Short-Term Visa Requirements for Indians to Emigrate to the European Union

CARIM-India: Developing a knowledge base for policymaking on India-EU migrationThe need to make travel more accessible, convenient and smooth and to improve visa procedures is paramount in both economic and bilateral relations contexts. Towards this end, the paper aims at assessing potential visa facilitation processes and visa waiver programs between the EU and India. To gain an understanding of current visa requirements and procedures for Indians to immigrate to European countries, it deals explicitly with the visa requirements and hurdles involved in getting visa clearance for both long-term and short stays. Through an in-depth study of current migration flows between these two regions, the implications of facilitating visas for citizens of India – one of the world’s fastest growing source markets – is analysed. While findings suggest that the EU is increasingly becoming a destination for tourists, students, professionals and immigrants, millions more were deterred from traveling by cost, waiting time and the difficulty of obtaining a visa. The author calls for priority to be given to facilitating travel as a means to boost economic growth and create jobs. Opening up the travel regime could create millions of additional jobs in the EU economies, generate additional international tourism receipts and may then become the next frontier in bi-lateral relations between these countries.CARIM-India is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Union