INDIA – Visa and Immigration Services to be Taken Over by FRROs
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently decided to delegate more tasks to the Foreign Regional Registration Offices (FRROs), which will enable the Ministry to focus their energy on policy-making. The FRROs will have autonomy over most visa and immigration service decisions, including the following: temporary extension of all visas, exit permission for overstays, cancellation of visas, two-year extensions for employment visas, and new visa extensions. The Ministry will still accept certain cases: referred cases involving policy matters, including cases involving nationals of “prior reference countries,” such as Afghanistan, China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and Sudan. This transition of power from the Ministry to the FRROs is expected to improve processing times by 30-60 days on average. Foreign nationals applying for services should expect changes in interpretation and decision-making by the FRROs. Changes are effective immediately.