After two years, India restores tourist visas for all countries
GBnews24desk//
Two years after international travel was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Union government has decided to restore all categories of tourist visas for foreign nationals and also issue fresh visas with immediate effect.
The government has already decided to allow regular international flight operations, which were suspended since March 23, 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, from March 27.
An order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday (March 15) said it has considered the need for further relaxation of visa and travel restrictions keeping in view the improvement in the Covid-19 situation in India.
“Currently valid e-tourist visas issued for five years shall stand restored to nationals of 156 countries with immediate effect,” the ministry said.
Fresh five-year e-tourist visas to nationals of these 156 countries will also be issued, it added.
“The regular paper tourist visa, which has a validity of five years and is issued to nationals of all the countries, has also been restored. Similarly, the long duration (10-year) regular tourist visa to the citizens of the United States and Japan has also been restored and new ones will be issued with immediate effect.”
All these visas were suspended in March 2020, when regular international flights were stopped after the outbreak of Covid-19.
In October 2020, India started the process of a graded relaxation in visa and travel restrictions for foreign and Indian nationals, who wanted to come to India for business, conferences, employment, studies and research –but tourist visas remained suspended.
They were opened for the first time in 18 months on November 15 last year, but only for travel in chartered flights.
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