A new Visa on Arrival (VoA) regime for Pakistani senior citizens was to have been launched here Tuesday but immigration officials said they had received a message from New Delhi asking them to put it on hold due to some ‘technical issues’.
‘No senior citizen fromPakistan came on Tuesday to seek a Visa on Arrival. Otherwise, we were ready for it. We are awaiting further instructions,’ an immigration official said here.
The visa centre, set up at the integrated check post (ICP) at Attari, wore a festive look Tuesday. It was inaugurated Tuesday by Foreigner Regional Registration Officer S.N. Sharma.
From the Indian side, Chanchal Manohar Singh, a senior journalist, availed the facility to cross over to Pakistan to get his visa on arrival there.
The Lahore-Delhi bus, ferrying people from Pakistan, also crossed over into India. However, its passengers came with regular visas to India.
The new facility will help nationals, aged 65 years or more, from both countries to avail visa on arrival at the Attari-Wagah border and walk across to the other country.
Under an agreement signed by India and Pakistan September last year, senior citizens from both countries will be allowed visa on arrival at the Attari-Wagah land border joint check post, 30 km from Amritsar in Punjab.
The (VoA) Scheme of the government has increasingly become popular with the tourists. The scheme registered a growth of 26 % in the year 2012 over the figures of 2011. A total number of 16,084 VoAs were issued in 2012 as compared to 12,761 issued in 2011.
‘No senior citizen fromPakistan came on Tuesday to seek a Visa on Arrival. Otherwise, we were ready for it. We are awaiting further instructions,’ an immigration official said here.
The visa centre, set up at the integrated check post (ICP) at Attari, wore a festive look Tuesday. It was inaugurated Tuesday by Foreigner Regional Registration Officer S.N. Sharma.
From the Indian side, Chanchal Manohar Singh, a senior journalist, availed the facility to cross over to Pakistan to get his visa on arrival there.
The Lahore-Delhi bus, ferrying people from Pakistan, also crossed over into India. However, its passengers came with regular visas to India.
The new facility will help nationals, aged 65 years or more, from both countries to avail visa on arrival at the Attari-Wagah border and walk across to the other country.
Under an agreement signed by India and Pakistan September last year, senior citizens from both countries will be allowed visa on arrival at the Attari-Wagah land border joint check post, 30 km from Amritsar in Punjab.
The (VoA) Scheme of the government has increasingly become popular with the tourists. The scheme registered a growth of 26 % in the year 2012 over the figures of 2011. A total number of 16,084 VoAs were issued in 2012 as compared to 12,761 issued in 2011.