Marrying foreign national

Adv. Vaidya ji, that is not what he asked. 

Adv. Kumar ji, pls visit the website of the Indian Consulate which is located nearest to the place of residence of the foreigner in question. All Indian Consulates have their own websites. On the corresponding Indian Consulate’s website, research on acquiring a status called Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI). With OCI status, she will have a life-long visa and she will not need to register with the police to extend her stay. She will be eligible to have an Adhaar Card and a PAN card but no voter card. OCI offers a lot of other rights which almost equals the rights of an Indian citizen. If she is of Indian ancestry, she should be eligible to apply for OCI at this very moment. If she is not of Indian ancestry, she will be eligible for OCI two years after her marriage to her Indian husband. While she waits for her marriage to be two years old, she can live in India, if she wants, by applying through other types of visas: short term visas, of around one year validity, r given out relatively easy by the Indian Consulate without much hassle and once she is in India, she can approach a Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) for visa extension. An OCI application too can be submitted at FRRO.

No matter what, she will not be eligible for OCI if she is from a land grabbing country whose citizens, intentionally or otherwise, have the propensity to reside along the Indian side of the border. The Indian government recently had to give away a huge piece of land to Bangladesh due to this issue.

There used to be a scheme called PIO and it is now wisely discontinued by the Indian government as OCI was always a better option for the applicant.

Indian citizenship can be applied after 7 years of living in India but I would not recommend that u recommend to any of ur clients to give up their foreign citizenship. The Indian government has not much to offer to its citizens. So unless the home country is poorer than India, it’s strongly inadvisable to acquire Indian citizenship.

If u r wondering why the Indian government does not have a spelled out scheme for a Permanent Residence, then, think whether this country has the need to add anymore residents to its already overgrown population. I mean India is giving away considerable pieces of land to other countries because India does not want the residents who r inhabiting that land (It’s either that or India did not want residents who had their allegiance somewhere else or perhaps India did not want residents of a certain religion). Regardless, India hates foreign permanent residents unless they r the citizens of first world countries, the kind of people who give a boost to the economy. But how many citizens of the first world countries would like to reside permanently in India? So Indian government does not have a need for a proper scheme for permanent residence. The only reason OCI exists is due to foreigners of Indian origin who made a lot of noise because they got tired of suffering from the harassment at the hands of Indian Consulate every time they needed a visa to visit India. 

Very well explained and advised by "Compelled to Learn Law", I appreciate.