To attract more tourists, the Union government on Friday has decided to implement a Visa on Arrival scheme for the citizens of five countries— Japan, Singapore, Finland, New Zealand and Luxembourg. The facility is launched on an experimental basis for a year.
The tourists from these countries could also procure their visas from the diplomatic missions/posts in the normal course.
The “tourist visa-on-arrival”, with a maximum validity of 30 days with single-entry facility to begin with, will be granted by the Immigration Officers at the airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
The move comes at a time when visa norms in the country are being tightened. This is the first time the country has decided to relax rules to permit visitors to get their passports stamped at Indian airports for entry.
Addressing a meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs Home Minister P Chidambaram said the present number of about five million visitors every year was too small and a large country like India should have at least 50 million visitors.
The tourist traffic needs to boosted. This will be possible through various measures including streamlining of visa and immigration procedures and extending them better service, he said.
The Home Minister said the Foreigners' Division of the Home Ministry, which deals with visa issues, will be revamped through the use of information and communication technology.
The official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said: “The [rule of] gap of two months between two visas would apply to all tourist visa holders.”
However, the restriction of two-month gap will not apply to PIO (Persons of Indian origin) or OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card-holders and foreigners holding business, employment, student and other categories of visa.
Incidentally, India has already introduced long-term multiple entry visas for 18 countries including France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, Chile, Vietnam, and Japan.
Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Thailand issue visa on arrival for most nationalities including Indians. Malaysia also used to issue visa on arrival for Indians, but stopped it recently because there were complaints of Indians overstaying.
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