STAPLED VISA (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 - IR)

Context:  India withdrew its eight-athlete wushu contingent from the Summer World University Games beginning in Chengdu after China issued stapled visas to three athletes from the team who belong to Arunachal Pradesh.

• Wushu is the Chinese term for martial arts. Two hundred and twenty-seven Indian athletes are participating in 11 other sports at the games that are held every two years, and are officially known as the FISU World University Games.
• The Chengdu edition was originally scheduled for 2021 but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the original 2023 games, scheduled to be held in Yekaterinburg, were cancelled after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Stapled visa

• A stapled visa is simply an unstamped piece of paper that is attached by a pin or staples to a page of the passport and can be torn off or detached at will. 
• This is different from a regular visa that is affixed to the passport by the issuing authority and stamped.
• China has made it a practice to issue stapled visas to Indian nationals from Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. 
• It says the visas are valid documents, but the Government of India has consistently refused to accept this position.
• Ministry of External Affairs said the issue of stapled visas was “unacceptable and we have lodged our strong protest with the Chinese side, reiterating our consistent position on the matter”.