India-Canada tensions could impact McMaster students holiday plans

Despite the resuming of processing for certain visas to enter India, travel visas in particular remain inaccessible to students who wanting to travel there this holiday season

On Oct. 25, the Indian Government resumed processing certain visas, including entry and conference visas. Visas are notations in passports granted by international countries embassies where a person does not hold passport or permanent residency. 

On Sept. 21 the Government of India paused the processing of VISA requests from Canadian passport holders. The pause on visa processing arose after the Government of Canada expressed that they believed the Indian Government assisted in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who expressed beliefs pertaining to independent Khalistan State. The statement had caused several other actions to be taken by both countries.

This pause resulted in a few different impacts on the Canadian passport-holding population. Given that the overall service was paused, any applications that had been submitted before the pause were affected. Canadians currently in India are also affected, as any requests for extensions of stay were not being processed. 

For those who intend on visiting family and relatives in India, tourist visas are still not being processed. Additionally, if your layover for a flight requires staying in India for over 24 hours (or to leave the designated transit areas) a transit visas is required. Transit visas are currently suspended as well. 

Given the current pause on tourist and transit visas, the two types of visas students are most likely to need if they are travelling to India to visit family or tourism purposes, this pause could have an impact on students' upcoming plans.

This is an ongoing story.