asks most often — not a single person's own account. Rules change and offices differ — check anything that matters with the people who decide it.
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