The Indian Gov. intend to resume issuing tourist visas soon to fully vaccinated travellers. The Gov. stopped issuing tourist visas in March 2020, when the nationwide lockdown was announced. As the situation improved, the relaxations made in the visa rules but it never resumed issuing tourist visas. Now the proposal is being considered as it will also open an avenue to boost the economy.
A senior MHA official confirmed to the news agency ANI that things have been formalised and a meeting has been called in the home ministry that will be chaired by the home secretary on Thursday (Sept. 16) to discuss plans to resume tourist visas.
Last year October 2020, the home ministry permitted all OCI and PIO cardholders to visit India for any purpose except on a tourist visa.
The official said that it will be done in a phased manner and as per the feasibility, it will be open to all those who are vaccinated. With this, the Centre may come up with a list of international vaccines which will be approved in India.
Before the suspension of tourist visas, around 7-8 lakh tourists used to come to India every month. Several countries have resumed issuing tourist visas, though negative RT-PCR tests remain the criteria for international travel as the proposal of a vaccine passport did not receive any unanimous support from the countries.
