UK to consider two-year multiple entry visas to Indians on case-by-case basis

 

The UK government will consider for Indians the two-year multiple entry visas on a case-by-case basis after revisiting the execution of a similar provision extended under a pilot project to nationals of China.

Information with regard to this was stated by VK Singh, the Minister of State for External Affairs, when he was responding to a question posed by KVP Ramachandra Rao, a Rajya Sabha MP of Congress party from Telangana, in the Parliament on 20 December. Answering the question, Singh said that the Indian government had lobbied for the issue of granting multiple entry visas of two-year to Indians at several levels within the UK government.

The minister, cited a response by Brandon Lewis, the British Minister of State for Immigration, in the UK Parliament in November to say that the prospects of extending the two-year visa regime to other countries would be looked at on a case-by-case basis after they scrutinize the operation of the visa scheme for Chinese citizens

Singh was quoted by connectedtoindia.com as saying that the Indian government was in the know about a UK pilot project for multiple-entry visa scheme of two years for Chinese announced in January 2016. A request to extend a similar facility to Indian citizens was raised by Kiren Rijiju, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, during the recent visit of Brandon Lewis to India on 6 November 2017, he said.

He said that the same issue was raised in London in July 2017 when the India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue was held. The British authorities have taken into consideration the government of India’s request to extend a similar visa scheme for its nationals, Singh said.

Virendra Sharma, a British MP of Indian origin, in a House of Commons Debate told Brandon Lewis, on 20 November 2017, that since they were now on the verge of completion of a fruitful two-year pilot scheme of allowing Chinese under a multiple-entry visa for two-years for the six-month single-entry visa’s price, it seemed that they might make it permanent in 2018.

Sharma asked Lewis if the Secretary of State would commit to introducing a similar scheme for Indians, their best allies in trade after Brexit.

Lewis responded by saying that he had just been to India a couple of weeks ago, and he had had some discussions about the pilots that British were operating in China. He added that the pilot with China was still far from over. As the situation was different between UK and India, they would review that pilot, and he would give his feedback after it ends, and then they would review it.

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