JAKARTA - India resumed accepting tourist visa applications from Bangladeshi citizens on June 28 through five Indian Visa Application Centres, restoring a travel category that had been suspended after visa operations were scaled back in Bangladesh in 2024.
Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi announced the reopening on June 25 during a visit to the Indian Visa Application Centre at Jamuna Future Park in Dhaka. India’s state-owned agency BSS reported that the five operating centres are in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chattogram, Sylhet and Khulna.
“Applications for tourist visas can be submitted from Sunday, 28th of June 2026,” Trivedi said, according to Prothom Alo. He said India would continue to facilitate urgent medical visas on humanitarian grounds.
The reopening gives Bangladeshi travellers a formal route to apply again for tourism-related visits to India, including short leisure trips and family travel. Trivedi said India would gradually scale up operations in other cities after the initial restart through the five centres.
India had continued limited visa operations during the suspension, especially for urgent and humanitarian travel. The Daily Star reported that India had been issuing more than 1,500 visas daily across all categories except tourist visas.
The scale-down followed security concerns after the events of August 5, 2024. According to a statement cited by The Daily Star, Indian missions in Bangladesh reduced visa operations after the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre in Dhaka was ransacked and set on fire, five Indian Visa Application Centres came under attack, and Indian personnel working on development projects faced threats.
Bangladesh has remained one of India’s largest sources of foreign tourist arrivals. India’s Press Information Bureau said Bangladesh accounted for 1,750,165 foreign tourist arrivals in India in 2024, down from 2,119,826 in 2023 and 2,577,727 in 2019.
