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Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland
Tourism
New visa to let Chinese and Indian tourists travel freely between Ireland and UK
The current system means these tourists need two visas if they want to leave here for Northern Ireland or Britain but that will all change this autumn.
MINISTER FOR JUSTICE and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald, today announced a new visa scheme between Ireland and the United Kingdom will start this autumn.
The scheme will allow Chinese and Indian tourists and business visitors to travel between Ireland and the UK on a single visa. The current situation means even those travelling between the Republic and Northern Ireland need two separate visas.
Fitzgerald said this evening that the ‘British Irish Visa Scheme’ will provide a major boost to tourism”. She added that the scheme “marked an historic development in the relationship between Ireland and the UK and in the operation of the Common Travel Area which has existed between the two countries since 1922″.
Arrangements to allow for this scheme are being processed in the UK Home Office but Fitzgerald’s department said that Irish authorities are also working with the authorities of the countries concerned on the practical implementation.
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