An Employment Travel is provided to travel and work in India. It is granted to those foreigners who are highly qualified and skilled. It is also granted to a paid intern of an overseas company who is traveling to India for volunteer work with NGOs.

Eligibility conditions

To apply for this travel, the foreign citizen must be educated and skilled in any profession such as;

• i.The citizen coming to India should have the contract with an Indian company whom the applicant will work on a fixed remuneration (it should not be in the form of a monthly salary).
• ii.The foreign artist who is engaged with India’s different fraternity and conducts regular performances for a while with employment contract provided him or her by club, organization, and Hotels.
• iii.The overseas nationals who are visiting India to attend or take up employment as coaches in a national and state level or reputed sports clubs can avail employment travel.
• iv.Self-employed foreign citizens coming to India for providing legal accounting, medical, engineering, or such other highly professional and skilled services in their capacity as an independent coach or consultant services are permitted with employment visa under the law.
• v.The foreign sportsmen who are provided a contract for a specific duration by the Indian organization or club can enter India to play the games.
• vi.The foreign language interpreters, translators, or teachers can also apply for employment visa if they are given a contract by the Indian organization to teach students.
• vii.The employment visa is also provided to professional cooks and chefs.
• viii.Foreign engineers or technicians visiting India for commissioning of equipment/ machines, installation, or tools in terms of the contract by Indian company can supply once the applicant gets employment travel.
• ix. A citizen of a foreign country who provides technical support or services to an Indian company and gets fees/ royalty or can get an employment travel.
• x.The senior management personnel or any specialists employed by the film fraternity who is ready to relocate in India to work on a special project or management assignment can avail of this travel.
• xi.Any foreign nationals who are visiting India to repair machinery and maintenance on contract can avail employment visa for a short visit.
• xii.If a foreign nation coming to India to provide training for the personnel of the Indian company is provided with the same.
• xiii.And, those traveling to India for non-government organization volunteer work can apply for an India Employment visa as well.

Condition of granting employment travel

• i.The applicant should be well-qualified or highly skilled in a profession and can be engaged or appointed by a company/industry or any organization undertaking in India on a contract basis as technical expert, senior-level employ, senior executive, or in a managerial position is granted with employment travel.
• ii.The employment visa holder must not be Indian.
• iii.The employment visa also cannot grant for clerical or secretarial jobs and routine and ordinary works.
• iv.The employee must visit India if he or she serves for any India registered company/ organization, film company engaged for some project in India.
• v.If an employee’s salary is above INR 16.25 lakhs per annum can grant this travel. However, this condition does not apply if:
  a) For ethnic cooks
  b) Language teacher (other than English language teacher) or translator
  c) Staff who works for a high commission in India or embassy
• vi.The foreign citizen who wants to apply for an employment visa must comply with all legal requirements such as tax, liabilities, and payment.
• vii.The foreign citizen must provide all the legal documents when he is going to apply for an employment travel.
• viii.The name of the sponsoring organization shall offer a clear stipulated visa sticker.
• ix.The Indian organization that sponsors an employment visa does not need to be the legal employer of that person.
• x.A foreign organization that does not have its own office/ subsidiary/joint venture or branch office in India cannot sponsor an employment visa to its employees. However, if the Indian company offers a contract to a foreign company that doesn’t have any property or office in India, such foreign companies can sponsor the employee for an employment travel.
• xi.The Indian organization, engaging with foreign companies, wishes to work together, will be responsible for the conduct, if something happens wrong, or stay in India during the visit. However, the company will also be responsible for the departure of that foreign company.

Duration and validity

• i.The validity of an Indian Employment Travel is provided for the duration while you are in India for work purpose, however, the stay must not exceed one year.
• ii.If you are a foreign technician applying for Indian employment travel, then you are allowed to stay for 5 years with multiple entries in India during your employment. It is a bilateral agreement between the Indian and the foreign government.
• iii.If you are highly skilled foreign personnel, employed in the IT Software Company or sectors, the employment visa is provided to you for 3 years with multiple entries in India.
• iv.Others are granted an Employment Travel with maximum validity up to 2 years until the assignment or work is not done. However, this visa is also come up with multiple entries.

Note: the validity of an Employment Travel commences from the date of issuance, and NOT from your date of arrival into India.

Travel extension

If you want to extend your employment visa validity, then the authority offers you up to 5 years from the date of issue for an annual basis, is subject to good production with necessary documents in support of continued employment, filing income tax returns, and no adverse security inputs. The foreigner should obtain this facility from FRRO or MHA in the concerned state in India.
Grant of Employment Travel to Japanese Technicians

(b) The extension of staying in India for Japanese can be granted 2 more years beyond the existing 3 years to those applicants who have entered India with employment travel as mentioned above in (ii), according to the techniques decided with the aid of the Government of India (GOI). However, as per the (iii) above, are granted 2 extra years on a year to year basis beyond the existing 3 years after checking necessary documents.

(c)The Employment Travel offers you multiple entries to the applicant, however, it is also provided to the applicant’s family member (spouse and kids who are dependent on the candidate, who performing an important part in the household) of the citizens of Japan, mentioned in (a) above, Japanese nationals holding Employment Travel.

(d) The Employment Travel with multiple entries is granted to applicants’ family members so that they can visit India to meet their loved ones. For that, Japanese nationals who are required to sign up with the FRRO/ FRO concerned need no longer be present in the FRRO/ FRO for initial registration or the next extension of visa/ Residential permit and this could be finished through a certified representative.

The Conversion of an Employment Travel

Employment Travel is the only visa that is non-convertible to any other type of visa expert in emergency cases. However, if someone needs to convert this visa into another type of travel, then he should read the policy guidelines.

Conversion of ‘E-3X’ travel to ‘E’ travel (Entry or Employment)

The conversion of ‘E-3X’ or Entry Travel of any applicants’ spouse on intra-company transfer into the Employment Travel can be permitted in the country where the applicant works, which is subject to the candidates fulfilling of all the necessary documents and conditions with the approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Change of Employer

If the employer is getting changed, then he or she shall not be permitted to do that, except in cases of change of employment between a registered company, joint ventures & consortiums, and its subsidiaries. The change of employment would be granted at a senior level such as senior executive, managerial, and highly skilled position; technical expert. However, it needs the permission of the Ministry of Home Affairs.