India Introduces Two New Visa Categories For International Students

To strengthen the Study in India program, India has launched two new visa categories including e-student visa and e-student-x visa.

Study Abroad: India has announced two new visa categories to simplify the enrollment process for international students and their dependents. These visas are announced to strengthen the Study in India (SII) program and help foreign students who are interested in studying in India. The newly introduced e-student visa and e-student-x visa will streamline the process for international students seeking to pursue higher education in India.

"e-Visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sight seeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, attending a short term yoga programme, medical treatment including treatment under Indian systems of medicine and business purpose and no other purpose/ activity. This facility shall not be available if the person or either of his / her parents or grand parents (paternal or maternal) was born in, or was permanently resident in Pakistan.  e-Visa facility shall not be available to holders of Diplomatic/Official passports, UNLP (UN Passport) holders and international travel document holders e.g. INTERPOL officials," reads the official statement.

New Visa Categories For International Students: More Details

Foreign students registered on the SII portal can apply for e-student visas.  E-student-x visa is for the dependents of the e-student visa holders.

The SII portal will be the single stop platform for international students. They first need to register to the SII portal to get admission in India. Once, they register on the portal, they will get an SII ID.

International students can apply on the official visa website after they have an offer of admission from an Indian university. They need to apply at the indianvisaonline.gov.in.

Under SII programs, a total of 8,000 courses are available in over 600 Indian universities. The courses are across - Administration, Engineering, Sciences, Arts, and specialized disciplines like Buddhist and yoga studies are among them. Students can take admission at the certification, undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level.

"There are three sub-categories of e-Visa i.e. (a)  e-Tourist Visa :  For recreation, sightseeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, and attending a short term yoga programme, (b)eBusiness Visa : For all activities permitted under normal Business Visa and (c) e-Medical Visa : For medical treatment, including treatment under Indian systems of medicine.  A foreign national will also be permitted to club these activities provided he/she had clearly indicated the same in the application form along with requisite documents," added the official statement.

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