Foreign Ministry facilitates easier ways for obtaining Indian visa

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to issue queue numbers previously issued by the Indian High Commission for obtaining Indian visa, from the ministry.

An announcement made by the ministry says that this decision was made today.

In this regard, they said that those wishing to obtain Indian visa should provide their name, ID card number and passport number by sending an SMS to 7794601, and that this can be done between 8am and 12pm on Saturday.

“People will be contacted by the Ministry in the order that we receive SMS’s, and informed their token numbers,” says the announcement.

It said that queue numbers will be issued every working day between 9am and 10.30am.

An official of Foreign Ministry said tonight that this arrangement was made after discussions and agreement with the Indian High Commission in relation to the problems associated with obtaining Indian visa.

“The main purpose of these changes is to facilitate easier procedures for the people to solve the problems related to the visa,” the official said. “This would hopefully reduce the queues.”

Following earlier efforts by the ministry, daily queue numbers have been increased from 40 to 53 now for medical visa alone.

It was recently announced that Maldivians travelling to India for purposes other than tourism must obtain the relevant visa prior to travel. Foreign Ministry subsequently advised that travel for family, medical, business and official purposes will require ‘family visa’, ‘medical visa’, ‘business visa’ or ‘official visa’.

Due to the long queues formed at the the Indian High Commission entrance following this announcement, a tent has been put up outside the High Commission by the City Council.