What are the latest changes in visa rules to aid Indians marrying aboard?

Visa rules are strict in any country to restrict illegal entries and unauthorized residents. One of such rules has proven a hurdle to the couples married outside the country and want to convert their visiting visa into dependent visa or X2 visa.

As per the visa manual, a tourist visa can be converted to an X2 visa only when the marriage takes place in India and gets registered within the validity of the present tourist visa. Another wise one has to go back to their country and come again on the X2 visa.

Owing to the appeal from a Philipino spouse of an Indian national, who got married outside India, for converting her tourist visa into dependent visa in India, the Indian Government has amended the visa rules. They have streamlined the process and much to the relief of Indians marrying outside the country, they said even if the wedding takes place on a foreign land, it is valid.

"We are doing away with the particular rule and simplifying it so that irrespective of the place of wedding, foreign spouses can convert their tourist visas to dependent visas,” a senior official from the Home Minister's Office has confirmed.

The most important clause in this amendment is the facility is not extended to the nationals of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan and Iraq, and citizens of Pakistani origin and stateless persons.