Category Archives: Visa

According to Schengen Visa Statistics 2022, Indian travellers have one of the highest rejection rates in the world when it comes to Schengen visa. It states that Indians filed over 6 lakh Schengen visa applications in 2022, which happens to be the third highest in the world, but also faced a steep rejection rate of 18 per cent.

The recently released report by Visa and EY has revealed that India is expected to receive 30.5 million international travelers for spiritual purposes by 2028. It also says that there will be a huge surge in international spiritual tourism into India to complement domestic spiritual travel, which is estimated to be 60 percent of the total domestic travel in India.

According to a recent update from the US department of state, US visa costs will rise from next month as processing fees for certain categories rise. “The hike – ranging from $15 to $110 – will come into effect from May 30 and apply to tourist or business as well as student and exchange visitor visas,” revealed an official document. “The fee for visitor visas for business or tourism (B1/B2), and other non-petition based NIVs such as student and exchange visitor visas, will increase from $160 to $185,” stated the document.

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Maitri Visa and Travel Service (MVTS) is one of India’s premier travel agencies based in Delhi that offers a range of services to its clients. On Friday, February 10th, 2023, MVTS hosted a Dinner & Cocktail Party with celebrity live performances at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Greater Noida. Parvesh Dhull, Managing Director of Maitri Visa and Travel Service and Holidays by Maitri, established the visa operation in 2006 with a focus on Dubai. Holidays by Maitri, a relatively new company founded in 2022, specializes in MICE. According to Dhull, Maitri is a leading visa company. The purpose of the gala dinner was to bring together leading Indian travel agents and to showcase performances by major Haryanvi stars. MVTS expressed gratitude towards the media partners and travel agents for their support in 2022, which was a remarkable year for the company. The travel industry saw significant growth in 2022, increasing by approximately 60%, and it is expected to continue its upward trend in 2023.  

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath launched a new global gateway for the state with the inauguration of the first VFS Global Joint Visa Application Centre (JVAC) and the VFS Global Academy in Lucknow. This spacious and comfortable facility equipped with modern amenities and services will have the capacity of processing approximately 1.2 lakh applications a year and will be of immense benefit to the citizens of Uttar Pradesh, who till now had to travel to other cities like New Delhi to submit their visa applications. 

flynas, the Saudi air carrier, announced that its passengers can apply for an electronic Stopover Visa through its website. The “Stopover Visa” is issued after purchasing the airline ticket, and the validity of the visa extends to three months and the stay in the Kingdom up to 4 days. The visa application will be passed automatically to the unified national visa platform at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to process and issue the digital visa immediately and send it to the beneficiary via e-mail. Expecting that the new service will contribute to increasing the visitors to the Kingdom, including Umrah and Pilgrim visitors, tourists, and businessmen, Bandar Almohanna, CEO and Managing Director of flynas, said, “the Saudi Vision 2030 has laid the foundations for cooperation among the regulatory and executive sectors on one hand, and with the private sector on the other hand, to serve the Kingdom’s goals in all sectors. Today, we see a practical application of this integration and cooperation by enabling the national carriers to facilitate a request for issuing a Stopover visa, which facilitates procedures of obtaining a Stopover visa for whoever wishes to visit the Kingdom”. Almohanna stressed that this service will contribute to strengthening the Kingdom’s position as a global hub for travel and business by facilitating quick business visits, making the Kingdom a point of contact between countries and continents. He indicated that the new service comes in line with the civil aviation strategy to reach 330 million passengers and link the Kingdom’s cities with 250 global destinations and 100 million tourists annually. Thousands of tourists are expected to benefit from the Stopover visa to attend the various cultural and entertainment events in …

According to an official order, those Canadian passport-holders who wish to visit India for tourism, business, medical or conference purposes, may apply for eVisa at https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html and follow instructions contained therein. Canadian passport-holders seeking to travel to India for any purpose, not qualifying for eVisa, may apply for paper visa at https://www.bisindia-canada.com/. The same process is applicable to Laissez-passer travel document holders. Those who have applied for visa through various BLS Centres in Canada are advised to wait for issuance of the same. All such applications will be processed on priority. Those applicants who wish to withdraw their respective visa applications may do so by visiting the website https://www.bisindia-canada.com/ and choosing the option for Application Withdrawal’. Those who have booked appointments to apply for tourist, business, medical or conference visa at BLS Centres in Canada and would, now, like to apply for eVisa instead, are requested to vacate/cancel their appointment siots so that the same becomes available to others seeking visa/consular services.

Vikram Doraiswami, High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, has just confirmed that the e-visa facility will again be available for UK nationals travelling to India. He said, “The big news today is we are rolling out e-visas once again. This servie will be made available to you forthwith. System upgrade is underway and the visa website will soon be ready to receive applications from friends in the UK.”  

High Commissioner of India to UK Vikram Doraiswami has laid out steps that are being taken to ramp up capacity and address the difficulty in getting an Indian visa by travellers from Britain in a video message on Twitter.