To ensure the smooth passage of international travellers arriving in India, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare have mandated contactless self-declaration at Air Suvidha Portal.

The portal was launched in August 2020 and now has been strengthened to accommodate travel guidelines issued on 30 November. Air Suvidha is the first of its kind digital portal for easing international passenger arrival in India.

The portal aids passengers in providing their details of travel and final stay along with RTPCR, Vaccination status etc. In today’s time, this helps state officials in contact tracing. The implementation of the Air Suvidha intends to provide hassle-free, queue free, and convenient air travel to all international passengers arriving in India, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said today.

Air Suvidha portal has already assisted 251,210 passengers from 1-5 December since the updating of the new travel guidelines on 30 November. Furthermore, over 1 crore passengers have been benefited from the Air Suvidha portal since its launch in August 2020.

To ensure the necessary prevention of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, the exemption forms from the Air Suvidha portal have been discontinued, and filling of the details have been made compulsory for all international passengers arriving in India.

All international passengers arriving in India are mandated to declare their current health status prior to boarding on the Air Suvidha Portal along with the required documents: Copy of Passport, PCR Negative Certificate from a Test conducted within 72 hours of departure, and the Vaccination Certificate. For immigration, the copy received in e-mail is essential on arrival in India and has to be verified at the APHO counter.

All applications from ‘at risk’ countries are marked with H and red bands and others are green. This helps in smooth on arrival segregation and processing. This list is dynamically updated to keep up with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare updates.

The application also takes into account countries visited in the last 14 days to highlight ‘at risk’ applications. This field is also made into a multi-select drop-down option for standardisation.