Government Retracts Online Registration Rule for Indian Nationals Traveling to 18 Countries

The situation

The Ministry of External Affairs issued a Public Notice  temporarily withdrawing the recently-implemented rule requiring Indian nationals who do not have an ‘Emigration Check Required’ stamp (non-ECR) traveling from India for work to 18 countries to register on the e-Migrate portal prior to their departure from India. The Ministry of stated that it retracted the rule due to difficulties reported by users of the e-Migrate portal. Per the Notice, those who would like to voluntarily register on the system can still do so.

Impact

Indian nationals with a non-ECR passport traveling from India for employment to the below 18 countries, will no longer be subject to the requirement to mandatorily register online after January 1, 2019 prior to their departure from India:

• Afghanistan
• Bahrain
• Indonesia
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Libya
• Malaysia
• Oman
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Syria
• Thailand
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen

Looking ahead

The Public Notice states that this rule is in abeyance until further notice. Fragomen will report on related developments with this rule.

Fragomen in India is Fragomen Immigration Services India (Pvt) Ltd., operating exclusively as an immigration consultancy and not as a law firm in India. This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].