India has quietly lifted the 22-month freeze on tourist visas for citizens of Bangladesh—a suspension that had become a major irritant in bilateral ties and an obstacle to the US$9 billion people-to-people trade corridor that normally sees more than 1.7 million Bangladeshis cross the border every year. The breakthrough was announced in Dhaka on 25 June by India’s new High Commissioner, Dinesh Trivedi, minutes after he presented his credentials to President Mohammed Shahabuddin. Speaking at the Indian Visa Application Centre, Trivedi said that online appointments for standard tourist visas will open on 26 June and the first passports will be stamped on 28 June. Five IVACs—Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet—will handle the initial surge, with additional centres to be reopened “in the coming weeks”.
![India to Resume Tourist Visas for Bangladeshis from 28 June]()
For applicants who want to dodge early bottlenecks, VisaHQ can provide end-to-end assistance—from completing India’s online tourist-visa form to locking in an IVAC appointment and arranging secure passport delivery—via its dedicated portal at https://www.visahq.com/india/ The service tracks slot availability across cities in real time, helping travellers and the businesses hosting them avoid repeated checks on official sites.
Tourist visas were halted in August 2024 amid political unrest in Bangladesh and a diplomatic chill that also saw Dhaka curtail visas for Indian nationals. While Bangladesh reinstated most visa categories in February 2026, India continued to limit entry to medical and business travellers, creating a black-market for visas and forcing families to reroute through third countries. Hoteliers, private hospitals in Kolkata and Chennai, and retailers on India’s eastern corridor all reported double-digit revenue losses. Re-opening the pipeline restores a critical mobility link for two economies that share the world’s fifth-busiest land border. For Indian companies, it means corporate visitor traffic can again combine factory inspections with leisure itineraries, and medical-value-travel providers can resume bundled treatment-and-tourism packages. The decision is also expected to ease informal migration pressures by giving Bangladeshis a legal route for short-term visits, thereby supporting New Delhi’s wider border-management agenda. Practically, travellers should expect longer lead times for appointments as staffing ramps up. Visa facilitation firms recommend completing the online application and paying fees before taking an IVAC slot, and advise medical travellers to keep documentary evidence handy should appointment inventories tighten during the initial rush. Indian employers hosting Bangladeshi clients have been urged by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to factor in a 10-day processing buffer until volumes normalise.
For applicants who want to dodge early bottlenecks, VisaHQ can provide end-to-end assistance—from completing India’s online tourist-visa form to locking in an IVAC appointment and arranging secure passport delivery—via its dedicated portal at https://www.visahq.com/india/ The service tracks slot availability across cities in real time, helping travellers and the businesses hosting them avoid repeated checks on official sites.
Tourist visas were halted in August 2024 amid political unrest in Bangladesh and a diplomatic chill that also saw Dhaka curtail visas for Indian nationals. While Bangladesh reinstated most visa categories in February 2026, India continued to limit entry to medical and business travellers, creating a black-market for visas and forcing families to reroute through third countries. Hoteliers, private hospitals in Kolkata and Chennai, and retailers on India’s eastern corridor all reported double-digit revenue losses. Re-opening the pipeline restores a critical mobility link for two economies that share the world’s fifth-busiest land border. For Indian companies, it means corporate visitor traffic can again combine factory inspections with leisure itineraries, and medical-value-travel providers can resume bundled treatment-and-tourism packages. The decision is also expected to ease informal migration pressures by giving Bangladeshis a legal route for short-term visits, thereby supporting New Delhi’s wider border-management agenda. Practically, travellers should expect longer lead times for appointments as staffing ramps up. Visa facilitation firms recommend completing the online application and paying fees before taking an IVAC slot, and advise medical travellers to keep documentary evidence handy should appointment inventories tighten during the initial rush. Indian employers hosting Bangladeshi clients have been urged by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to factor in a 10-day processing buffer until volumes normalise.
