16 countries provide visa-free entry to Indian passport holders: Centre

The Rajya Sabha, during the monsoon session of the Parliament, was informed on Tuesday that there are a total of 16 countries including Nepal, the Maldives, Bhutan, and Mauritius that provide visa-free entry to the Indian passport holders. Giving the details, the minister of state for external affairs V Murleedharan, informed the Upper house that 16 countries provide visa-free entry.

These include:

1. Barbados 2. Bhutan 3. Dominica 4. Grenada 5. Haiti 6. Hong Kong SAR Also Read | What! This top brand is selling jeans with fake grass stains for Rs 88,000 7. Maldives 8. Mauritius 9. Montserrat 10. Nepal 11. Niue Island 12. Samoa 13. Senegal 14. Trinidad and Tobago 15. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 16. Serbia Murleedharan pointed out that 43 countries provide a visa-on-arrival facility and there are 36 such countries that provide e-visa facility to the Indian ordinary passport holders.

The countries that provide visa-on-arrival facilities include Iran, Indonesia, and Myanmar while Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and Malaysia are among the 26 countries that have an e-visa facility, according to the information provided by Murleedharan. The minister also said that the government has been making efforts to increase the number of countries that offer visa-free travel, visa-on-arrival, and e-visa facilities to Indians in an order to ease international travel. On the other hand, the Donald Trump administration is all set to make it tough for the US firms to hire foreigners on H-1B non-immigrant short-term visas by limiting the definition of ‘specialty’ occupation and raising minimum wages for employees. -PTC News