Our Bureau
New Delhi
The Indian government has brought good news for Chinese citizens who wish to travel to India. The Indian embassy in Beijing has reported this Wednesday on July 23rd that India is finally going to resume issuing visas to Chinese citizens from tomorrow i.e. July 24.
The decision from the government comes after a 5 year long wait. In 2020, India had suspended all tourist visas in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19. However, the Embassy of India in China has now confirmed that Chinese citizens can now apply for a tourist visa to visit India.
Chinese citizens will be able to apply for tourist visas to visit India just by completing an online application, scheduling an appointment and personally submitting their passport and other required documents to the Indian Visa Application Centers. These visa application centres are situated in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, in South China’s Guangdong Province.
The embassy has also stated that all passport withdrawal requests for applications submitted in the Indian Visa Application Center in Beijing must be accompanied by a passport withdrawal letter.
The decision to resume issuing visas to Chinese citizens to visit India, comes after reports stating that both countries are looking to take steps towards having better relations. In April this year, the External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar stated that both India and China were moving towards a rather positive direction in their ties and they think some steps need to be taken to normalise the relationship.
In accordance with the statement of the External Affairs Minister, earlier this year, India and China tried to rebuild ties and agreed to initiate efforts to promote people-to-people exchanges. These exchanges included the arrangements for resuming direct flights and the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra this year.
