There is good news about the revision of the e-tourist visa fee! The visa fee will now be broken up into four different slabs from the present flat rate of $60 for 113 countries.
According to the guidelines issued by Government, the visa fee has now been split into four slabs of zero, $25, $48 and $60. In addition, bank charges have also been reduced from $2 to 2.5% of the e-tourist visa fee. There will be no bank charges for the zero visa fee category and the new rates have come into effect from 3 November 2015.
As per the official statement five counties are covered under the $60 slab: US, UK, Russia, Ukraine and Mozambique.
The rate of $48 has been fixed for 86 countries, some of which are: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, Grenada, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Palestine, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, the UAE, Vatican City, Venezuela and Vietnam.
The $25 fee has been fixed for 3 countries—Japan, Singapore and Sri Lanka—while zero visa fees apply to 19 countries, including Argentina, Cook Islands, Fiji, Jamaica, Mauritius, Seychelles and Uruguay.
The response to the e-tourist visa scheme has been encouraging and 340,000 such visas have been issued since its launch last November.
Looking forward to sharing our beautiful country with more travelers encouraged by these positive steps taken by the Government to boost tourism!
