New office aimed at facilitating foreign nationals’ visits and strengthening immigration monitoring
The Centre has notified a new Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Kohima, placing Nagaland among three states to receive additional regional immigration offices as part of an expansion of the country’s FRRO network.
The other two newly notified offices are in Agartala, Tripura, and Bhubaneswar, Odisha, taking the total number of FRROs in the country to 20, according to a government statement issued on Monday.
The expansion is aimed at facilitating the increasing number of foreign nationals visiting India for tourism, medical treatment and education, while strengthening the implementation of immigration laws and security requirements.
The statement said Union Home Minister Amit Shah had directed officials to ensure that every state capital has an FRRO. Following the direction, five new offices had already started functioning since 2025 in Jaipur, Chandigarh, Aizawl, Amravati and Guwahati.
With the latest notification, Kohima becomes one of the designated locations in the expanded network.
FRROs are responsible for monitoring compliance with Indian immigration laws, handling cases involving overstaying and visa violations, and coordinating legal action or penalties where necessary. They also provide immigration-related services to foreign nationals during their stay in India.
The Centre said the expansion would serve the dual purpose of facilitating legitimate travel and stay by foreign nationals and ensuring effective enforcement of immigration regulations.
The government statement also referred to the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, which consolidated four earlier laws relating to immigration and foreign nationals into a unified statutory framework governing their entry, stay, movement and exit from India.
Under the Act, the Bureau of Immigration, which performs the country’s principal immigration functions, is assisted by Foreigners Regional Registration Officers authorised by the Central Government.
The 20 FRRO locations listed by the government are Ahmedabad, Amravati, Amritsar, Aizawl, Agartala, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Chandigarh, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kohima, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai and Trivandrum.
The government statement did not specify when the newly notified office in Kohima would begin functioning. (With PTI inputs)
