NEW DELHI: Pakistani singer Adnan Sami ’s more-than-decade-long quest for Indian citizenship ended on Thursday with the Indian government gifting him a new nationality from the New Year.Sami, who shot to fame with several solo albums and Bollywood hits in the last decade, had first applied for Indian citizenship in 2004. He had made a fresh representation to the home ministry on May 26 this year requesting his stay in India on humanitarian grounds. The last visa extension was granted in October 6 and sources in the government had since indicated that he would be granted citizenship.An elated Sami told TOI he was on his way to Delhi. He is likely to visit the ministry of home affairs on Friday to complete formalities. The 46-year-old said as an artiste, he loves “Indian culture, the vibes Mumbai has and its beautiful loving people who have embraced me with love and who I feel are my own”. He lives with his wife Roya in Andheri, at Lokhandwala.Sami’s hits, including ‘Lift Karaa De’, a music video starring Govinda, were a sensation in the early 2000s. He climbed the charts again this year with his song ‘Bhar Do Jholi meri’ in Salman Khan-starrer ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’.Born in Lahore, Sami first arrived in India on March 13, 2001 on a visitor’s visa. His Pakistani passport issued on May 27, 2010 expired on May 26, 2015 and his passport was not renewed by the Pakistan government which led him to approach the Indian government with a request to legalise his stay in India on humanitarian grounds.But Sami’s original citizenship application dates to the Vajpayee government’s tenure. His three-month visa, with mandatory reporting to the FRRO for each extension, was then relaxed to six months and later a year’s duration.But the singer wanted Indian citizenship as it would help his soaring career; the requirement was a five-year stay in India. His father, a former Pakistani air force pilot and later a diplomat, lived with him and died in 2009 in Mumbai. Advocate Sujay Kantawala, one of his legal advisers in the citizenship, said the proceedings were pending for years before the home ministry.In 2012, the Bombay high court had granted Adnan divorce from his previous wife, Sabah Galadari, a UAE national, while allowing other issues to be pursued before the family court. The family court later directed Sami to also pay Sabah Rs 5.3 crore towards the money she claimed she gave him in 2007-08 and Rs 1 crore as compensation for domestic violence, Rs 10 lakh as a belated meher amount and Rs 1 lakh for litigation. Sami later challenged the family court order in the high court as “illegal, erroneous and misdirected’’.As per the data of home ministry, 3,753 Pakistani nationals were given long-term visas over 2013 and 2014 (up to June 30) and 1,854 granted citizenship between 2011 and 2014.Recently, India also accorded citizenship to 14,864 people who were living in the enclaves on the Bangladeshi side, as part of a land boundary agreement signed by the Narendra Modi government with Bangladesh.