Govt eases tourist visa restrictions

New tourist visa guidelines to be announced soon will see the existing mandatory two month gap between visits to India being done away with. Instead, a tourist with a multi-entry visa holder will now be allowed to enter India three times as rapidly as he wants to, without any questions asked. Jayanth Jacob reports.

New tourist visa guidelines to be announced soon will see the existing mandatory two month gap between visits to India being done away with.

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Instead, a tourist with a multi-entry visa holder will now be allowed to enter India three times as rapidly as he wants to, without any questions asked. After the three visits, the applicant will have to cite reasons for making a fourth trip to the country.

Citing security reasons in the wake of David Headley case, the government had tightened the tourist visa regime, insisting a two months’ gap between two visits on a tourist visa,

which had evoked adverse response from various quarters, including some foreign countries.

“The change in the tourist visa is aimed at helping genuine tourists. But measures are in place to ensure that we don’t compromise on security in many manner”, said a senior government official.