Currently, India has restored valid e-tourist visas issued for five years to the citizens of 156 countries and regular paper tourist visas to nationals of all the countries with an immediate effect, two years after suspension due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
On Tuesday, 15th March, the order has been issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that it has considered the need for travel and visa restrictions by keeping in view the improvement of the COVID-19 situation in India. Similarly, officials said that the old duration of 10 years regular tourist visa given to nationals of the US and Japan has also been restored and the new ones will be issued with immediate effect, said by the ministry.
The government has decided that all e-tourist visas issued for five years, suspended since March’2020 shall stand restored to the nationals of 156 countries told PTI. As per the Visa Manual, 2019, nationals of these 156 countries will also be eligible for the issuance of fresh e-tourist visas.
For the first time in 18 months, the tourist visas were opened from 15th November last year but only travel in chartered flights.
Many states have been written to MHA to allow tourists to enter India once again through regular international flights as the tourism sector gets affected. The decision has been taken after the discussion with the ministries of civil aviation, external affairs, tourism, health, and the state government as the COVID-19 cases in the country is below 3,000 per day.
After that, it has been shared with the Indian embassies said that the foreign nationals on tourist or India e-tourist visa may enter India only through designated Sea Immigration Check Posts (IPs) or Airport ICPs by flights, including those under Vande Bharat mission or ‘air bubble’ scheme or by any other flights as allowed by the DGCA or Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The government has been decided to allow regular international flights from 27 March. The scheduled international flights have been remained suspended in India since 23 March’2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In no case, it is said that foreign nationals will be allowed to enter the country through the land border or riverine routes on tourist visas. A separate order has been issued soon for the opening of land borders.
This order was not applied to Afghanistan nationals by the government, who will continue to be governed separately through e-Emergency X-Misc visa, an official saying by PTI.
All the categories of visas are now allowed to travel to India, officially said by MHA.
