House rental in Goa

mama4us

Have just joined today,

I've been travelling around India for about two and a half years with my son. We want to settle in Goa and arefiguring probably on the North, unless I can be persuaded othrwise by valued members of this forum (if I can ever get to know them with the prbs I am having!)

1. How is it that many of the Goa residents, that are clearly not all Goan or even India state that they have lived there for 1 year, five years or whatever - don't you have to leave, like us, every 6 months regardless of the visa you have (i.e. 5 yr visa ok, but you still gotta leave every 6 months, correct me if I'm wrong)

2. Which areas of Goa would you think would be nice for us to live. We want peace and quiet, but if possible we'd like to be near the ocean after duty ol India for all this time. I've seen 2bhk in Panaji for 4500 a month - though I'd be happy of course with somewhere cheaper as ours would be a kind of permanent (if one can ever call themselves permanent in India) and would be living there ad infinitum.

3. I presume that Reliance is covered in Goa? I've a laptop with a Reliance connection and they've said you dont get charged for roaming...and havent so far (had it for about 6 months and bought this neat little Acer laptop)

4. The countryside would be ok too, if we wouldnt have to travel too far for a msrker, supermarket, post office medical etc.. Any thoughts of places like that would be helpful.

5. I've got Aircel cell coverage right now but will probably change to Reliance Better I expect as I dont know if aircel is covered in Goa.

6. I home-school my son and he's brilliant! (of course I'm biased) but would be looking to find someone to teach him Hindi, for his sake!!

7. Talking about Visa runs - where do people go to for their Visa's from Goa? Had a look on the Net but flights look pretty costly from Goa - any hep there would also be appreciated.

Thank you people, I will really appreciate any help and advice you can give me on allthis stuff. I ahve done a search but not come up with really anything concrete, apart from learning some stuff I didnt know about - thanks!

mama4us

Hello, we're new to India Mike - but long timers in India itself! Been here about two years now I guess - travelling around and about and were also here for a couple of years on a few years back. We'll be coming back to Goa in February or thereabouts to settle, after seeing much of the country and deciding that's where we would like to be. My son is 10 and having a whale of a time - I home school him and though I may be biased :-), he's brilliant! We will be looking for a house somewhere that is quiet-ish and would like the advice of any Goa based IM'ers as to where we might look! As we'll be long-termers in Goa, (as permanent as one can be on tourist visa's :-(), we want some place, rural, coastal, or outside a Town where we won't be bothered by the rush and hustle of tourist life, but not too far from facilities. Any comments, advice or whatever would really be appreciated as to where we might begin looking. Many thanks and good to be here :-)

machadinha

Hm. If you can muster it, you might want to start with

Foreign owned property in Goa, (Part One)
Foreign owned property in Goa, (part Two)

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dzibead

Unfortunately, unless you qualify as a "Person of Indian Origin," you won't be able to stay in India (whether Goa or elsewhere) very long-term, at least not legally, on any tourist visa. You say you've been in India for about two years? On what kind of visa? Did you leave the country and return on successive visas? If not, how did you manage to stay in the country for two full years? Or are you "flying under the radar"?

The maximum allowable stay on any tourist visa is 180 days at a stretch, and many tourist visas are actually issued for considerably shorter stays, e.g., 90 days. Before 180 days elapses, you must leave the country before you will be permitted to return ... after applying for and being granted another visa ... if one is granted. Being granted a new visa is not automatic and many Indian consulates have been tightening up on issuing multiple back-to-back visas. In fact, the website for the Indian consulate in Kathmandu, a popular place for people to go on "visa runs," expressly warns that successive tourist visas will not be issued.

The only circumstance under which you would not actually have to apply for a new tourist visa before being able to return would be if you are a U.S. citizen and can get a 10-year tourist visa. Even with this type of visa (which is available only to U.S. citizens, not to citizens of other countries - this is the result of some India/U.S. treaty), you still have to leave the country at least every 180 days. The only advantage (and it's a considerable one) is that you can return right away without having to apply for a new visa.

What you are talking about trying to do is immigrate to India. You can't do that on a tourist visa, and there really are few view avenues by which foreign nationals can legally become long-term residents in India. One would be marriage to an Indian national. Another would be to become employed by a company in India so you qualify for an employment visa, and then your stay is limited to the term of your employment ... if the job ends, so does your right to stay in the country. Students can obtain longer term visas, but only for the duration of their studies. Realistically, do what you want to do is probably not possible ... if you want to be legal. Many other foreigners (including lots of people at IndiaMike) have had the fantasy you have ... settling long-term or permanently in India. But the country's immigration policies and laws are not set up to allow it or encourage it. So you may want to come up with Plan B.

Edited to add: now that two threads have been merged, I see that you are aware of the visa limitation problems, including the inconvenient "visa runs." As for how some people were able to stay in India for years at a time, if you read through the HUGE Goa property threads, you'll see that a lot of people in the UK were apparently issued long-term "X" visas by mistake because the consular personnel in London didn't really know what they were doing. The visa applicants told them they were entitled to longer term visas because they "owned" property in Goa (which they really didn't, legally) and claimed they had "resident" status (which they actually were not entitled to, either). So, some of these long-termers just got lucky because they were the beneficiaries of bureaucratic incompetence. But now this problem has been rectified, and many of the people who formerly had been issued "X" (entry) visas have - to their dismay - been told to leave India, or have been refused renewals of their visas, or have been issued only routine tourist visas.

mama4us

I'm aware about length of stay, we're not newcomers to India. Thanks anyway! We also do NOT want to buy a property - I am aware that we could though, buy a 99 year lease, but I'm not interested at all. Only in renting. It's less hassle. We do leave every 6 months and will continue to do so. I am just asking whether any GOA IM'ers have any advice and help for us re settling somewhere in Goa.

