Visa clearance eased for Pak, Afghanistan, Bangladesh

In a major relief for minority communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has made changes in the process for granting long-term visas (LTVs) to them to ensure that they are not harassed by officials.

Amid complaints that officials were using the existing conditions to mint money from visa applicants, the MHA has reduced the time limit for security clearance of applicants from 45 days to 21 days.

State governments will have to take a decision within 21 days and if it is not done, the approval of the Centre is deemed to be taken. The MHA also puts the onus on the state government if a security implication arises in the future.

A senior official said the longer window of 45 days has led to delays and chances of corruption and the decision to decrease the days was taken to ensure that no applicant was harassed.

Once an application is filed and it reaches the central system, it is forwarded to the state government, the Intelligence Bureau and the MHA. The state government is supposed to do a background check on the applicants. Once the response on an application from all the three wings are received in the system, the application is automatically processed.

This visa facility was first introduced in 2011 for persecuted Hindus from Pakistan and it was extended to Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Afghanistan nationals belonging to Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Christian and Jain communities who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

Under the Narendra Modi government, the issuance of LTVs to Pakistani Hindus has surged. While the LTVs granted to Pakistani Hindus from 2011 to 2014 stood at 14,726, another 15,244 LTVs were issued between January 2015 and July 16 this year.

The official said the decision to relax the norms also came as the government is not able to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.

To help minority communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the government had been granting them long-term visas to buy residential property in India. This was part of the Narendra Modi government's policy to help minorities persecuted in neighbouring countries.

The government had also allowed free movement within the state or union territory where they were staying, rather than restricting their movement within the place of stay. Such people were also allowed to carry out self-employment.