India: General Immigration

In this episode of Podcast Bites powered by IndiaLaw LLP, Nikita Dlima and Rahul Sundaram discuss the Gujarat High Court’s decision in Dolly Khilankumar Vadalia Nee Dolly Ketan Barai v. Union of India and Others.

In Directorate of Enforcement v. Joy of India & Ors., Writ Petition No. 698 of 2018, the Karnataka High Court reaffirmed the statutory test for determining whether a person qualifies as a "person resident in India" under Section 2(v) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 ("FEMA").

The India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), in force since 15 July 2026, introduces structured, capped mobility categories for professionals moving between the two countries. For employers on both sides, particularly those with cross-border secondment arrangements or client-facing service contracts, these quotas are not a background policy detail. They directly affect how many employees can be deployed, under what visa category, and within what annual limits.

India has expanded its eVisa framework to include four new categories...

India has long been recognized as a global hub of highly trained and skilled workforce, especially in technology, finance, and business services.

The global competition for high-skilled talent has intensified dramatically over the past decade. Countries increasingly recognise that economic growth, technological innovation, and global competitiveness depend on attracting and retaining skilled professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The State Department's January Visa Bulletin still shows significant backlogs in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories for India- and China-born nationals, with delays of up to 12 years for India-born nationals and four years.

In 1971, the Ministry of Home Affairs ("MHA") set up the Bureau of Immigration ("BoI") as a border control agency.

The Indian Visa Application Center (IVAC) in Bangladesh is temporarily only processing visa applications based on emergencies and humanitarian issues.