New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Centre has notified three new Foreigners Regional Registration Offices (FRROs) in Bhubaneswar (Read), Kohima (Nagaland) and Agartala (Tripura) taking the total number of these offices to 20 in the country, a government statement said Monday.
To cater to the increasing number of foreigners visiting India for tourism, medical and education purposes, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had directed officials to ensure one FRRO in every state capital, following which five new FRROs have already started working since 2025 in Jaipur, Chandigarh, Aizawl (Mizoram), Amravati (Andhra Pradesh) and Guwahati.
“Recently, three new FRRO offices, namely Kohima (Nagaland), Agartala (Tripura) and Bhubaneshwar (Read), have been notified. Earlier, Kohima and Agartala were under the jurisdiction of FRRO, Kolkata, whereas Bhubaneshwar was under the jurisdiction of FRRO, Hyderabad,” the statement said.
The government is considering further increasing the FRRO network in the remaining states, namely Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya.
“The total number of FRRO offices in the country has now gone up to twenty (20), located at Ahmedabad, Amravati, Amritsar, Aizawl, Agartala, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Chandigarh, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kohima, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai and Trivandrum,” the statement read.
The expansion of the FRRO office network has a dual focus on facilitating foreigners’ legitimate travel and stay in India and ensuring effective implementation of immigration laws and security requirements.
“The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, which consolidated four earlier laws relating to immigration and foreigners, provides a unified statutory framework for regulating the entry, stay, movement and exit of foreign nationals. As per this Act, the Bureau of Immigration, which mainly performs the immigration function, shall, in discharge of its duties, be assisted, among others, by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) as may be authorised by the Central Government of India,” it said.
The FRRO monitors compliance with Indian immigration laws, handles cases of overstay and visa violations, and coordinates legal action or penalties where necessary.