Open houses to solve passport and visa issues of Indians living abroad

The government has instructed all its diplomatic missions to conduct open houses to solve problems faced by Indians in those countries.

The open houses are expected to be held at regular intervals — such as twice a month — and the details of the sessions have to be made public on the website of the missions. The open houses give an opportunity to Indian nationals and people of Indian origin to redress their complaints without seeking prior appointments.

“We are in the process of rolling out the scheme. And it should be done in matter of months,” an official told HT. The open house is a huge success in the US, which has encouraged the external affairs ministry to replicate the model all over the world. The grievances of the community related to issuance of visa, passport and Overseas Citizens Card are tended to at these sessions.

“For all such meetings, no prior appointment is required, anybody can walk in and the grievances/enquiries are handled immediately. That helps the people to come face to face with the officials who deal with the issues,” the official said.

Other than this, consular officers in all Indian Missions and Posts abroad are available on every working day to meet and handle general queries and grievances of the members of the public during designated hours for submission of applications for various services. In all Indian Missions/Posts, a 24x7 helpline has been established to deal with issues of urgent nature. All the Indian Missions and Posts also have a twitter handle to institutionalise their engagement on social media.