The government has extended integrated online visa application system, which offers secure and hassle-free travel documents to foreigners, to eight more overseas destinations, including Chicago, Perth and Tehran.

The Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) system has been made operational at Indian missions at Perth in Australia, Houston and Chicago in the United States, Tehran in Iran, Cairo in Egypt, Taipei in Taiwan and Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand.

The IVFRT, which offers secure and hassle-free visa to legitimate travellers through a safe and incorporated service delivery framework, is now operational at 60 Indian missions abroad, including Indian missions in Pakistan, Bangladesh and UK, a Home Ministry official said.

In order to modernise and upgrade the immigration services, IVFRT has been identified and included as one of the Mission Mode Projects (MMP) to be undertaken by the Ministry of Home Affairs under national e-governance plan (NeGP).

The core objective of this project is to develop and implement a secure and integrated service delivery framework that facilitates legitimate travellers while strengthening security.

The scope of the project includes 169 missions, 77 immigration check posts (ICP), 5 foreigners regional registration offices, and foreigners registration offices (FROs) in the states.

The implementation of MMP will enable authentication of traveller's identity at the missions, ICPs and FROs through use of intelligent document scanners and biometrics, updating of foreigner's details at entry and exit points, improved tracking of foreigner's through sharing of information captured during visa issuance.