India Mulls Streamlining Visa Approval Process For Chinese Engineers To Fuel Local Manufacturing Growth

The government is contemplating further simplification of procedures for timely approval of visas for Chinese professionals and technicians whose expertise is needed by the Indian industry to establish manufacturing capabilities.

Certain Indian industry players have approached the government stating that they are facing problems in getting visas for Chinese professionals whose expertise is required for things like setting up machines in factories.

Recently, the government has established a standard operating procedure (SOP) to simplify the visa approval process for Chinese technicians. These technicians' skills are needed by vendors participating in the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

"Now we may be liberalising it for others. That process is on and a Cabinet note is under preparation. Within the existing system, there is an SOP now to expedite visas for Chinese who are to come in to help set up manufacturing capacity in India. We have already streamlined it quite a bit, now we are trying to see whether it could be done for them," a government official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

A professional might not possess specific documents, but their expertise is garnered from years of experience in a certain field.

"We are requesting the Indian authorities to facilitate the visa approval processes for Chinese professionals. We need them for things like installation of machines, increasing quality and productivity in manufacturing lines only," the industry official said.

"We need their expertise only where we are not getting help in India or any other country," the official added.

The PLI scheme was announced in 2021 for 14 sectors such as telecommunication, white goods, textiles, manufacturing of medical devices, automobiles, speciality steel, food products, high-efficiency solar PV modules, advanced chemistry cell battery, drones and pharma with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore.