The Union cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved ₹1,800 crore for the Immigration, Visa, Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT) project to continue beyond March 31 for another five years.
The IVFRT system, operational since 2010, assists immigration officers and interlinks all functions related to immigration, visa issuance, and registration of foreigners in India.
Notably, the immigration authorities were able to locate the recently arrested six Ukrainian nationals and an American citizen, Mathew Van Dyke, by tracing the Form-C mandatorily submitted by all foreigners to the FRROs (Foreigner Regional Registration Office) regarding their hotel stay.
The core objective of the IVFRT is to modernise and upgrade immigration and visa services within a secure and integrated service delivery framework, aiming to facilitate legitimate travellers while strengthening national security.
The scheme seeks to expand and strengthen the scope and capacity of the existing IVFRT scheme by introducing state-of-the-art technological solutions to enhance user experience without compromising the security architecture.
The modernization of the IVFRT project is essential to meet the evolving demands of global travel and address emerging national security challenges.
The continuation of the project is not just a technical upgrade, but a strategic transformation aligned with the vision of the government of India to promote international mobility through a world-class immigration and visa issuance system.
