Task Force on Citizenship/LTVs holds 26 Special Camps Citizenship to 158 and LTVs to 3,733 LTVs Pakistani national issued The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh had approved the setting up of a Task Force under the Joint Secretary (Foreigners) to monitor and expedite processing of Citizenship and Long Term Visa (LTV) applications, on September 05, 2014. The Task Force, comprising four Consultants, has since held interactive sessions in a number of cities across the country having concentrations of such people to monitor and expedite grant of Citizenship/LTVs and addressed public grievances. Since the setting up of the Task Force, the Task Force Special Camps were organized in 26 districts across the country. A total of 1,681 applications for grant of Citizenship and another 1,665 LTV applications were received at the Special Camps upto May, 2015, while Citizenship has been granted to 158 Pakistani nationals and LTVs granted to as many as 3,733 Pakistani nationals during the period. MHA had received representations from time to time citing hardships and difficulties in grant of LTVs/Citizenship applicants, especially of minorities from neighbouring countries who are often of poor economic standing. Reviewing the procedure, the Union Home Minister had granted certain relaxations and ordered for streamlining the procedure for grant of LTV and Citizenship to these minorities and directed the Ministry to expedite the entire process. The Government of India has also rolled out an online system for submission of the LTV applications by the eligible Pakistani nationals and for its processing by various agencies. Pakistani nationals eligible for LTV can now submit the applications online by logging in the URL indianfrro.gov.in/frro. This enables the applicants to monitor and track their applications and helps in speedy processing of applications. While the manual system of submission of LTV applications will continue along with the online system for a period of 3 months, with effect from August 1, 2015, all applications for LTVs will be received and processed only on the online mode.
