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| September 20, 2012 | India, Pak new visa agreement may take up to six months to come into action | | Dubai: The visa agreement signed between India and Pakistan, which aims at easing visa rules for
travellers to each other's country, may take at least three to six months before
it translates into reality. "Before it (visa agreement) comes under operation,
it has to be ratified at both ends... it is a very important agreement and part
of India's step-by-step graduated approach towards normalisation of its relations
with Pakistan," Dubai-based newspaper Xpress quoted Namrata Kumar, Deputy Chief
of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, as saying. "The ratification process
generally takes time - between three to six months. However, since both countries
are keen to make the agreement operational at the earliest, we anticipate that
this should not take much time," she added. The Indian Consulate in Dubai said
it received 63 visa applications from Pakistanis in August against 53 the previous
month. Meanwhile, the initial excitement of many cross-border couples has now
given way to skepticism, who have claimed to be in a wait-and-watch mode. Floyd,
a Dubai-based event manager from Karachi who is married to an Indian, said he
had applied for a visa in June soon after news of the impending visa regime broke,
but the outcome was "disappointing". "Two weeks ago, I came to know from BLS that
my visa has been rejected but I was not notified about the grounds of rejection,"
he added. Zubair Farooqui, a Dubai-based Indian with a Pakistani wife, said: "The
new rules don't excite me as I don't see any benefits for cross-border couples.
Why can't we get visas on arrival?" | |
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