Category Archives: Visa

India may soon roll out a long-term multiple-entry comprehensive visa by merging tourist, business, medical and conference visas into one to attract more visitors and boost trade. Tourists, businessmen or people coming for treatment or to attend conferences or even for film shoots can be covered under the proposed new category, which was first mooted by the commerce ministry following a suggestion by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to boost services trade. The long-term, multiple-entry visa is likely to be given up to 10 years but under this category the visitor will not be allowed to work or stay permanently, a government official, who is part of the deliberations, said. As per the proposal, if a foreigner is granted long-term, multiple-entry non-working or non-permanent stay visa and his or her stay is restricted to 60 days on a visit, the government may waive the visa fee as well. However, the visitors have to give biometric details and fulfill certain security obligations, the official said. The home ministry is working on the proposal and, hopefully, it will be implemented soon, the official said. The plan is part of the commerce ministry’s initiatives to boost India’s services trade. Source: PTI

Tunisia is offering Visa on Arrival for Indians who are travelling in a group of at least 20 people, it was revealed at a small interactive session on Tunisia by Embassy of Tunisia and BTC Travel Group. Addressing a gathering of travel agents and media, Tarek Azouz, Ambassador, Tunisia to India, said, “We have introduced visa on arrival facility for groups. If a travel agent has a group of 20 people, they can send prior information to the embassy and they can get visa at the immigration counter.” Tushar Jain, Group Managing Director, BTC Group, said that Tunisia is trying to attract mice groups from India. “Travel agents can easily apply visa for a group of minimum 20 people. They just need to produce their hotel voucher at the immigration counter and get visa on arrival.”

To promote Buddhist Circuit and attract more tourists from Thailand, the Government of India will soon facilitate a double entry e-tourist visa (eTV) for Thai visitors, revealed PM Narendra Modi while addressing the Thai Prime Minister, Chan-o-cha, and other senior Thai delegates’ visit to India. About 10 lakh Indian tourists visit Thailand every year while about one lakh tourists from Thailand come to India, he said. He also announced that to commemorate 70 years of establishment of diplomatic relations, the Festival of India will be held in Thailand and India will celebrate the Festival of Thailand next year.

Due to changes in the Service Tax structure, VFS service fees and VAS service charges for Australia Visa Application will be revised with effect from June 1, 2016.The revised primary applicant fee is Rs. 1006 (from earlier Rs. 966) and additional applicant fee is Rs. 714 (from earlier Rs. 676) . Charges have also been revised for Photo booth Rs. 154, Return Courier Rs. 307, ETA Assisted terminal Rs. 190, Assisted Form Filling Service Rs. 190, 2 way Courier/drop off courier Rs. 616 and Premium Lounge Rs. 2048.

VFS Global has introduced the On-Demand Mobile Visa Service for Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Slovenia visas applicants across India. Travellers can give their biometrics data and visa application in the comfort of their home or office. A well-trained and professional team from VFS Global will visit the applicant at his/her chosen location anywhere in India to collect the details. The service is ideal for corporate groups, incentive groups, on-campus students and cultural & sports groups. It is available on any day of the week, including weekends across India. VFS offers a dedicated Helpline numbers for appointment bookings and assistance. The applicant can call the country specific Helpline number to book an appointment, pay the fee online and receive confirmed appointment details, following which a team will make a visit at a location convenient to the applicant on the appointed date and time to collect biometrics and accept the application.

Australia is implementing the trial of a three-year multiple-entry visitor visa for India from July 2016. The trial, which is targeted at frequent short-term travellers to Australia, will allow entry into Australia multiple times on the same visa with each stay valid for up to three months. India is among four countries – Thailand, Vietnam and Chile – where the trial will be implemented. Welcoming the move, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, said, “Australia welcomes the tremendous interest Indians have in visiting Australia for tourism and business. With India among Australia’s nine key tourism markets, the trial will naturally drive our tourism growth from this part of the world.” The trial will make it easier for Indian visitors to make repeat visits. Travellers will not need to re-apply for visa within the three-year period, Sidhu added. The trial applies to eligible applicants within the tourist and business visitor visa streams. The announcement was made as part of the Australian Government’s 2016-17 Budget to boost Australia’s future tourism growth.

