Category Archives: Visa

The British High Commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, announced on Twitter that UK has started issuing priority and super priority visas to students from India. “There is a high demand and we recommend you apply for your visa as early as possible with the required documentation,” he said. 

In an effort to boost the tourism industry amid the economic crisis, the Sri Lankan government on Tuesday said the island nation has extended its multiple-entry tourist visa to five years Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said that Sri Lanka now offers one-year multiple entry visas, reports Xinhua news agency. The country also issues single entry visas with a six-month stay period. Fernandor said that the cabinet of ministers approved his proposal on Monday. “Cabinet agreed to extend five-year multiple-entry tourist visas for 35 countries to help boost repeat tourism in Sri Lanka. A tourist can stay in Sri Lanka for six months in one stretch with this scheme,” he said. The Minister said that the country had earlier offered a three-month “digital nomad” visa for tourists to attract foreigners engaged in remote work. The Minister said that tourism picked up in July and August after the anti-government protests gradually fizzled. He added that they expect 1 million tourists to arrive in Sri Lanka in 2022. “We expect $2 billion from tourism this year,” he said. –IANS

According to the latest UK Immigration Statistics, Indian nationals accounted for the highest proportion (28%) of Visitor visas granted. More than 258,000 Indian nationals received visit visas in the year ending June 2022 – a 630% increase compared to the previous year.

The US embassy has revealed that due to a backlog of applications, Indians will have to wait until 2024 to successfully book a visitor visa appointment. The US State Department website reveals the average waiting for a visa appointment in the US consulate at New Delhi is 522 days for visitor visas and 471 days for student visas. In Mumbai, it is 517 days and 10 days respectively.

Speaking about the current visa delays, Ajay Prakash, TAFI President, says, “Business has been hampered by the current visa challenges for almost every country. It is easier to look at an Asian destination. So while the Indian travel trade and the traveller is suffering, the destination is also suffering. So it is in everyone’s interest to get this back on track.”

Russia has introduced a universal single-entry electronic visa for 52 countries, including India that will simplify the process of obtaining a permit, allowing a foreign citizen to stay in Russia for up to 16 days in a period of up to 60 calendar days. In order to apply for an electronic visa, a tourist will only need to fill out an online application, which will be reviewed by the Foreign Ministry within four days.

Atlys, a new travel app, condenses the visa application process to just a few minutes. Travelers can now use Atlys to get visas to travel freely to 232 countries and territories. The app starts its simplified process with a few easy questions. Once answered the app processes all the paperwork, payments, and other required documents for international travelers to 232 countries and territories. 

Malaysia has announced Visa on Arrival (VOA) to Indian Travellers. However, this opportunity can be availed only if the traveller is arriving from selected entryways like Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, or Indonesia.    

In a major development Central Asian nation Kyrgyzstan, officially known as Kyrgyz Republic, has appointed Salvia Visa Facilitation Services (Salvia VFS) as the India partner to process Visa applications of Indian travellers to the country. The new Visa Processing Centre was inaugurated by Kyrgyzstan’s ambassador to India, Asein Isaev along with the announcement of the appointment of Salvia VFS as the Indian office to process Kyrgyz Visa applications of Indian travellers seeking to visit Kyrgyzstan. Salvia will initially roll out the Visa facilitation services in Delhi. Commenting on the latest development, H.E. Isaev said, “Kyrgyzstan and India have shared history and culture spanning over a thousand years. The appointment of Salvia as a Visa facilitation centre is not only aimed at bringing greater ease and convenience to Indian travellers to apply for Kyrgyz Visa, but also improving services and facilities for the people seeking to visit our beautiful country and further strengthen our people-to-people relations that is centuries old.” Speaking on the occasion, Prashant Chaudhary, Managing Director, Salvia VFS said, “It is our proud privilege to extend Visa facilitation services on behalf of Kyrgyz Embassy in India. Salvia, as a brand, has been a trusted travel partner of Kyrgyzstan in India for decades, facilitating travel of Indian visitors to the beautiful country for a long time. As Kyrgyzstan’s Visa Facilitation Centre in India, our responsibility will be to efficiently, and in minimal time, process Visa application requests, while the issuance of Visa will be the sole discretion of the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan in India.”

VFS Global is organising a webinar for the travel trade today from 11am-12pm IST. The online session will give updates on VFS Global’s operations, latest visa guidelines for the summer travel season and all the convenient services on offer. Register for this informative webinar on https://event.webinarjam.com/register/394/xyo1rbr1 and hear senior executives from VFS Global speak about their services, solutions and what’s new.