The newly introduced system of filling in visa application forms online — Immigration, Visa and Foreigners’ Registration and Tracking system — has found few takers from Pakistan. The process is more complicated than it is for other nationals, visa applicants say.
A Pakistani national has to go to the website of the Indian ministry of home affairs, fill the two-page online visa form and submit it with the scanned copies of the required documents, which includes a letter from an Indian sponsor, whose details have to be furnished for verification by Indian officials and the police commissionerate of the destination district.
“The new online system of filling applications is meant to keep a strict record of the overseas visitors coming to India,” said an official at the Foreigner Regional Registration Office at Begumpet. They were resolving anomalies in the system, he added.
Bangladeshi nationals are also governed by an almost similar set of rules, which, officials say, make the application process easier. However, the form, available on the site, has to be handed over in person to the High Commission.