India is set to resume normal visa operations in Bangladesh nearly two years after services were severely curtailed due to violent protests during the movement that led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.
Indian High Commissioner Dinesh Trivedi on Thursday announced the resumption of normal visa operations soon after presenting his credentials to the Bangladeshi president, and said applications for tourist visas will be accepted from June 28.
Trivedi visited the Indian Visa Application Center (IVAC) at Jamuna Future Park in Dhaka to review the visa processes. According to the Indian High Commission’s post on social media, Trivedi noted that IVAC is one of the largest visa facilitation centers in India and serves as a center for people-to-people exchanges with Bangladesh.
India’s largest visa operation is in Bangladesh, which had emerged as one of the biggest sources of tourists until the 2024 protests. India has 16 Indian visa application centers across Bangladesh, and five of them have resumed operations, while the rest will reopen in phases, people familiar with the matter said.
Although services have been reduced since 2024, largely for security reasons, the number of visas issued has risen steadily. The Indian Mission in Bangladesh currently issues 1,500 to 2,000 visas daily. Most of these visas are intended for patients, students and business people.
With the resumption of normal services, the number of tourist visas will increase, the people said.
The visa application centers will be reopened in phases as the service provider, State Bank of India, will have to recruit and train contractual staff to manage the centres, the people said.
A total of 1.6 million Bangladeshi citizens visited India in 2023. Of them, 60% visited for tourism, 30% for medical treatment, and the rest for other purposes.
Resuming normal visa services was a major demand of the Bangladeshi side, especially for tourism and medical purposes. Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi nationals used to visit India for treatment, and some private medical facilities in West Bengal and Assam have expanded to cater to their needs.
