Indian tourist visas for all countries restored after 2 years

After nearly two years, India has decided to restore all categories of tourist visas for international travellers from March 15, 2022. The government of India will now provide e-tourist visas to the nationals of 156 countries as per existing rules.

Foreign nationals who have a tourist/e-tourist visa will be granted entry to India only through designated Seaports or Airport ICPs by flights (including those under the ‘air bubbles’ scheme or ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ and other flights).

India will allow regular international flight operations starting March 27, 2022. However, foreign nationals will not be authorised to enter the country through land borders or riverine routes on a tourist visa/e-visa. The rules for the opening of the land borders will be issued in due course.

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The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in India stated fresh five-year e-tourist visas will now be issued to foreign nationals of 156 countries with immediate effect. In addition, long-duration 10-year tourist visas to the citizens of the US and Japan have also been restored.

India had earlier suspended tourist visas in March 2020 due to the risks related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Tourist visas were later issued from Nov 15 last year but only for travel by chartered flights. The latest directives have been furnished after taking into consideration the decline in Covid-19 infection rates in the country, which has dipped to below 3,000 cases per day.

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This article was first published in Wego.