The Indian government had introduce “Tourist Visa on Arrival” scheme. This led to confusion as foreign nationals from eligible countries often misunderstood that they will be granted visa upon arrival at the port of entry in India, while they were actually required to apply online prior to travel. To avoid this confusion, India recently rechristened this scheme to “e-Tourist Visa”. Eligible foreign nationals are…

A recent update on the Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) website indicates that the system will be unavailable from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Washington D.C. Daylight Saving Time on Saturday, March 28, 2015. If a non-immigrant or immigrant visa applicant is scheduled for biometrics on Sunday, March 29 or visa interview on Monday, March 30…

The Business Executive Program (BEP) was established in the 1990’s at the U.S. Missions in India. With effect from April 1, 2015, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and the Consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai will retire this program. Effectively, all BEP log-in’s will be disabled. All appointments made using the BEP login…

A recent update on www.ustraveldocs.com/in (official visa information website of the U.S. Mission in India) indicates that the facility to accept payments using Credit Card is currently unavailable. It may be noted that certain fees including fee for Blanket L (only at Chennai) could be paid using a credit card. Since this facility is currently…

The government of India has issued a gazette notification recently on January 9, 2015 based on the Ordinance passed on January 6, 2015 to amend the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955. The gazette notification can be found here and Ordinance can be found here. Effective January 9, 2015 the government of India and the Indian consular…

Regular readers of MurthyIndiaDotCom are aware that the U.S. Citizenship Services Section of the U.S. Consulate General, Chennai, periodically provides outreach services at Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), to help U.S. citizens. The next outreach program at Bengaluru is scheduled between March 9 and March 13, 2015. These services will be available only by prior appointments and…

Attorney Sheela Murthy, Founder and President of Murthy Law Firm was joined by Attorneys Senthil Kumar and Gnanamookan at the American Bazaar IT Conclave held at The Taj Vivanta, Bengaluru on Saturday, January 24, 2015. Attorney Murthy provided insight on the latest in U.S. Immigration Law and was joined by Attorneys from Murthy Immigration Services…

Services Section of the U.S. Consulate General, Chennai, periodically provides outreach services at Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), to help U.S. citizens. Readers may recall that the outreach program was cancelled for the previous month. The latest update on the consular website indicates that they have planned for an outreach program at Bengaluru for February 2015. However,…

With a subscription of over 5 million Indian Professionals, SiliconIndia has both online and two edition of print presence – one for India and one for the U.S. SiliconIndia has built an online community to answer questions and provide a forum for these professionals. The December edition of SiliconIndia features Murthy Immigration Services (P) Ltd.…

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had set a deadline of November 24, 2015 for phasing out all non-machine readable passports across the globe. The ICAO is a United Nations specialized agency, created in 1944 by the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention). ICAO along with the Convention’s 191 Member States and global aviation…