The Government of Papua New Guinea has announced Visa on Arrival for Indians travelling to Papua New Guinea. This will help boost tourism and business links between our two countries. Leaders of Papua New Guinea deeply appreciated the role played by the Indian community in the development of Papua New Guinea as well as our initiative in organizing two FIPIC Summits.

This summer Dubai Visa Processing Centre (DVPC) introduces a new offer of Rs. 4999 only for a 30 days single entry visa to Dubai. Emirates Airline passengers travelling from India can avail this new offer and enjoy the shopping, sightseeing and adventure the United Arab Emirates (UAE) offers.Over the last decade Dubai has seen tremendous growth of travellers from India, owing to the region’s wide range of attractions on offer, which caters to the varied tastes of every kind of holiday-seeker. EssaSulaiman Ahmad, Vice President – India and Nepal, Emirates Airline, said, “Emirates has always been committed to improving the convenience of its passengers by providing best-in-class services both on ground and on board. Summer in Dubai is a particularly good time to visit the city, with many activities to enjoy such as the Dubai Summer Surprises, in addition to all the many other attractions which our home and hub is renowned for. With DVPC’s offer, we aim to make the travel process even more cost effective for our passengers in India. We are very happy to partner with DVPC to offer yet another unique service that I am optimistic will assist our many Indian customers to visit Dubai with increased ease.” Adding to this, VinayMalhotra, COO – South Asia and DVPC, VFS Global said, “DVPC, in partnership with Emirates Airline, always seeks to bring its customers utmost convenience, ease and unparalleled service quality when planning their trips to Dubai. This new offering of Rs.4999 for a 30 days single-entry visa will be beneficial to all our Indian travellers, especially with the holiday season being around the corner.” All Emirates Airline passengers can avail this offer by either booking their …

Starting April 1, 2016, VFS visa application centres for Turkey will be launched in 16 Indian cities along with two more centres in Kathmandu, Nepal and Male, Maldives, to make the visa procedure even faster and smoother, announced H.E. Dr Burak Akçapar, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to India, Nepal and Maldives. He said, “The opening of these visa centres is a very important step in India taking its rightful place in the tourism world. I believe that the launch of these visa centres will contribute to the enhancement of the cooperation between Turkey and India in the fields of tourism and economy.” As an exclusive partnership, VFS Global has become the only authorised visa processing service provider in these three countries for the Govt of the Republic of Turkey. Vinay Malhotra, COO – South Asia and DVPC, VFS Global said, “We are truly privileged to partner with the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey and believe the opening of these centres in India, Nepal and the Maldives will well serve the needs of travellers keen to visit this beautiful country.” The visa centres will be launched in New Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Jalandhar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Goa, Puducherry, Kochi, Trivandrum, Chennai and Hyderabad.

From March 1, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) will expand the eligibility criteria for super-priority visas to all applicants applying for a visit or work visa. The eligibility criteria for 3-5 day priority visa will also be expanded, said UK’s Immigration Minister James Brokenshire. The new online application form will launch at the end of this month and applicants will be able to access it from www.gov.uk/apply-uk-visa. The new improvements include a shorter visa application form; questions written in English and will be translated into Hindi, Tamil and Gujarati; option to review, edit and download partially completed application at any point before submitting; application fee displayed in local currency; mobile device friendly service, to allow applications to be completed on mobile phones or tablets; assistance for separate application for a Schengen visa, with a partially auto-completed Schengen application form available to download and print. Brokenshire, who is on a 5-day visit to India, also launched a new visa application centre (VAC) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, the first in the state “India is one of the UK’s largest visa market and we continue to make improvements to the service to make it as easy as possible for our applicants to get a visa. Last year we saw a 17 per cent increase in the number of visit visas issued. We hope that this year we continue to see an increase in visitors from India and that these improvements prove useful to those applying for their visas,” said Brokenshire.