More than two decades after he arrived in Delhi from Afghanistan, Taranjit Singh became an Indian citizen this year. He was just two years old when he entered the country from Kabul. Taranjit, whose existence and livelihood depended on a stay visa or a long-term visa (LTV) renewed annually, is relieved now as he will no longer have to visit the Foreigners Regional Registration Office at R.K Puram in south Delhi, around 18 km from his residence in west Delhi’s Vikaspuri, to get the document extended.

“The stay visa is valid for one year but it took six months for the document to be processed. Now that I have Indian citizenship, I can live in peace,” Taranjit says as he opens the shutters of his rented shop in the basement of a shopping plaza in Karol Bagh, where he sells mobile phone cover

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