India Warns: Unauthorized Websites Issuing E-Visas

NEW DELHI (ANI) – India is taking several steps to minimize the appearance of unauthorized and unrecognized private websites that claim to facilitate the issuance of e-Visas, Minister of State Nityanand Rai said on July 25.

Rai said these unauthorized private websites also appear through search engines, because of which the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has coordinated with Google search engine to ensure that Indian Visa official link appears prominently in the search engine.

The Minister of State further said that the Bureau of Immigration refers from time to time, the list of such unauthorized websites to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team to disable them from accessing the Indian official visa portal.

“Visa service providers are engaged by Indian Missions under the Ministry of External Affairs. With respect to such service providers, it is specifically mentioned in the contract/Request for proposals for tenders that Outsourced Service Providers will properly scrutinize the application forms submitted before forwarding the same to Indian Missions/Posts abroad. To avoid any lapses on their part, a checklist is also maintained. Regular inspections/surprise visits are also carried out,” he said.