Tag Archives: Tourist Visa

In a reciprocal reaction, the Indian government has withdrawn the e-visa facility for the citizens of Canada and the United Kingdom. According to a senior Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official, post-Covid, UK and Canada have posed a lot of restrictions over the entry of Indian nationals in their country and many times, travellers have to face inconvenience despite several requests were made to the concerned embassies to take up and matter and resolve it. “The e-visa facility to UK and Canada citizens have been withdrawn from the first week of August this year. Now, they have to apply for a regular sticker visa at the Indian embassy. Tourist visa is already suspended and people visiting India under other categories of visa now have to apply for regular sticker visas,” said the official. Earlier, the e-visa facility was denied to Chinese nationals following the Galwan Valley incident in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in violent clashes with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel in June last year.

In response to suggestions requested from tourism stakeholders to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) recently issued for restoration of tourist visa, the trade has recommended that Conference Visa may also be restored along with the tourist visa for supporting the M!CE market, and that SOPs be customised for the same.

The Government of India has liberalised its visa policy for Thai nationals. It has decided to grant five-year multiple entry Tourist Visa and five-year multiple entry Business visa to Thai nationals with immediate effect with continuous stay of 90 days during each visit. It has also started Express visa service where visa will be issued by next working day. Separate Immigration counters and facilitation desks will be provided for Medical Visa. This service will initially be available at international airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. India has also relaxed the minimum salary limit and fixed at Rs 9.10 lakhs per anum for Employment visa to those Thai nationals who will be engaged at teaching faculty in the IITs, Central Universities, NITs etc. Foreign teaching faculty employed at South Asian University and Nalanda University will be exempted from minimum salary limit for the purpose of employment visa. Indian Embassy will grant Intern Visa to Thai nationals to pursue internship in Indian companies, educational Institutions and NGOs up to a maximum of 50 interns per year. Indian Embassy will also encourage Thai nationals to shoot feature film in excellent Indian locations and they will be provided Film Visa.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has taken a decision to include short term yoga programmes in Tourist Visa and e-Tourist Visa (eTV). Realising the importance of yoga world over, the government has decided to include ‘attending a short term yoga programme’ in the list of permissible activities under Tourist Visa. Besides, the government has decided to include ‘attending a short term yoga programme’ and ‘short duration medical treatment under Indian systems of medicine’ in the list of permissible activities under eTV. Presently, a Tourist Visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sightseeing and casual visit to meet friends or relatives and e-Tourist Visa (eTV) is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sightseeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit. All Indian Mission abroad and Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRROs)/ Foreigners Registration Officers (FROs) in the country have been requested to take action as per above amendments.