Recent changes by the Government of India offer a visa-on-arrival facility to citizens of a select group of five countries, something that New Delhi had been extremely hesitant to do so far because of security concerns. The countries nominated are Singapore, Finland, New Zealand, Luxembourg and Japan. Tourists from these countries can also procure their visas from their home countries as usual. The tourist visa-on-arrival has a maximum validity of 30 days with a single entry facility and will initially be granted by the Immigration Officers only at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata airports. The ‘two month gap’ rule between two visits applies to tourists availing of the visa-on-arrival facility.
However, the restriction of the two-month gap rule does not apply to PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) or OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card-holders and foreigners holding business, employment, student and other categories of visas.