Foreigners visiting India on E-visa set new record

New Delhi: A total of 18.78 lakh foreigners visited India this year within the first 10 months on E-visa — four times more than the 4.47 lakh figure registered in 2015 and the highest so far.

The maximum number of visitors who availed of this facility were from the UK, the US, China, France and Germany. A home ministry release said that arrivals between January and October, 2018 also broke last year’s record when 17 lakh foreigners visited India on E-visa or Electronic-visa, citing liberalization of the visa regime by India as a reason for the spike in figures. The fee collection this year till October 31 was $ 137,527,270 which was $ 105,558,496 in 2017. The top five countries whose nationals availed E-visa services are the UK (2,921,432), the US (2,213,393), China(1,270,224), France (1,071,855) and Germany (89,863).

Nationals of 166 countries can now enjoy these E-visa — available for five categories such as Tourist, Business, Medical, Conference and medical attendant — facility at 26 airports and five seaports, and can be availed three times in one year against twice a year earlier, said the release. The local Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) has been empowered now to extend the duration of electronic visas beyond 60 days upto 90 days, said the release. The Ministry has also reduced minimum remuneration requirement from Rs 7.80 lakh to Rs 3.60 lakh per annum for grant of intern visa which is now available at any time during the course of study. (IANS)

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