Tourists, andand businesspeople can now travel to India and stay up to one-year on E-visa, the Indian High Commission in New Zealand announced today.
This is a marked departure from the current requirement where a traveller can get a visa for a maximum of 60 days, with visa expiring soon after that time-period.
Now E-Tourist visa holders can stay in India to a maximum of 90 days in each visit, and E-Business visa holders’ stay not exceeding 180 days without the requirement of registration with Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).
The E-visa was scheme launched in November 2014 with 43 countries and is now open to foreign tourists of 166 countries who are increasingly taking the e-visa route due to its convenience.
The E-visa scheme will now be able to grant up to one year stay in India for travellers with multiple entries.
If the person on E-Business visa intends to stay more than 180 days in any visit, or on aggregate in a calendar year, the visitor will have to register with the nearest FRRO within two weeks of the expiry of 180 days of his/her arrival in India.
Similarly, a visitor must register with FRRO if aggregate stay in a calendar year exceeds 180 days.
According to official figures, a total of 20,61,511 (a little over two million) tourists arrived on e-visa from January to November in 2018 as compared to 14,56,615 (1.4 million) in the corresponding period in 2017, registering a growth of 41.5%.
The Indian e-visa is available in five categories, tourist, business, medical, conference and medical attendant.
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