The Centre has approved continuation of the Immigration Visa Foreigners Registration Tracking (IVFRT) Scheme for a period of five years from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2026 with an outlay of ₹1,364.88 crore.
The government also said the average visa processing time, which was earlier at about 15-30 days, has now been reduced to a maximum of 72 hours in e-visas with 95 per cent of e-visas getting issued within 24 hours.
“The continuation of the scheme shows the Modi government’s commitment to the core objective of IVFRT, which is modernisation and up-gradation of immigration and visa services,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.
The statement added that the aim is to provide a secure and integrated service delivery framework that facilitates legitimate travellers while strengthening national security.
IVFRT scheme
“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 offices and more than 700 Foreigners Registration Officers (FROs), Superintendents of Police (SPs)/Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) across the country,” the Ministry added.
After the implementation of IVFRT, the number of Visa and 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.
Average visa processing time of 15 to 30 days (during pre-IVFRT period) has been reduced to a maximum of 72 hours in e-visas, with 95 per cent of e-visas issued within 24 hours.
International traffic to and from India grew from 3.71 crore to 7.5 crore during last 10 years at a CAGR of 7.2 per cent, as per government estimates.