India, Pak sign new visa agreement : highlights

New Delhi, Dec 15 : India and Pakistan today signed a new liberalized visa agreement agreed to in September this year. The agreement was signed by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The contours of the liberalized visa regime were agreed to during the Islamabad visit of the then External Affairs Minister S M Krishna. No police reporting for under 12s, over 65s and businesspersons are among the highlights of the new agreement that comes ahead of the Pakistan cricket series - three one-days and two T-20s from Dec 25 - for which Pakistani fans are expected to come to India. Key features of new visa agreement: Visitor visa: 1. Places of visit allowable increased from three to five places 2. In exceptional cases, visitor visa for one year could be issued in the past. Now provision made for issue of visa upto two yers in following cases: a. Persons above 65 years of age b. National of one country married to national of the other country c. Children below 12 years accompanyig parents in (b) above Visa on Arrival; can be granted at Attari/wagah checkpost to persons more than 65 years of age for 45 days with single entry (effective from 15th january, 2013) Business Visa; Exemption from Police reporting for Business visa granted to businessmen with an annual income above Pak rs 5 million or equivalent or annual turnover above Pak rs 30 million or equivalent. Group Tourist Visa ; Group Tourist Visa for 30 days may be issued for travel in groups, with not less than 10 mebers and not more than 50 members in each group, orgnized by approved touroperators/travel agents (effective from 15th Marc, 2013) Entry and exit : Now entry and exit from different designation Immigration check Posts can be allowd, if indicated in application However exit from Wagha/Attari on foot cannot be accepted unless the entry was also on foot via Attari/Wagah.