April 14, 2018 TnH Global

Now, foreigners travelling to India can get visa extended online

Foreigners touring India will no longer need to visit the Foreigners Registration Office or the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRO/FRRO) for visa-related services, including registration and visa extension, which will now be offered online through the e-FRRO platform.

Home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday launched the web-based application ‘e-FRRO’, which will allow foreign tourists/travellers to avail of paperless and cashless visa-related services online while eliminating the need for any human interface.

In the new system, foreigners will be able to get 27 visa and immigration-related services in India from the comfort of their place of stay. Using the e-FRRO application, foreigners can apply online and obtain the service(s) through email/post without appearing in person at the FRO/FRRO.

While launching the e-FRRO service, Singh said the home ministry had been constantly trying to provide fast and efficient services to foreigners visiting India so that they had a pleasant stay.

Some of the features of the e-FRRO include online FRRO service delivery mechanism without requirement of visiting the FRRO/FRO barring in exceptional cases. Using this application, foreigners are required to create their user ID by registering themselves. Afterwards, they can apply online through registered user ID for various visa and immigration related services in India like registration, visa extension, visa conversion, exit permit etc. The e-FRRO scheme has been running successfully in four FRROs (Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai) since February 12. Now, it has been rolled out in Kolkata, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Ahmedabad.