Shri Rajnath Singh says it provides efficient visa related
services online to foreigners visiting India
The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched the
web-based application ‘e-FRRO’ (e-Foreigners Regional Registration Office) at a
function here today. Speaking on the occasion Shri Rajnath Singh said that it
has been a constant endeavour of the Home Ministry to provide fast and
efficient services to foreigners visiting India so that they have a pleasant
experience of their stay here.
He said the e-FRRO scheme is aimed at building a
centralized, transparent online platform for the foreigners to avail visa
related services and to provide Faceless, Cashless and Paperless services to
the foreigners with user friendly experience.
The e-FRRO scheme would be a quantum jump in improving the
ease of service delivery with respect to foreigners visiting and staying in
India. In the new system, foreigners would be able to get as many as 27 Visa
and Immigration related services in India from the comfort of their place of
stay. Using the e-FRRO application, foreigners can apply online on the portal
and obtain the service(s) through email/post without appearing in person at the
FRO/FRRO office.
It may be noted that the online services offered by E-FRRO
scheme are not available even in some of the most advanced countries in North
America and Europe.
In 2017, more than one crore foreigners visited India and
out of them approximately 3.6 lakhs had to visit FRRO offices spread across the
country for various visa-related services. With the launch of the online e-FRRO
scheme, their physical visit to the FRRO offices thus been obviated.
The e-FRRO scheme has been implemented on the IVFRT
platform with negligible extra expenditure, taking a cue from the already
successfully running e-Visa scheme. It may be noted that the e-Visa scheme has
earned revenue of more than Rs 1400 crores since its launch in Nov 2014.
Union Home Secretary Shri Rajiv Gauba, Director IB Shri
Rajiv Jain, senior officials of MHA, NIC, MEA and Dept of Tourism were present
on the occasion.
In the present system, foreigners staying in
India on Visa duration of more than 180 days have to get themselves registered
with their respective FROs/FRROs. Similarly, foreigners requiring different
kind of visa related services such as Visa extension, Visa Conversion, Change
of address, Change of Educational institutions, Exit permits etc are currently
required to visit the FROs/FRROs office.
Some of the salient features of the e-FRRO include online
FRRO Service delivery mechanism without requirement of visiting FRRO/FRO Office
barring exceptional cases. Using this application, foreigners are required to
create their own User ID by registering themselves. Afterwards, they can apply
online through registered User-ID for various Visa and Immigration related
services in India viz. Registration, Visa Extension, Visa Conversion, Exit
Permit etc.
The necessary Immigration/Visa document e.g. Registration
Permit/Certificate (RP/RC), Visa Extension Certificate etc will be sent by post
on the address mentioned in the online application. It would also be
electronically sent to the foreigner to his registered email ID. In case of
exigency, the foreigner can visit the FRRO/FRO office directly for grant of
service.
e-FRRO has already been implemented and is running
successfully as a pilot project in four FRROs (Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and
Mumbai) since February 12, 2018. Now it has been rolled out in the
remaining eight FRROs, -
namely Kolkata, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Cochin, Thiruvananthapuram, Calicut, Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
Advantages of e-FRRO include facilitation of legitimate
foreigners through “Digital India” vision of the Government, foreigners need
not visit FRRO/FRO office – “Services from the comfort of home”, convenient and
Time saving, exclusive dashboard for User friendly experience and Uniform &
Standardized Services across the Country.
Major changes w.r.t. current C-FRO (Centralized
Foreigners Registration Office) system and e-FRRO are
as under:-
|
Current C-FRO System
|
Proposed “e-FRRO”
|
|
Foreigner needs to take appointment online
and visit FRRO/FRO office mandatorily.
|
|
|
Endorsement in Passport and Signed/Stamped
RC/RP given to the applicant.
|
|
|
Manual Interface
|
|
|
Lack of expertise at FRO level in dealing
with foreigners.
|
|
Courtesy: pib.nic.in
No comments:
Post a Comment