New visa rules ‘will hit’ Indian-Americans

A New York-based Indian American organisation today asked the Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, to reconsider the new visa rules for foreign nationals born in Pakistan as they would hit a large number of Indian Americans.

A memorandum was submitted to the Indian Consulate in New York by a delegation of the Indian American Intellectuals Forum. The memorandum was handed over to the Deputy Consul General, A. M. Gondane.

While welcoming the Home Ministry’s direction to all missions that all applications for visas from Pakistan-born U.S. nationals need to be referred to New Delhi for clearance, the Indian-American Intellectuals Forum in its memorandum said the new regulation has a serious flaw, which needs to be immediately addressed.

“This decision treats Pakistan-born Pakistani-Americans and Pakistan-born Indian-Americans on equal footing.

We feel that this decision will adversely affect thousands of Indian-American passport holders born in Pakistan,” the memorandum said.

“If hurriedly implemented, this decision could create a lot of problems for Pakistan-born Indian Americans who frequently travel to India on business and pleasure trips. In addition to that Pakistan-born Indian Americans could feel punished for no fault of their own. This anomaly has to be addressed at an early date,” urged the Forum.