I do thank you for your replies - but I am NOT emigrating to India, we are simply doing what thousands of others do and that is settling here as permanent as possible, leaving every few months to satisfy authorities and wanting to find a house to rent like the one we have in bangalore at present.

As for flying under the radar, do you honestly think I would do that with a child too? Quite honestly, I don't think you read my posts properly as I have never and will never be doing anything illegal in India.

Altogether yes, just over two years this time - left three times for visas, which we intend doing regularly,(as I have stated)and thats about it.

Any advice from Goa IM'ers would truly be appreciated!!

mama4us

Thank you for merging the posts - I'm afraid that every time I tried to do a post it was taking about 5 minutes to register and I unknowingly repeated a post. I do not normally do this kind of thing at all and totally respect forum rules. Just having a little trouble with the Reliance data card connection I guess. Please accept my apologies!

mama4us

Sorry, I dont seem to have a PM facility yet - but would be happy if a mod could please delete my second posting here on this page. Many thanks.

dzibead

Some confusion about your intentions was caused by the fact that posts from previously different threads that didn't all contain the same information were merged into one thread. (And, by the way,as a foreign national, you can actually only do a five year lease, not a 99 year lease.) I'll certainly take your word that you wouldn't "fly under the radar" with a child, but believe me, some people who've posted here have expressed every intention of doing just that. I don't think there's any need to get huffy about what anyone could "honestly think" you might plan to do. Since I don't know you, how could I or anyone else here know what you might have thought you could do? You certainly sounded, in the post I was responding to, which is post #2 here, as if you were planning to try to immigrate. In fact, talking about "settling here as permanent as possible" still sort of sounds like that.

mama4us

I am not getting huffy dziead, & cant quite see where you could read anything more into my posts than what is here.

All I wanted was a thread where I might be able to get advice and information from Goa IM'ers, and it has been turned into a free for all, where if anyone clicks on it, it won't have the effect I might have hoped for, and the entire point will have been lost. I will not comment further on your postings, I can't stand arguments and it looks like you're heading that way. Please, if you do have any advice re living in Goa, I would be very happy to recieve it, otherwise I wouldn't.

I would still love to hear frm GOA IM'ers who are currently, or have resided there PLEASE!. Thanks

machadinha

Mama4Us, I think you need to understand sites like these attract a lot of questions by people who think they can just move over there, because they, er, just thought that might be nice. No one here can ascertain if your outlook is different if it isn't provided, or scattered around the place.

I'm sure no one here means you any harm, and I hope you get the answers you were looking for. Merging your posts was just to do with keeping your related queries together. That's not to pester you, but again to help you in finding your answers. And believe me, there are a lot of people thinking posting their queries all over the site will somehow help them. When it obviously won't, as it can only serve to confuse people and give up on your (and possibly other people's) questions altogether.

mama4us

Thanks very much friend, I appreciate your answers. Please do delete the sedon posting I made here, it is the same....from the mess I have created!

I would have thought though that having stated that we've been here for two years now and two years previously, would tell people that we were not just coming here on a whim! I would never do that with a child. I see there've been about ten posts including mine, and it is all a mess! I think I may just have the entire lot, bar the first posting deleted, if you could do that for me - so that I can start again. I would appreciate it very much. Thanks in advance. I cant pm to ask these things so they have to be done in public.

machadinha

Nah, whatever. I had tried before, but it messes up some of the above sequential references.

Don't worry, consider it your heady intro to IM Hey, it's a friendly bunch. Just continue with your questions, they make sense, and I hope someone can answer. And all this stuff which some people have devoted their time to will actually be of use to future seekers. So just carry on

mama4us

What a nice person you are, thanks a bunch! Here's to a new begining and some answers please!

Many thanks

jcbrum

We have been here around 2 years ourselves so i'll give you some answers the best i can.

The visa situation is still on going at the moment.But i have it on good authority that they will soon be issueing a 5 year tourist visa which should alleviate a lot of the problems.(i have excellent contacts)

As to where to rent and how much, that very much depends on where you intend to stay i think you need to book in somewhere for a few weeks and have a look around to see where suits you.

There is no problem with Reliance here.Do you mean Airtel if so again no problems.

As for the Visa run we go back to the Uk as we normaly get flights for around £350 so just treat it as a holiday.

John

mama4us

Yes, I heard about the 5 year visa's too - even ten year because of the upcoming commonweath games in 2010 in India - BUT thle - the UK has recently said that they are re-thinking visa's given to Indian's and taking it down to three onths - SO if this ever becomes reciprocal (possible - as the Indian Government have been known to cut their noses off to spite their faces every now and then) then we will all have very expensive problems. Dont really want to go back to the UK each time - my son and I are travellers - We normally come back to Bangalore and go to SL, Nepal, or Bangladesh - but it's easier from Bangalore. Not so from Goa, r so I've read after visitng many airlines websites - seems tehrre are three stops for SL, at least and it makes for a very long journey for a very short hop!

As far as where - well we dont wnat to go to the tourist areas to live - rather, we'd like to perhaps go inland somewhere, or at least somewhere quieter! We dont mind a bus ride into a town or city, though it would of course be nice to have a few facilities nearby-ish. Actually I dont have an Airtel sim, it's Aircel, mainly for TN - though I do get roamed in KA, and thats ok except it charges more. I have a Reliance data card for this nifty little laptop, and was thinking of getting a Reliance sim too - and if it's coverred in Goa, then all's well! I can sell the Aircel sim, as there's two years left on the validity. I do thank you most kindly for your post, and if you can think of an area where we might start looking ((loads there, it's just that I dont know the places and it looks like many are on the coast)and have friends who are arriving in Goa in the next few days for a month's holidays & who will visit any places I find to check them out.

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