Indian Man Moves Court to Remove Ukrainian Wife’s Name from Visa Blacklist

A man in Delhi recently moved the high court to ask the Indian government to remove the name of his Ukrainian wife from a blacklist in order to apply for a spouse visa to stay in India. Justice Rajiv Shakdher issued notices to the central government and the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) for their response.

Abhay Khanna said in his plea that the FRRO has blacklisted his wife without giving any reason and that violates his rights to enjoy his marital life. The woman is staying in Nepal currently after the FRRO officials told them that it would be easier to get a visa for a spouse from a neighboring country, the Press Trust of India reported.

Khanna’s lawyer, Manish Tiwari, said that his client’s wife Olga Khmelevska was not a threat to the country’s security and has no criminal record while the government counsel Ajay Digpaul said he will file a detailed reply to the petition. Digpaul added that Khanna should have contacted the Ministry of Home Affairs, which will decide it on the basis of facts of the case. He also said that the foreigner woman has overstayed in India twice.

Khmelevska and Khanna got married in December 2017 after which she applied for a spouse visa. She was instead given an exit permit on Jan. 17, 2018. She had earlier traveled to India several times on a tourist visa.

Tiwari also explained why she had overstayed her visa twice. The first time, her visa expired on Oct. 13, 2016, when she had fallen ill. So she was unable to travel out of India. However, in November 2016 she obtained an exit permit and left for Ukraine. She came back to India in 2017 and her visa expired on May 23, 2017 but she fell ill again. However, she obtained an exit permit soon and left on May 31, 2017.

In the plea, Khanna also added that she was taking care of her mother-in-law, a cancer patient. He said that her current exit permit was not processed by the authorities despite repeated inquiries and when she applied for a spouse visa they gave her an exit permit and said she was blacklisted.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on April 24.