The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) today issued a gazetted notification in order to provide clarity on the Registration of Foreigners (Exemption) Order for neighbouring countries. The order has also detailed list of the exemptions with regard to some countries where visa/ passports are not required.
In what can be seen as government making clear things on the issue post the Act it has introduced, the new order states that the requirements for a valid passport, travel document and visa will not apply to citizens of Nepal or Bhutan entering India by land or air across the Nepal and Bhutan border. The exemption also applies if they possess a valid passport while entering or exiting India from or to a place other than Nepal or Bhutan, but not from China, Macau, Hong Kong or Pakistan.
Under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, introduced recently, every state government and Union Territory administration will set up dedicated holding centres or detention camps to restrict the movement of illegal foreigners till they are deported, the order issued by the MHA said.In a notification titled ‘Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025’, issued on Tuesday, Nitesh Kumar Vyas, Additional Secretary, said that this order replaces the Registration of Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 1957, and Immigration (Carriers’ Liability) Order, 2007, consolidating exemptions that were spread across earlier fragmented laws.
The exemptions will also apply to “a Tibetan who has already entered into India and staying in India or entering into India if he has registered with the Registration Officer concerned and obtained a certificate of registration in accordance with rule 13 of the rules”, it states, listing the norms. In another notification, the MHA said every foreigner applying for any category of visa, including registration as an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder, shall allow his or her biometric information to be taken by the authority issuing the visa or the authority granting the registration as OCI cardholder before the grant of such visa or registration as OCI cardholder.
“In case of illegal immigrants apprehended within India, they shall be imposed with restrictions on movement in a holding centre or camp pending deportation,” it said. The MHA order also puts certain restrictions on moutaineering expeditions saying that no foreigner or group of foreigners shall climb or attempt to climb any mountain peak in India without obtaining prior permission in writing from the central government .
India’s restricted areas include the entire states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan, among others.
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