In news

The Government has approved the continuation of the Immigration Visa Foreigners Registration Tracking (IVFRT) Scheme beyond March 31, 2021 for a period of five years from  April 1, 2021 to  March 31, 2026

Aim

It aims to provide a secure and integrated service delivery framework that facilitates legitimate travelers while strengthening national security, through this scheme.

Details

• The continuation of the scheme shows the Modi Government’s commitment to the core objective of IVFRT, which is modernization and up-gradation of Immigration and Visa services. 
  
• The project has a global outreach and seeks to interlink and optimize functions relating to immigration, visa issuance, registration of foreigners and tracking of their movements in India.
  
• After the commencement of IVFRT, the number of Visa and OCI cards issued increased from 44.43 lakh in 2014 to 64.59 lakh in 2019 at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.7 per cent. 
• Average visa processing time of 15 to 30 days (during  pre-IVFRT period) has been reduced to a maximum of 72 hours in e-visas, with 95 per cent of e-visas issued within 24 hours.  

IVFRT scheme?

• The Immigration, Visa, Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT) scheme is administered by the ministry of home affairs.
• IVFRT scheme seeks to interlink and optimise functions relating to immigration, visa issuance, registration of foreigners and tracking of their movements in India.
• The ministry aims to provide a secure and integrated service delivery framework that facilitates legitimate travellers while strengthening national security, through this scheme.
• It is a multi-ministry project which brings together a number of immigration, visa and registration tasks onto one IT platform, for greater control and efficiency.

Source: PIB