Centre relaxes e-Visa guidelines to make it tourism business visitor friendly

Chennai: The Centre’s move to further liberalise the electronic visa making it tourism and business visitor friendly will go a long way in enhancing the influx of travellers. The move has been hailed by the travel and tourism industry.

Considering the suggestions of the Union Tourism Ministry and the NITI Aayog, Ministry of Home, has further liberalised the electronic Visa regime of the country. As per the new guidelines, the entry restrictions and the duration of stay permitted under the e-Visa regime has been extended for both e-Tourist Visa and e-Business Visa holders coming into the country.

In order to make it more lucrative, the government has decided to extend the duration of stay under e-Visa to one year with multiple entry. Previously, the duration of stay permitted under both e-Tourist and e-Business Visa was 60 days with maximum two entries. While making the duration of e-Visa one year and multiple entry, the government has also made the maximum days per entry 90 days and 180 days for e-Tourist Visa and e-Business Visa, respectively. The government has also decided to increase the number of ports where e-Visa entry is permitted to 28 from the current 26 by including Port Blair and Bhubaneswar.