The government of India has granted visa-free travel for Maldivians.
The High Commission of India in the Maldives, made the announcement via a Twitter post on Sunday afternoon.
This will be effective October 15 and Maldivians will not be required to acquire visas to travel to the neighboring country, for tourism, business or medical purposes.
The high commission revealed that Maldives is the first beneficiary of visa-free travel since the implementation of Covid-19 restrictions in the neighboring country in March 2020.
With this, the bilateral visa-free agreement dated December 2018 has been restored.
In a press release, the high commission revealed that Covid-19 restrictions on travel to India have been lifted as an exception for Maldivians who wish to visit India for medical, business and tourism purposes.
It goes on to note that the Visa Facilitation Agreement signed between Maldives and India during the state visit of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to India in December 2018 will be implemented once again.
With this, Maldivian nationals will not be required to acquire a visa for a duration of 90 days to visit India. Free student visas for Maldivian youth will also be facilitated.
Thousands of Maldivians had availed of visa-free travel under this agreement, before the Covid-19 pandemic, from March 2019 to March 2020.
All categories of Indian visas were suspended following the closure of India’s international borders on March 23 last year. Despite this, a special exemption was granted to Maldivian nationals to visit India for medical purposes after obtaining visas from the high commission, during June last year.
Over 14,000 medical visas were issued by the high commission from July 2020 until now, under this arrangement.
The exemption in case of was granted due to the high demand for medical visas in the past three to four months and relating to the special relations that exist between the two countries. The high commission revealed that strong people-to-people relations will be further strengthened with this humanitarian gesture.
