Bangladesh Set to Resume Visa Operations for Indians After 'Technical Pause'

Over a month after Bangladesh put in place a “technical pause” on issuing visas to Indians for non-essential travel, Dhaka is learnt to be in the process of resuming full visa operations. While there is no official announcement or notification yet, sources said that with the Bangladesh elections having been held peacefully and a new Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in place, visa services are in “restart mode”. While some in Delhi view this as an outreach by the new government, sources played down the development, saying resumption of visa services was to take place on a routine basis. According to the sources, India is expected to reciprocate and normalise visa services, but a final call will be taken later. Bangladesh had put in place a “technical pause” on visas for non-essential travel in early January, in view of the sensitive situation in the run-up to the February 12 elections. However, it continued to grant visas to Indians who had to travel for urgent work or emergency or humanitarian grounds. The Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, Deputy High Commission in Kolkata and Assistant High Commission in Agartala had kept business and work visas beyond the purview of the restrictions. Bangladesh has diplomatic missions in Mumbai and Chennai as well, where the visa services remained operative. Earlier, India had imposed restrictions on visas for Bangladeshi nationals after August 5, 2024, when the then Sheikh Hasina government was ousted. On December 23 last year, consular and visa services at the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi were temporarily suspended because of “unavoidable circumstances”, according to a notice issued by the mission. Following the election of the Tarique Rahman government, India has reached out to Dhaka — from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s phone call and congratulatory message to the BNP chief on his victory, to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla attending the swearing-in ceremony. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who also went for the swearing-in ceremony, met Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafique Rahman, too. The Jamaat has emerged as the second largest party in Parliament. Earlier, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also met Rahman on December 31, and expressed confidence that Khaleda Zia ’s “vision and values” would “guide the development of the partnership”. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi on January 1 to convey condolences on Khaleda Zia’s death, on behalf of the government, and sign the condolence book there. All these are seen as positive outreach towards Dhaka, and Rahman reciprocated by not making any anti-India statements during his election campaign.