India eases visa fee for foreigners, including Omanis

The government of India is making changes to the existing visa regime for foreigners entering its territory, including citizens of Oman, in a bid to make it easier and convenient for them to visit India. The Indian Embassy in Oman’s capital, Muscat, said that Omanis are showing increased interest in visiting India for purposes of business, tourism and medical treatment. This Embassy is said to have issued more than 95,000 visas in 2016 and more than 20,000 visas have already been issued in the first two months of 2017. To position India as a favoured destination for medical treatment because of its topnotch medical amenities and to attract more medical tourists, the Indian government has made the medical visa fees lower than the tourist visa fees beginning from 1 April 2017. In order to increase the number of medical tourists to India and to project it as a preferred medical destination owing to its world-class medical facilities, the Indian government has decided to make the medical visa fee lower than the tourist visa fee. From 1 April 2017, medical visa applicants will need to shell out RO 30.900 (INR5, 233) for a visa with a validity of up to six months and RO 46.300 (INR7, 826) for a visa with validity of up to one year. In addition, Indian Embassy is promoting medical tourism to India by hastening medical visa applications processing as a separate counter was opened at BLS Visa Application Centre for receiving medical visa applications. The Embassy was quoted by Oman Daily Observer as saying that the decision taken recently to cut medical visa fee will help patients and their attendants. All Omani citizens wanting to travel to India to get world-class medical treatment are, therefore, requested to travel on medical visas only. In addition, to allow businesspeople to enter India from Oman, the government of India will begin issuing business visas from 1 April 2017 with a validity of up to one year for a fee of RO 46.300 (INR7, 826). On the other hand, businesspeople needing to travel to India regularly will be issued business visas with a validity of up to five years at RO 96.300 (INR16, 277.50). If you want to travel to any Middle East country, get in touch with Y-Axis, a leading immigrant consultancy company, to apply for a visa from one of its several global offices.