Category Archives: Visa

Due to changes in the Service Tax structure, VFS service fees and VAS service charges for Australia Visa Application will be revised with effect from June 1, 2016.The revised primary applicant fee is Rs. 1006 (from earlier Rs. 966) and additional applicant fee is Rs. 714 (from earlier Rs. 676) . Charges have also been revised for Photo booth Rs. 154, Return Courier Rs. 307, ETA Assisted terminal Rs. 190, Assisted Form Filling Service Rs. 190, 2 way Courier/drop off courier Rs. 616 and Premium Lounge Rs. 2048.

VFS Global has introduced the On-Demand Mobile Visa Service for Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Slovenia visas applicants across India. Travellers can give their biometrics data and visa application in the comfort of their home or office. A well-trained and professional team from VFS Global will visit the applicant at his/her chosen location anywhere in India to collect the details. The service is ideal for corporate groups, incentive groups, on-campus students and cultural & sports groups. It is available on any day of the week, including weekends across India. VFS offers a dedicated Helpline numbers for appointment bookings and assistance. The applicant can call the country specific Helpline number to book an appointment, pay the fee online and receive confirmed appointment details, following which a team will make a visit at a location convenient to the applicant on the appointed date and time to collect biometrics and accept the application.

Australia is implementing the trial of a three-year multiple-entry visitor visa for India from July 2016. The trial, which is targeted at frequent short-term travellers to Australia, will allow entry into Australia multiple times on the same visa with each stay valid for up to three months. India is among four countries – Thailand, Vietnam and Chile – where the trial will be implemented. Welcoming the move, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, said, “Australia welcomes the tremendous interest Indians have in visiting Australia for tourism and business. With India among Australia’s nine key tourism markets, the trial will naturally drive our tourism growth from this part of the world.” The trial will make it easier for Indian visitors to make repeat visits. Travellers will not need to re-apply for visa within the three-year period, Sidhu added. The trial applies to eligible applicants within the tourist and business visitor visa streams. The announcement was made as part of the Australian Government’s 2016-17 Budget to boost Australia’s future tourism growth.

The Government of Papua New Guinea has announced Visa on Arrival for Indians travelling to Papua New Guinea. This will help boost tourism and business links between our two countries. Leaders of Papua New Guinea deeply appreciated the role played by the Indian community in the development of Papua New Guinea as well as our initiative in organizing two FIPIC Summits.

This summer Dubai Visa Processing Centre (DVPC) introduces a new offer of Rs. 4999 only for a 30 days single entry visa to Dubai. Emirates Airline passengers travelling from India can avail this new offer and enjoy the shopping, sightseeing and adventure the United Arab Emirates (UAE) offers.Over the last decade Dubai has seen tremendous growth of travellers from India, owing to the region’s wide range of attractions on offer, which caters to the varied tastes of every kind of holiday-seeker. EssaSulaiman Ahmad, Vice President – India and Nepal, Emirates Airline, said, “Emirates has always been committed to improving the convenience of its passengers by providing best-in-class services both on ground and on board. Summer in Dubai is a particularly good time to visit the city, with many activities to enjoy such as the Dubai Summer Surprises, in addition to all the many other attractions which our home and hub is renowned for. With DVPC’s offer, we aim to make the travel process even more cost effective for our passengers in India. We are very happy to partner with DVPC to offer yet another unique service that I am optimistic will assist our many Indian customers to visit Dubai with increased ease.” Adding to this, VinayMalhotra, COO – South Asia and DVPC, VFS Global said, “DVPC, in partnership with Emirates Airline, always seeks to bring its customers utmost convenience, ease and unparalleled service quality when planning their trips to Dubai. This new offering of Rs.4999 for a 30 days single-entry visa will be beneficial to all our Indian travellers, especially with the holiday season being around the corner.” All Emirates Airline passengers can avail this offer by either booking their …

Starting April 1, 2016, VFS visa application centres for Turkey will be launched in 16 Indian cities along with two more centres in Kathmandu, Nepal and Male, Maldives, to make the visa procedure even faster and smoother, announced H.E. Dr Burak Akçapar, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to India, Nepal and Maldives. He said, “The opening of these visa centres is a very important step in India taking its rightful place in the tourism world. I believe that the launch of these visa centres will contribute to the enhancement of the cooperation between Turkey and India in the fields of tourism and economy.” As an exclusive partnership, VFS Global has become the only authorised visa processing service provider in these three countries for the Govt of the Republic of Turkey. Vinay Malhotra, COO – South Asia and DVPC, VFS Global said, “We are truly privileged to partner with the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey and believe the opening of these centres in India, Nepal and the Maldives will well serve the needs of travellers keen to visit this beautiful country.” The visa centres will be launched in New Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Jalandhar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Goa, Puducherry, Kochi, Trivandrum, Chennai and Hyderabad.

