India extends electronic visa facility to Malaysians

NEW DELHI: The Indian government has announced that its electronic visa scheme has been extended to 31 more countries, including Malaysia.

This followed the Home Ministry's announcement on Wednesday that the ministry had decided to rename its "tourist visa-on-arrival" scheme to the "e-tourist visa".

The scheme was renamed as tourists tended to misunderstand the scheme's name, and would fly into India presuming that they would be granted a visa-on-arrival there, reported the Times of India.

"It has been observed that the name of the scheme is creating confusion among tourists. Tourist presumed that visa will be granted on arrival… However, in the current system, the pre-authorisation of visa to foreigners is being given prior to travel," said a senior home ministry official.

According to the daily, under the e-tourist visa scheme, a foreign tourist is required to apply for a visa online by uploading their photograph, passport and paying the visa fee online.

The visa authorities would then process the application and send them an e-visa or electronic travel authorisation via e-mail within 72 hours.

The e-visa scheme currently covers 45 countries and can be availed across nine major international airports.

The daily added that with the expansion of the scheme by June, the list would go up to 76 countries and 16 airports.

The airports to be added to the existing list of nine where foreign citizens from eligible countries can land with an e-tourist visa are Jaipur, Amritsar, Gaya, Lucknow, Trichy, Varanasi and Ahmedabad.

The ministry also stated that the airports were chosen due to the large number of foreign tourists arrivals there. - Bernama