India Eases Business Visa Norms for Chinese Experts

• India eases business visas for Chinese engineers/techs
• Digital platform speeds sponsorship; cuts red tape
• Reverses post-2020 delays; avoids $15B losses

To​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ ensure a relaxed entry of foreign engineers and technicians, India has modified the regulations for business visas. As a result, the policy change is beneficial to Chinese professionals whose knowledge is the key to Indian manufacturing. This overhaul has been made to address the issues that were causing the sectors that are dependent on the import of Chinese machinery to be in trouble due to the delay of the process for the arrival of foreign engineers and technicians. Among these sectors, there are electronics and solar energy production.

Some of the key modifications are that the Department for the Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) launched a digital platform last month. A company can prepare a sponsorship letter online in a few minutes with the help of this platform. The visa application forms have been changed for the better, and the process of acquiring extra authorizations from different ministries has been removed, thereby significantly speeding up the whole procedure.

 The relaxation of the rules is for the support of the occurrence of installation, commissioning, and maintenance in the factory as well as production and worker training - activities in which Indian companies use the assistance of Chinese experts to operate and optimize advanced equipment.

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These moves undo the tightening of the screws after the border fight in the Galwan Valley in October 2020, following which Chinese visa applications were heavily scrutinized; this, in turn, resulted in delays that were as long as several months and according to the estimated losses in production that amounted to about $15 billion over the four years period for Indian electronics manufacturers. The latter was confirmed by research organizations. Among others, Xiaomi experienced staff deployment difficulties thus the company could not expand its business as planned. The solar sector suffered from a lack of skills.

The relaxation of the policy came about as a result of talks between the two countries. Modi visited China in 2025 after seven years and met with President Xi Jinping in an effort to stabilize the relationship. Besides that, China will begin to issue visas to Indian citizens from December 22 using an online system. The Ministry of External Affairs of India announced that business as well as tourist visas will be fully resumed for Chinese ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌nationals.