The Pakistani government is considering the possibility of granting a two-year visa extension to Chinese nationals working on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in the country, reported the Express Tribune. In the last two years Pakistan received around 62,000 visa applications from Chinese nationals, including 9000 requests for visa renewal.

The new visa extension proposal has been suggested by the Interior Ministry of the country.  Another option under consideration is to link the visa extension period with their respective CPEC project completion period. 

Earlier, the country had tightened some of the rules as authorities detected several cases of visa terms violations. 

Some of the Chinese nationals were coming on business visas but were doing jobs here, an official was the interior ministry was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.

Last year, authorities had provided respite to Chinese nationals as they were stuck in the country due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

In March 2019, Pakistan eased its visa policy, aimed at facilitating foreigners in getting timely visas. The processing time for visa applications was set between four to six weeks. However, despite these changes, authorities take an unusually long time to process requests.

The Ministry of Interior also suggested fixing the processing time at a maximum of four weeks.