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Heavier fines of US$ 500 for overstaying foreigners
View(s):The Department of Immigration and Emigration has increased the penalty for overstaying foreigners without a valid visa to USD 500 in addition to the visa fee, a senior official said.
He said the the earlier the penalty was imposed in three stages until the new fine was announced yesterday.
Until yesterday, the penalty for overstaying the visa between seven to 30 days was US$ 25, for 30 to 90 days US$ 50 and above 90 days US$ 100.
Under the new system enforced from yesterday, a blanket penalty of US$ 500 would be imposed.
“The sharp increase was to discourage foreigners who entered the country under various visa categories and overstayed for a long time,” the senior official said, while stressing that the number of foreigners charged for overstaying saw an increase in recent years.
Amending the Immigration and Emigration Regulations Act through a Gazette notification last week, the Immigration and Emigration Controller General revised 13 visa categories.
Accordingly, under the Residence Visa-1 category in which investors, employees, students are eligible to apply, the visa fee applicable for one year is fixed as US$ 200. Earlier the visa fee for this category was Rs 10,000 along with a tax of Rs 10,000.
For South Asian tourists, the revised visa fee is US$ 25 on arrival whereas for other countries, it is revised to US$ 40.