India to ease visa procedures for Pakistanis; do away with queues

ISLAMABAD: India has taken steps to streamline visa procedures for Pakistanis and will possibly increase their issuance from the current level of 8000 a month.

At present around 500 people queue up for five days a week at the visa counters at the back of the highly guarded Indian High Commission here jostling with each other to slip in their applications.

"We want to change all that, at least from our side and want to make it more pleasant and easier for those hundreds of Pakistanis wanting to visit India," the new Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Satyabrata Pal said.

Efforts were on to clear the pent-up demand which itself is quite high, he said.

However, at the same time Pal sounded cautious about the process, noting the current bilateral visa regime is extremely restrictive.

There is a plan to dispense away with the queue system and follow a token system in which the applicants would be called to submit and collect visas, Pal said.

"All this would take time but as of now the attempt is streamline the procedures, make it easier for the over loaded staff but at the same time step up the numbers," he said

Efforts were on to step up group visas to facilitate tourist flows.

On the steps being taken to streamline the visa issuance procedure, Pal said to begin with the number of visa counters have been increased from five to nine with special counters for women and persons above 65 years in recent weeks to ease pressure on sometimes unmanageable queues.

Pal, who oversaw similar visa reforms during his stint at the Indian mission in London, said he wants to attempt something similar and is drawing up plans to change the entire system of granting visas of the High Commission.

Plans were afoot to expand the current visa facility area by constructing a huge hall to accommodate all applicants. The air-conditioned hall would have seating facilities with toilets and cafeteria as well as adequate number of counters.

He said negotiations were on with Pakistan government to change the visa regime for which India has forwarded proposals.

India was also keen to open its renovated consulate in Karachi as visa applicants have to travel all the way to Islamabad. The consulate opening was delayed as Pakistan has not yet identified a location to open its consulate in Mumbai, until which India can not operate its mission.

The focus of the new friendly visa systems at the Indian mission in Islamabad apparently was on the issuance of business visas.

With Pakistan now adding 302 items to the positive list increasing the trading list to 1075 items, Indian diplomats were also paying more attention to issue of Indian visas.

The rush for business visas was rising as Pakistan even while declining to grant most favoured nation status to India has permitted some key items like import of textile machinery which was expected to give a major thrust to Indian imports and double bilateral trade from the current 850 million dollars.

Two years ago the Indian High Commission opened an exclusive business visa counter. It started with a deadline to issue visa from one week and later brought it down to 48 hours and now it is being issued within 24 hours, Counsellor for Visa and Political of the High Commission, Suresh Reddy said.

The High Commission would also shortly open its website from which Pakistanis from different cities could download applications and submit them for online clearance.

The visa applicants could formally apply for stamping of the visas after getting online clearance.

Efforts were on to step up new IT applications to streamline and upgrade the visa systems to increase volumes.

He said NIC software currently being used was inadequate do not provide many facilities for the staff to make use of it.

Streamlining visa procedures means more work for the staff, Pal said adding the regular staff was being backed up by wives of the staff members of the Indian High Commission who provided a backup support but lacked training.