Provisions Relating to Restricted Area Permit (RAP) and Protected Area Permit (PAP)

Certain areas of some provinces of India have been declared to be Restricted Areas or Protected Areas by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Any foreigner proposing to visit these areas needs to have Restricted Area Permit (RAP) or Protected Area Permit (PAP), even if he may be holding a valid visa to visit India. The list of areas declared to be Protected or Restricted is liable to changed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. For authoritative and latest information about this matter, interested persons are requested to contact the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India (www.mha.nic.in ). Also, please see the FAQs at http://mha.nic.in/foreigDiv/pdfs/FAQs-onPAPandRAP.pdf

Applicants may also consult the website of the Bureau of Immigration at http://www.immigrationindia.nic.in/Instr_rap_pap2.htm which is an organisation under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

Some information about these areas is available at http://www.immihelp.com/nri/protected-restricted-area-permit-india.html However; we do not vouch for accuracy of contents of this site which is maintained by some private operator.

As per latest guidelines, the High Commission of India, Ottawa is not authorised to issue RAP or PAP to individual tourists who are interested in visiting Protected or Restricted areas in India. Such individuals should approach the Bureau of Immigration or the Ministry of Home Affairs for necessary RAP or PAP after landing in India. Each province has an office of the Resident Commissioner in New Delhi. They can also be contacted for latest information about the Restricted areas or Protected areas in their respective province.

Any group of tourists wanting to visit such areas with a fixed itinerary designed by reputed travel agency may approach the High Commission of India, Ottawa for RAP or PAP. Such cases should be submitted well in advance as processing may take a couple of months.