Simran Sodhi
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 24
India may soon introduce resident visa for partners of those in a live-in relationship. Sources in the government say the Ministry of Home Affairs in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs will soon roll out the new policy.
Sources say the partners will have to prove they have been in a live-in relationship for more than two years. Documents submitted as proof of their relationship such as birth certificates of any children they have, papers showing joint property ownership or a civil union partnership certificate will be assessed to decide individual cases.
The move is likely to benefit foreign diplomats who get posted here. Those in a live-in relationship find it practically impossible to get visa for their partners on being posted to New Delhi or any other Indian city.
In 2013, then Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh was forced to remove a senior IFS officer, Neena Malhotra, from her position in the MEA’s passports and visa division after she refused to grant visa to a gay partner of a US diplomat who was posted here from Islamabad.
Malhotra had justified her stand saying gay marriages in India were illegal, but under pressure from the US, the diplomat’s partner was granted visa under the ‘family member’ category.
The new law will take care of live-in partners while the status of gay partners is likely to remain unclear even now since India has not yet decriminalised homosexuality.
The move is an indication that the government is now willing to make concessions with the changing times.
Box
Foreign diplomats to benefit
* Foreign diplomats posted in India are set to benefit since those in a live-in relationship find it hard to get visa for their partners
* The applicants will have to prove they are in a live-in relationship for more than two years. Birth certificates of children, papers showing joint property ownership, etc. will be assessed to decide individual cases
* The status of gay partners is likely to remain unclear since India has not yet decriminalised homosexuality
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