To simplify India’s visa system, the Union Home Ministry is going to reduce the number of major visa categories from 13 to 9 and also reduce the number of boxes in the application form by 70 percent. On Wednesday, officials said that as part of a comprehensive review of the visa rules, 2019, various chapters and annexures are likely to be amended. Its purpose is to limit the number of categories for issuing visas.
Visa category will be reduced
In this regard, a meeting was held in August to revise various categories one and two of the Visa Rules, 2019. In which, it was decided to rationalize and simplify the Indian visa system. According to sources, it has been decided to reduce the number of major categories of visas from 13 to nine and the number of sub-categories from 49 to 23. The Center has also decided to remove 70 percent of the boxes (fill-in blanks) from the visa application form. It aims to make the application process simple and user-friendly by eliminating fields asking for identical, repetitive and redundant information.
About 91.5 lakh foreign tourists came
According to the tourism ministry, around 91.5 lakh foreign tourists visited India in 2025, compared to 99.5 lakh in 2024 and 1.09 crore in 2019 before the pandemic. The number of foreign tourists in the country has still not reached pre-pandemic levels. The tourism industry has demanded sweeping changes to make travel to India easier for international tourists. These changes include allowing all countries to apply 120 days in advance, allowing Chinese citizens to apply for e-visas, and making visa application forms available in other languages such as Spanish, German and Italian.
