Bhutanese traveling to India can finally get SIM cards

Not getting an Indian SIM card was probably the most inconvenient aspect of traveling to India. This was in part because Bhutanese people can travel to India without a visa and so telecom companies declined to issue SIM cards to Bhutanese.

This was because the Bhutanese CID cards and even passports were not good enough to get the SIM cards.

The result was that Bhutanese could not get SIM cards in India limiting communication and other facilities that come with a card from ordering Uber cars to even surfing the net.

When asked how this issue can be resolved to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade, the minister said, “In February 2024, the Government of India issued a circular regarding the amendment in their Know Your Customer (KYC) instructions for the issuance of SIM cards to Bhutanese Citizens.”

According to this amendment, the Department of Telecommunications of India has changed its policy to permit citizens of Bhutan to use SIM card services in India by presenting one of the following documents as valid identification instead of a passport: Bhutanese Citizenship Certificates (Citizenship Identity Cards), Voter Identification Cards issued by the Election Commission of Bhutan, and Limited validity photo-identity certificates issued by the Royal Bhutanese Embassy in India.

A sample copy of the voter identification card issued by the Election Commission of Bhutan, the limited validity photo-identity certificate issued by the Royal Bhutanese Embassy in India, and the Bhutanese citizenship certificate (Citizenship Identity Card) have also been shared by the Royal Government of Bhutan in response to a request from the Government of India.

In order to familiarize Indian telephone operators and allow Bhutanese nationals to utilize SIM card services in India, the Royal Bhutanese Embassy in New Delhi submitted the original specimen of the Bhutanese Identity Card and limited photo-identity certificate issued by the Bhutanese Mission in India on 22 May 2024.

Additionally, RBE Delhi notified the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) that as of January 2023, the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) will no longer be issuing voter cards.

But, Bhutanese nationals should be aware that they will need to present a copy of their passport in addition to their visa stamp if they are traveling to India from somewhere other than Bhutan.

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