India Updates Travel Rules For International Travelers — Important Points As Per The Latest Guidelines

Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation has made it mandatory for all international passengers to declare their current health status on  Air Suvidha Portal before boarding their flight.

In view of the Omicron fear and to ensure the possible prevention of it, the exemption forms from the Air Suvidha portal have now been discontinued for the time being.

It is mandatory for all international passengers arriving in India to declare their current health status prior to boarding on the Air Suvidha Portal.

Passengers are also required to submit a copy of the  following documents:

• Copy of Passport
• PCR Negative Certificate from a Test conducted within 72 hours of departure and the Vaccination Certificate.
• For immigration, the copy received in e-mail is essential on arrival in India and has to be verified at the APHO counter.

Further, those travelling from ‘at-risk’ countries, will be required to undergo a test on arrival too; the same can be pre-booked by clicking on the testing facility link.

As of now, following steps are to be followed by international passengers travelling to India.

• They will be required to submit a self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha portal.
• On the portal, they will also need to submit a negative RT-PCR test report; the test should have been conducted within 72 hours before the journey.
• Further, they will be required to undergo a self-paid COVID-19 test on arrival at the airport.
• Passengers are also advised to undergo home quarantine for 7 days.
• Re-test on the 8th day and if negative, self-health monitoring for next 7 days
• Also, post-arrival COVID-19 testing is mandatory for travelers from at-risk countries like Europe, the United Kingdom, Botswana, South Africa, Mauritius, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Israel, Tanzania, China, Ghana, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Updates made to make Air Suvidha friendlier for passengers and health/State officials

• All applications from ‘at risk’ countries are marked with H and red band and others are green. This helps in smooth on arrival segregation and processing. This list is dynamically updated to keep up with MOHFW updates.
• Application also takes into account countries visited in the last 14 days to highlight ‘at risk’ applications. This field is also made into multi-select drop-down option for standardization.
• Standardization of fields by providing drop-down list E.g. district and state for address.
• Updated FAQ list and customer care link along with the latest advisory at the start of the portal.
• For ‘At Risk’ countries passengers are advised to pre-book their test on arrival test and the link to respective testing facility is provided to the passengers on SDF submission.

List of Countries from where travelers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing

Countries ‘At-Risk’ – Updated As On 6th Dec

1. Countries in Europe including The United Kingdom
2. South Africa
3. Brazil
4. Botswana
5. China
6. Ghana
7. Mauritius
8. New Zealand
9. Zimbabwe
10. Singapore
11. Tanzania
12. Hong Kong
13. Israel

The Air Suvidha portal was launched by India in August 30 2020 to make international air travel hassle-free, queue free, and convenient.

It also helps authorities to trace the passengers who enter India from ‘at-risk’ countries where new Omicron variant is prevalent.