28-05-2025
Gurgaon police arrest Chinese national for staying on expired visa
A 28-year-old Chinese citizen, identified as Lin Jensen, was arrested by the Gurgaon police Tuesday for illegally residing in India after his business visa expired in 2023.
According to the Gurgaon police, Lin was arrested in the Khandsa village, following a tip-off received by the Sector 37 Police Station. Acting on the information, a police team raided a house in Khandsa, owned by Nitin, where the suspect was found living. When asked to produce valid documents for his stay in India, Lin, a resident of Guangdong in China, failed to provide any legal paperwork, prompting his arrest under relevant sections of the Foreigners Act and the Passport Act.
During interrogation, the police learned that Lin arrived in India in 2019 on a business visa. They said that after his visa expired in 2023, Lin did not return to China and continued to live in India illegally.
'From 2023 to March 2025, Jensen resided in Chhatarpur, Delhi, before relocating to Khandsa in March this year. He had come to work for a company in Manesar. So far, no one from the Chinese embassy has come to interact with him,' a police spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The police said Lin was produced before a local court Wednesday, and further legal proceedings are underway. They said the investigation is underway, and they are specifically probing the circumstances of his illegal stay and activities in India.
In July last year, India started working on a framework to process visa applications for the entry of Chinese and other foreign technicians needed in non-Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme sectors to boost production.
The Indian Express had reported that delays in visa approval are hurting the manufacturing industry, including the leather sector, which is increasingly shifting to sports footwear. Having imported and installed Chinese machinery, the domestic industry is unable to operationalise plants due to these visa hurdles.
The issue first cropped up after the Galwan clash in 2020. The border standoff after the Galwan clash in 2020 has seen several measures announced by the government to limit Chinese influence on the Indian economy.
Since then, alternate ways such as sending Indian professionals to China have not worked out as Chinese authorities tend to promptly grant visas to importers but delay applications sent by Indian manufacturers and government officials.
Given the strained geo-political relationship with China, India has imposed strict quality norms to reduce Chinese imports of items of mass consumption as well as intermediate products and is simultaneously promoting manufacturing with the help of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) in strategic areas.
