Ireland is Inviting More Indian Students, Tourists

Ireland is looking forward to stronger ties with India. It aims to attract more investment in education and healthcare sector by inviting more Indian students and travellers to Ireland and by encouraging investments in the country.

Ireland's Minister for Child and Youth Affairs, James Reilly, is in India to promote Ireland's education and tourism industry. During his visit, he told The Hindu BusinessLine, "We have around 1,800 post-graduate Indian students currently. The student visa can be extended for a year upon graduating to look for jobs.  Hence, they can stay back longer.”

In the last 2-3 years, Ireland has witnessed a rise in Indian students to 2,000. However, the minister said that the country aims to reach a target of 5000 in the coming years by offering various benefits to the students, including post-study work option for 1 year.

Ambassador of Ireland to India, McLaughlin, said that the drop in value of Euro makes Ireland one of the competitive countries to go for study.

Apart from attracting students, measures are in place to attract tourists as well. Recently UK-Ireland introduced a single visa option for Indian tourists allowing them to travel to two countries on just one visa. It has reduced the visa fee, processing time and documentation to a great extent.

Tourists from India are going places now. Ireland alone welcomed 24,000 tourists last year and the numbers are likely to go up year after year with new initiatives and improving ties between the countries.

The other area addressed by James Reilly is of investment from Indian companies and businesses. He told PTI, "Investment in Ireland by India is quite sizeable with a substantial number of Irish people employed by Indian companies, which is true the other way round as well. I believe we can grow this. It could be far stronger than what it is and it's strange in a way that it hasn't been stronger considering our ties from the days of our national struggles for independence."

There are various investment options in Ireland for established businesses and also for startups. One such option is Ireland Startup Entrepreneur Visa. It requires low investment and is worth exploring. Then are plenty other opportunities available for mutual growth and benefit of the countries.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine, Business-Standard

For more news and updates on immigration and visas, please visit Y-Axis News.