Category	Existing Agreement	New Agreement
Diplomatic Visa	Category I 1) No mention of timeframe for issuing visa 2) Period of validity will be ordinarily one year Category II 3)    Single entry visa will be granted to high-ranking dignitaries 4)    The purpose of visit could be official, business or international conference	Category I 1) To be issued within a period not exceeding 30 days of application 2) Specifies that the visa is valid for the place and duration of assignment and for visiting other places special permission shall be sought. Category II 3)    Such visa will be granted to high-ranking dignitaries holding diplomatic passports. 4)    No special mention of the purpose of visit.
Non-Diplomatic Visa	1)    No mention of timeframe for issuing visa	1)    To be issued within a period not exceeding 45 days of application
Official Visa	1)    Valid for one month	1)    Valid for 15 days
Visitor visa	1)    Single entry visa to be issued for three months for meeting relatives, friends,business or other legitimate purpose. 2)    However the visa may be issued for longer period not exceeding one year if owing to the nature of work or business.	1)    Single entry visa to be issued for a maximum period 6 months but stay not to exceed 3 months at a time and for 5 places. ( currently limited to 3 places) 2) Business visa separated from visitor’s visa. Category II ( new) A visitor visa for a maximum five specified places  may be issued for alonger period upto two years withmultiple entries to : i) Senior citizens (those above 65 years of age); ii) Spouse of a national of one country married to person of another country; and iii) Children below 12 years of age accompanying parent(s) as given in (b) above.
Transit visa	1) To be issued for 72 hours	1) To be issued for 36 hours
Group Tourist visa	No provision	1) For not less than 10 people and not more than 50 people-valid for30 days-organised by approved tour operators/travel agents to furnish details 45 days in advance. The tour operator will be responsible for police reporting on behalf of the group. 2) List of designated Tour Operators as well as list of approved / identified routes and tourist destinations will be exchanged by both sides from time to time. 3) The Group Tourist Visa facilitywill also be available to students of educational institutions of both countries. However, this will be a tourist visa only and not for seeking admission in educational institutions of either country.
Business visa	1) Part of visitor visa category i.e., single entry for 3 months and for 1 year in certain cases.	Category I- Businessmen with an income of Pak Rs. half million or equivalent per annum or annual turnover / gross sale of Pak Rs. three million or equivalent will be given one yearbusiness visa, with five places for up to four entries Category II- Businessmen with an income of at least Pak Rs. five million or equivalent per annum or turnover of Pak Rs. thirty million or equivalent per annum will be given one year multiple entry business visas for upto ten places, with exemption from Police Reporting. General Instructions The visa shall specify that the period of stay of the businessman at a time shall not exceed 30 days. The maximum time taken in processing ofa business visa will not exceed more than five weeks.
Pilgrim Visa ***	No provision	Pilgrim visas will be issued to Pilgrims intending to visit religious shrines as per the 1974 Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines, or any future revision to the Protocol.  Such visas will need to be applied at least 45 days before the commencement of the intended tour. The visas will be issued at least ten days before the commencement of travel. These visas will be issued for a single entry, restricted to 15 days validity and would be non-extendable
Visa on arrival	No provision	1) Persons of more than 65 years of age- at Attari/Wagha checkpost for 45 days. This visa will be non-extendable and non-convertible.
Check Posts	1) By Air-India: Mumbai, Delhi and Amritsar. Pakistan: Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad 2) By Sea- Mumbai and Karachi 3) By Land- Wagha/Attari and Khokhrapar/Munabao Persons have to enter and exit through the same route and have to use same mode of travel for onward and return journey. Exemptions made on case to case basis	1) By Air- India: Mumbai/ Delhi/Chennai. Pakistan: Karachi/Lahore/Islamabad 2) By Sea- Mumbai/Karachi 3) By Land- Wagha/Attari and  Khokhrapar/Munabao People can enter and exit from different check posts and change in mode of travel will also be permitted. However, this is subject tothe exception that Exit from Wagha/Attari, by road (on Foot) cannot be accepted, unless the entry was also by foot via Attari/Wagha.
Registration	1) Registration within 24 hours (Exemption from Police Reporting (EPR) given on a case to case basis)	1) Registration within 24 hours Persons of more than sixty-five years of age, children below twelve years of age and Eminent Businessmen areexempted from Police Reporting.Bona fide businessmen, not in EPR category, may depute their authorized representatives for reporting.
Seamen	Issued a Landing Permit for a period not exceeding 24 hrs.	No change
Fee	Currently 12 Indian Rupees and 15 PKR	Fixed as 100 PKR or equivalent in INR
Validity of Visa	No provision	The applicant must avail the visa within a period of 90 days from the date of issue. If there are grounds requiring extension of validity, the concerned Mission will take a decision on such requests on priority.  This provision will not be applicable to the holders of Business Visa

Pakistan has not responded to India's request for a visa-free travel to Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara in that country. The government had requested for a safe corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur, Punjab, to Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara in the Narowal district in Pakistan during a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the two countries on 27th of June, 2008. India had proposed to Pakistan in that meeting to allow a small team to visit that country to discuss the modalities for visa-free travel through a corridor. But there has been no response till date. Minister of State for External Affairs, Preneet Kaur, gave this information in the Lok Sabha today.

ew Delhi today conveyed its concerns and asked Islamabad to check rumour mongering inciting violence in India. Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has expressed concern to his Pakistani counterpart over the issue of social media-networking sites being misused by elements based in Pakistan to circulate false pictures and stories so as to whip up (

1. उत्तेजित होना

)communal sentiments in India. He has sought Pakistan’s full cooperation in checking and neutralizing such elements.

Mr.Shinde expressed these views when Mr. Rehman Malik, Interior Minister of Pakistan spoke to him today over telephone. This was the first direct contact between the two Ministers.
Mr.Shinde conveyed his Eid wishes to him and the people of Pakistan. The Union Home Minister expressed the hope that the occasion would herald an improvement in Indo-Pak relations.

The Interior Minister of Pakistan briefly spoke of the pending issues between the two Ministries and re-iterated his commitment to bring the masterminds and perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack to justice. He assured full mutual cooperation in this matter. Mr. Rehman Malik also invited Mr. Shinde to visit Pakistan to sign the revised Visa agreement which has now been agreed to by both sides.

Both concluded the discussion by agreeing to continue the mutual cooperation and to work towards rooting out terrorism in all its form and manifestation.

India today attributed the failure of the signing of an agreement with Pakistan on new liberalized visa regime to some delay in the procedure in that country and Pakistani Interior Minister's desire for political participation in the exercise.

Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told mediapersons in New Delhi that India had gone to the Home Secretary-level talks in Islamabad fully prepared to sign the visa agreement as per the decision taken during the discussion between Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in April this year. Mr.Mathai added that both sides had attached a lot of importance on signing the visa agreement.

Replying to a question, Mathai said Pakistan had invited Home Minister P Chidambaram who had said that he would visit that country at a convenient time.

In Islamabad, Malik said an agreement on the new liberalised visa regime with India will not be inked during the ongoing Home Secretary-level talks suggesting that the pact should be concluded at the political level.

Rehman Malik made these remarks after meeting the Indian delegation led by Home Secretary R K Singh who is in Islamabad for talks with Pakistan's Interior Secretary Khwaja Siddique
Akbar.

The United States has said that there is no change in its policy towards issuing visas to Indian students. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily news conference in Washington yesterday that there is no change in the policy of providing visa to the Indian students and interviewing applicants. 

Nuland said that the US will make sure that the sponsoring organisations based in their country, are genuine and are bringing students over to educate them and not to put them to work.

Last week, Education Ministers of four Indian States - Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir - had visited several US cities to have a first hand experience of the community colleges in the United states.

New Delhi has finalised a new liberal Visa regime for Pakistan. This was disclosed by the Union Home Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram while inaugurating the first Integrated Check Post (ICP) with Pakistan at Attari border this evening. He expressed hope that Pakistan will also finalise a similar regime soon.

Mr. Chidambaram said that the ICP will facilitate smooth trade between the two countries apart from strengthening people to people contact. He appealed to Pakistanis to make use of this new ICP and its facilities. Our Correspondent reports that the ICP was inaugurated by the Home Ministers of the two countries along with the Commerce Ministers. Chief Ministers of two Punjabs were also present on the occasion. 

 Union Commerce Minister, Mr. Anand Sharma called upon all the neighbouring countries to work together for close relations between SAARC countries and face the challenge of poverty by re-channelising the resources. Pakistan Commerce Minister, Mr. Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that his country has decided in principal to introduce multiple visas for traders of both the countries for one year.