Centre extends visa, immigration modernisation scheme till 2026

New Delhi, Feb 25:  With an aim to modernise and upgrade immigration and visa services, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved the continuation of the Immigration Visa Foreigners Registration Tracking (IVFRT) Scheme till March 31, 2026, with a financial outlay of Rs 1,364.88 crore.

With this scheme, the MHA aims to provide a secure and integrated service delivery framework that facilitates legitimate travellers, while strengthening national security through this scheme.

According to an MHA statement, "The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the continuation of the Immigration Visa Foreigners Registration Tracking (IVFRT) Scheme beyond March 31, 2021 for a period of five years from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2026 with a financial outlay of Rs 1,364.88 crore."

The continuation of the scheme shows the government's commitment to the core objective of IVFRT, which is modernisation and up-gradation of immigration and visa services, an MHA official said.

The project has a global outreach and seeks to interlink and optimise functions relating to immigration, visa issuance, registration of foreigners and tracking of their movements in India by covering 192 Indian missions across the globe, 108 immigration check-posts (ICPs) in India, 12 Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRROs) and more than 700 Foreigners Registration Officers (FROs), Superintendents of Police (SPs)/Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) across the country, the official said.

The MHA officials also said that after the commencement of IVFRT, the number of visas and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards issued increased from 44.43 lakh in 2014 to 64.59 lakh in 2019 at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.7 per cent.