The central government has taken a major step to simplify visa issuance. Now, if all documents are submitted correctly, an Indian visa can be issued within just one day.
Along with this change, two new portals have been launched:
District Police Module (DPM)
Foreigner Identification Portal (FIP)
These portals will help strengthen monitoring of illegal migrants and foreigners who overstay their visas.
Visa Process Simplification and Immigration Modernisation
Union Minister of State for Home, B. Sanjay Kumar, recently held a review meeting with senior officials of the Foreigners Division. The meeting focused on simplifying visa policies, modernising immigration check posts, and related issues.
Key updates include:
Main visa categories reduced from 26 to 22
Sub-categories reduced from 104 to 69
Visa processing time reduced from several weeks to less than a day
For smoother travel, immigration checkpoints now have automatic travel document scanning and biometric enrollment facilities. The number of Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) has increased from 82 in 2014 to 114.
Faster Immigration Through Trusted Traveller Programme
The Trusted Traveller Programme is being implemented at major airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi,
and Ahmedabad. Pre-verified passengers can complete immigration clearance in just one minute.
This facility will soon be available at Kozhikode, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Amritsar, Tiruchirapalli, Noida, and Navi Mumbai airports.
So far, around 50 lakh Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards have been issued. The OCI portal has also been upgraded to offer more convenient services.
