Centre Expands FRRO Network to 20 Offices, Sets 2027 Deadline for Coverage of All State Capitals
New Delhi, November 2: The Government of India is expanding the network of Foreigners Regional Registration Offices (FRROs) to strengthen the institutional framework for managing foreign nationals and improving immigration-related services across the country.
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah has directed that FRRO offices be established in all state capitals by 2027, in view of the growing number of foreign nationals visiting India for tourism, medical treatment and educational purposes.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, five new FRRO offices have been established since 2025. Three offices were set up in Jaipur, Chandigarh and Guwahati in 2025, followed by two more in Aizawl, Mizoram, and Amravati, Andhra Pradesh, during the current year.
Additionally, three new FRRO offices at Kohima in Nagaland, Agartala in Tripura and Bhubaneswar in Odisha have recently been notified.
With these developments, the total number of FRRO offices across the country has increased to 20. They are located in Ahmedabad, Amravati, Amritsar, Aizawl, Agartala, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Chandigarh, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kohima, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai and Trivandrum.
The Centre is also pursuing the establishment of FRRO offices in the remaining states, including Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya.
The Ministry said the e-FRRO platform currently provides 35 online services to foreign nationals, including registration, visa extensions, visa conversion and other eligible immigration-related services.
The expansion is aimed at improving accessibility to immigration services, strengthening coordination with state authorities and ensuring effective implementation of immigration laws and national security requirements.
Under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, which consolidated four earlier laws relating to immigration and foreign nationals, a unified legal framework has been established to regulate the entry, stay, movement and departure of foreign nationals in India.
FRRO offices are responsible for post-arrival registration of eligible foreign nationals, issuance of Registration Certificates and Residential Permits, recording changes in personal and travel details, granting permission to visit protected and restricted areas, and issuing exit permits in applicable cases.
The Ministry stated that the expansion would facilitate the lawful stay and movement of foreign nationals while strengthening regulatory compliance and the implementation of immigration laws across the country. ANB
