India starts visa-on-arrival for 5 countries

New Delhi: -- India Friday started tourist visa-on-arrival facility for five countries on an “experimental basis” for a period of one year, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

“The said ‘tourist visa-on-arrival’ with a maximum validity of 30 days with single entry facility shall be granted by the immigration officers at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata airports to start with,” said a press statement issued by the ministry.

It said that the tourist visa-on-arrival is to “facilitate bonafide foreign tourists who plan their tours at a short notice”. The five countries chosen for the “experiment” are Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore.

“The grant of a ‘tourist visa-on-arrival’ shall be regulated as per the guidelines prescribed in the visa manual,” said the press release

It added that the scheme had been launched from Jan 1, 2010.

The decision to start visa-on-arrival comes after much criticism over India tightening its visa guidelines.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had in November announced new guidelines for holders of multiple-entry long-term tourist visas, according to which there had to be a mandatory two-month gap between any two visits to India.

There had been protests from some foreign governments, notably the US and Britain, claiming that this rule was being implemented arbitrarily.

The Ministry of External Affairs later said that Indian missions and immigration officers have been told to be more flexible in implementing this rule, if the tourists can show documents of further travel, like air tickets.

Read more: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncate...l#ixzz0bNzeB2AC

-- IANS/thaindian.com 2010-01-01

"Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore"

they have chosen miniscule countries, so not much benefit to tourism.

Instead, as thailand did, should be welcoming to the most travelled passports.

instead of quing in the consulates and embassies around the world, tourists will come to thailand, malaysia or the other, easier borders.

looks like window dressing on the part of an indian government - but they know what they are doing

it's not for americans, so it was your only choice.

in the statement it doesn't say, that visa on arrival is free - it well might be payed one (like in thailand for all the countries 15 days and 1k baht, exept 41 passports for 30 days free entry stamp), still, getting a visa on arrival is much more covenient than travelling to the consulate

India hat the visa-on-arrival scheme (90 days) for a number of countries till 1981/82 and then abandoned it as a reciprocal action when most of these countries made visas for indian citizens mandatory. i still remember arriving in Delhi, was asked for a visa and answered "vhat visa? me a Tchermann, alvays get 90 days!" then after a lengthy interview in the office of the immigration supervisor -which made me one Montblanc ballpoint pen poorer- where i asked for just 14 days i was told "i can't give you neither 14 nor 90 days. i will give you 89 days."

"Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore"

That's a queer list of countries there. Sounds like they are taking the piss on this change.

"Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore"

That's a queer list of countries there. Sounds like they are taking the piss on this change.

It's supposed to be an 'experimental' change. Perhaps they want to keep the numbers involved low in case they have problems - but it sounds more like a reversion than new territory for India.

I love the people who complain about Thailands Visa policy,it is obvious they have never travelled to India.