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From family vacations to pilgrimage tours, Malaysians have long been loyal visitors to India. Last year, the Indian government decided to scrap the over-the-counter tourist visa (USD 40 for 6 months) for Malaysians and introduced the more expensive one and five-year visas, costing USD 100 (RM 407) and USD 200 (RM 814) respectively.

Even the e-Visa was priced at USD 82 (RM 362) with only two entries for a period of 120 days. The sudden hike in visa fees left many Malaysians deeply unhappy.

Luckily, the Indian government has introduced new changes in e-Visa terms. While there is no change to the fees, the visit duration has been increased to one year with multiple visits for e-Tourist and e-Business visas.

This makes e-Visa much cheaper than one year, multiple entry over-the-counter visas.

India’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, Mridul Kumar told Bernama ‘there have been misconceptions created in the minds of people that visa fees had been hiked’.

“The Indian Government has tried its level best to give more facilities to people who want to travel to India. Now, people who frequently travel to India do not need to come 10 times to the High Commission to take visa. Actually, the visa fee has been reduced because if the fee is extrapolated, for six months we were charging USD 40, while now we are giving you 10 times longer duration of visa (five years) and charging only five times more fees (USD 200),” he added.

According to its official website, the Indian e-Visa ‘involves a completely online application for which no facilitation is required by any intermediary/agents’, which means there are no other additional fees involved except for the USD 82 (RM 362) paid online.

For more details, visit Indian Visa Online

Source: NST & Daily Express
Photo Credit: India Today, Rojak Daily, Carousell & Indian Visa Online