As announced by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji, e-tourist visa facility will be rolled out to Chinese nationals from July 30, 2015. Hong Kong and Macao nationals will also be provided with e-tourist visa facility along with Chinese citizens. Modi had made the announcement notwithstanding frequent issuance of stapled visa by China to people from Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. India had last year launched e-tourist visa facility (which was earlier called ‘tourist visa on arrival enabled by electronic travel authorisation’) for more than 40 countries, including the US.
Government of India had launched this scheme as ‘tourist visa on arrival (VoA)’ in November 2014 for more than 40 countries and was extended to 36 more countries in April 2015.
Under the e-visa scheme, an applicant receives an email authorizing him or her to travel to India after it is approved and he or she can travel with a print-out of this authorization.
On arrival, the visitor has to present the authorisation to the immigration authorities who would then stamp the entry into the country.
The number of foreign tourists availing e-tourist visa facility has increased by over 700 per cent in May as compared to the same period last year.
