NEW DELHI: In a bid to create a positive atmosphere for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, India has finally started to address China’s long-standing complaint of inordinate visa delays for Chinese nationals wanting to visit India.
Barely a week ahead of Mr Singh’s visit, the Indian embassy in Beijing has officially outsourced visa collection and delivery to VFS Global, a firm that is carrying out outsourcing work for other India missions also. The first counter has been opened in Beijing and will start functioning from Tuesday.
In addition to hiring an outsourcing firm, the Indian embassy, it is learnt, has also gone in for an internal re-organisation, and IFS officers will soon be solely handling visa applications. Additionally, it is learnt that staff has also been increased to handle incoming visa applications. The visa issue has long been an embarrassment for India, particularly as the Chinese have already got their act together.
The Chinese have raised the issue of visa delays a number of times at different levels. Their complaint is that it is more difficult for Chinese tourists and businessmen to get visas for India than for Indian businessmen and tourists to go to China. India had given an assurance that it would cut down on the delays, especially for business visas.
Getting the system in place also took time due to procedural delays. First an idea to open a counter in Tibet was met with objection from China. According to Chinese rules, separate licences have to be obtained in each province for the outsourcing centres.
But not everything is changing. Work visas will still be cleared by the home ministry. So Beijing is not likely to be completely mollified by the steps taken by New Delhi. China has also been pushing hard for visa liberalisation and has been complaining about work permit delays and rejections for Chinese nationals coming to India. The matter came up during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to India and is likely to be brought up again by Beijing during Mr Singh’s visit.
A look at the figures shows the anomalies. Last year, the Indian embassy issued 51,000 visas while in 2006 37,000 visas were issued.
Though the Indian embassy used to promise a visa in five days, there have been instances where the delay has gone up to three months. But Chinese embassy figures released in 2006 showed that nearly 4 lakh Indians were making business trips to China.
After the visits of Mr Hu and Mr Wen Jiabao to India, there has been a heightened interest in India with many Chinese businesses seeing good potential in the Indian market.
Barely a week ahead of Mr Singh’s visit, the Indian embassy in Beijing has officially outsourced visa collection and delivery to VFS Global, a firm that is carrying out outsourcing work for other India missions also. The first counter has been opened in Beijing and will start functioning from Tuesday.
In addition to hiring an outsourcing firm, the Indian embassy, it is learnt, has also gone in for an internal re-organisation, and IFS officers will soon be solely handling visa applications. Additionally, it is learnt that staff has also been increased to handle incoming visa applications. The visa issue has long been an embarrassment for India, particularly as the Chinese have already got their act together.
The Chinese have raised the issue of visa delays a number of times at different levels. Their complaint is that it is more difficult for Chinese tourists and businessmen to get visas for India than for Indian businessmen and tourists to go to China. India had given an assurance that it would cut down on the delays, especially for business visas.
Getting the system in place also took time due to procedural delays. First an idea to open a counter in Tibet was met with objection from China. According to Chinese rules, separate licences have to be obtained in each province for the outsourcing centres.
But not everything is changing. Work visas will still be cleared by the home ministry. So Beijing is not likely to be completely mollified by the steps taken by New Delhi. China has also been pushing hard for visa liberalisation and has been complaining about work permit delays and rejections for Chinese nationals coming to India. The matter came up during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to India and is likely to be brought up again by Beijing during Mr Singh’s visit.
A look at the figures shows the anomalies. Last year, the Indian embassy issued 51,000 visas while in 2006 37,000 visas were issued.
Though the Indian embassy used to promise a visa in five days, there have been instances where the delay has gone up to three months. But Chinese embassy figures released in 2006 showed that nearly 4 lakh Indians were making business trips to China.
After the visits of Mr Hu and Mr Wen Jiabao to India, there has been a heightened interest in India with many Chinese businesses seeing good potential in the Indian market.
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