From March 1, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) will expand the eligibility criteria for super-priority visas to all applicants applying for a visit or work visa. The eligibility criteria for 3-5 day priority visa will also be expanded, said UK’s Immigration Minister James Brokenshire. The new online application form will launch at the end of this month and applicants will be able to access it from www.gov.uk/apply-uk-visa. The new improvements include a shorter visa application form; questions written in English and will be translated into Hindi, Tamil and Gujarati; option to review, edit and download partially completed application at any point before submitting; application fee displayed in local currency; mobile device friendly service, to allow applications to be completed on mobile phones or tablets; assistance for separate application for a Schengen visa, with a partially auto-completed Schengen application form available to download and print. Brokenshire, who is on a 5-day visit to India, also launched a new visa application centre (VAC) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, the first in the state “India is one of the UK’s largest visa market and we continue to make improvements to the service to make it as easy as possible for our applicants to get a visa. Last year we saw a 17 per cent increase in the number of visit visas issued. We hope that this year we continue to see an increase in visitors from India and that these improvements prove useful to those applying for their visas,” said Brokenshire.

A total of 88,162 foreign tourists arrived in the country on e-Tourist Visa (eTV) in January 2016 as compared to 25,023 during the same month in 2015 registering a growth of 252.3 per cent. According to the Ministry of Tourism, this high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 113 countries as against the earlier coverage of 43 countries. United Kingdom occupied the top slot in the top 10 countries availing the facility with 25.37 per cent. The share of the other top countries availing eTV facility were USA (15.17%); Russian Fed. (9.58%); France (6.00%); Australia (5.25%); Germany (4.23%); Canada (4.10%); China (3.96%); Republic of Korea (3.72%) and Ukraine (2.86%). The New Delhi airport received the highest percentage of foreign tourists with 33.18 per cent. The other top ports in foreign tourist arrivals on eTV during January 2016 were Mumbai Airport (20.81%); Goa Airport (19.10%); Chennai Airport (6.95%); Bengaluru Airport (5.35%); Kochi Airport (4.17%); Kolkata Airport (2.99%); Trivandrum Airport (2.29%); Hyderabad Airport (2.13%) and Ahmedabad Airport (1.75%).

In a bid to boost medical tourism into India, the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, is planning to extend e-medical visa facility, said Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Tourism, Government of India. Speaking on the recently held first meeting of National Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board, he said, “India has a distinct advantage, in terms of cost of people in the medical industry, the time required for getting operation dates, and having state-of-the-art hospitals. Now, we are also contemplating to get the e-medical visa facility extended to various countries, so that the medical and wellness tourism in India prospers further.”

The UK Visas and Immigration office has informed that there will be changes in visa and immigration application fees over the next four years. Danielle Humphries, Entry Clearance Manager, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), informed that for 2016-17, UK Visas linked most closely to economic growth and prosperity, such as visitor, work and study visas will be restricted to an increase of 2 per cent. During the same period, fees for all sponsorship categories will be held at the current rates. There will be up to 25 per cent increase for settlement and nationality fees. There will be up to 33 per cent increase for optional premium services offered by the Home Office such as the super priority and priority visa services. The proposed maximum fee for entry clearance as a visitor for a period of six months or less is £95, as against the current maximum of £85. The proposed maximum fee for entry clearance as a visitor for a period of more than six months up to and including 12 months, calculated at fixed amount, is £200 as against the current maximum of £162. The current maximum for entry clearance as a visitor for a period of more than 12 months, calculated at annual rate, is £162 p.a. which has been proposed to increase to £200 p.a. “We are confident that our proposed fee increases strike the right balance between ensuring we continue to provide a competitive level of service and maintaining a fees structure that remains attractive to businesses, migrants and visitors,” Humphries said, adding, “We have no current plans to raise fees to the maximum amounts, and most individual fees will remain significantly below these levels.” …