Visa roulette is turning travel FOMO to POMO

Though the world has opened up, many Indian travellers are still grounded, missing graduations, conferences, family events and start of the academic year

- Himanshi Dhawan

IIT Bombay research scholar Gangadhar Banappanavar planned to present his work at a science and tech conference in Glasgow, UK from July 17-22. But with no visa approvals, he ended up grounded in Mumbai with losses of Rs 2 lakh in conference fee registration and flight tickets

Eighteen-year-old Gehna Malhotra had applied for a Canadian visa on June 17 under the student direct stream (SDS), an expedited visa processing system. It’s been over a month with no clear idea of the status of her application

New Jersey-based Anurag Saxena had applied for a tourist visa for his parents in February this year. The earliest interview for a US visa that he is getting is October 2022

While celebs like Sushmita Sen posted ‘vacay’ pictures from Sardinia, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh enjoyed some downtime in the US and London was so chock full of Bollywood stars that Shabana Azmi even made a list, many Indians who had made travel plans were left with POMO (the pain of missing out) rather than FOMO. The reason: Agonisingly long visa delays for countries like the US, the UK and Europe. Instead of making wonderful travel memories, most (non) travellers ended up miserable having missed anniversary celebrations, graduation ceremonies, family reunions or just starting their course of study on time.