Air India has been the only Indian airline that has been operating flights for those who want to return to India so far. While they have been able to bring back full flights for the return legs, Air India also decided to sell tickets on the flights that were supposed to go empty on the outward leg. These have been practically the only flights for those who have wanted to exit India over the past 60 days.

The terms to get on these flights were very difficult, though and causing discomfort to many people. Here is the list of people, from the Air India website, who were allowed.

• Nationals of the destination countries.
• Indian and foreign nationals who hold a valid visa of at least one-year duration of the country of destination (This does not apply to Australia /New Zealand ).
• Green Card / OCI Cardholders
• Health Workers holding a valid permit for travel to the destination country (Must obtain written permission from Embassy of the destination country)

Here are the orders of May 24, 2020, which listed down the conditions.

However, this situation is being fixed now, after complaints received from many people stuck in India. The Ministries (External Affairs and Home)  have now decided to amend the visa requirements to three months. Here is the letter that communicated this decision (also uploaded on the Air India website)

What this means is, even if you have a visa with a minimum of three months validity, you will be able to exit the country. Some other specific categories can also travel with residual one-month validity of the visa as well.

This is excellent news for those who have been wanting to fly back to their jobs in other parts of the world from India. Make sure to book up on the next round of flights while you can.

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