New Delhi, Nov. 11 -- India has simplified its visa regime by reducing the number of main visa categories from 13 to 9, and sub-categories from 49 to 23, with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) updating its IT systems to implement the changes and visa issuance under the revised framework is expected to begin by the end of this year.

The MHA has also undertaken a comprehensive exercise to simplify and rationalise visa application forms across 23 categories and sub-categories of Visas.

As per the ministry, the required fields or columns for all 23 categories and sub-categories of Visas have been reduced by 65 per cent to 70 per cent-- an initiative to significantly reduce the information required from foreign nationals and simplify visa f...