When Salman Khan was recently denied a work permit to travel to UK for a shoot, it cost the film’s unit an entire overseas schedule. Back home, theatre actor and comedian Gary Richardson apparently had to leave India recently after spending almost a decade in the country without a valid visa. So stringent are the rules for applying, renewing and maintaining work permits across the world that even the crop of foreign actors in Bollywood have to toe the line -- keeping track of their paperwork and making frequent trips back home in order to ensure it’s alright to stay on.

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Adnan Sami had been hoping to secure an Indian citizenship. Interestingly, late Yash Chopra agreed to be the singer’s guarantor for his Indian passport. As of now, he holds Canadian passport.