Travel during Covid-19 : Foreigners tourists on chartered flight are now allowed to enter India; check details

As more and more people accept India’s Covid-19 vaccine certificate to permit overseas travelling from India, starting from today, the government has allowed foreign tourists to enter India. Tourist visas are being grated but only for those travelling by chartered flights. Tourists taking the normal flights will be allowed entry November 15 onwards.

The government suspended international flights in March last year after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. The ministry has decided to ease the restriction taking into account the coronavirus situation in the country now and has begun granting fresh tourist visas for foreigners coming to India through chartered flights with effect from October 15, 2021, home ministry statement said. Foreign tourists entering into India by flights other than chartered aircraft would be able to do so only with effect from November 15, 2021 on fresh tourist visas it further mentioned.

Several state governments as well as various stakeholders in the tourism sector have urged the government to start tourist visas also to allow foreign tourists to come to India.

Meanwhile, after Britain, 30 other countries in the world have agreed to mutually recognise India’s Covid vaccine certificate. The countries that havae agreed on this mutual recognition with India include Germany, France, Belarus, Nepal, Lebanon, Ukraine, Armenia, Hungary and Serbia

While the latest nod may help several Indians who have international travel plans, there is a little detail that should be mentioned here that the mutual recognition is only pertaining to Covishield and not Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin as WHO has still not given its approval to the Bharat Biotech’s corona vaccine .

Earlier, the United Kingdom introduced new COVID-related travel guidelines that asked fully jabbed Indians to undergo 10 days of mandatory quarantine. Raised debated over ‘vaccine discrimination’ making the UK administration to remove the rules.

The recognition of the vaccination certificates will cater to help people move across countries for education, business, tourism, and other things in the post-pandemic world.