Vialto Partners’ alert of 13 July confirms that India has quietly restructured its Employment-visa framework—the first substantive taxonomy change since 2017. The old E-1/E-2/E-3 sequence, which separated intra-company transferees from NGO staff, has been replaced by a three-tier model that folds ICTs into the general E-1 bucket, shifts NGO assignees into E-2, and moves missionary and religious workers into a stand-alone E-3. Although consular fees and maximum validity remain unchanged, mobility managers must review assignment letters and workflow templates to ensure job descriptions match the new nomenclature. The same government circular that re-classifies visas also hard-codes a long-mooted compliance tweak: foreign nationals who intend to stay beyond 180 days must now register with the FRRO before that threshold is reached, rather than after. Late registration will attract a daily penalty of ₹1,400 and may trigger exit-permit complications—an unwelcome prospect for project personnel on tight rotations.
![Employment-visa sub-categories reshuffled as India rolls out wider immigration overhaul]()
VisaHQ’s online platform can help companies and assignees avoid those penalties by flagging critical deadlines, pre-filling FRRO forms, and coordinating courier pick-ups for the new E-1, E-2 or E-3 visa categories; details are available at
Health protocols have tightened too. Travellers who have visited Ebola-affected countries in the preceding 21 days are temporarily barred from submitting Indian visa applications, and all international passengers—Indians included—must complete an online Air Suvidha 2.0 self-declaration within 36 hours of departure. Companies should update pre-trip questionnaires accordingly and budget extra time for approvals when routing staff through African hubs. Finally, the circular codifies the new electronic OCI card, aligning expatriate registration data with the broader IVFRT back-end. From an audit perspective this gives authorities end-to-end visibility of a foreign national’s visa, registration and exit history on a single dashboard—underscoring the need for employers to keep internal records pristine. Collectively the measures signal a pivot toward a security-first, data-centric immigration regime. Multinationals running Global Capability Centres or large construction projects should brief vendors, re-train travel desks and consider batch-filing FRRO registrations to avoid last-minute congestion.
VisaHQ’s online platform can help companies and assignees avoid those penalties by flagging critical deadlines, pre-filling FRRO forms, and coordinating courier pick-ups for the new E-1, E-2 or E-3 visa categories; details are available at
Health protocols have tightened too. Travellers who have visited Ebola-affected countries in the preceding 21 days are temporarily barred from submitting Indian visa applications, and all international passengers—Indians included—must complete an online Air Suvidha 2.0 self-declaration within 36 hours of departure. Companies should update pre-trip questionnaires accordingly and budget extra time for approvals when routing staff through African hubs. Finally, the circular codifies the new electronic OCI card, aligning expatriate registration data with the broader IVFRT back-end. From an audit perspective this gives authorities end-to-end visibility of a foreign national’s visa, registration and exit history on a single dashboard—underscoring the need for employers to keep internal records pristine. Collectively the measures signal a pivot toward a security-first, data-centric immigration regime. Multinationals running Global Capability Centres or large construction projects should brief vendors, re-train travel desks and consider batch-filing FRRO registrations to avoid last-minute congestion.
