6 months visa - India from UK - difference

charlotte

I have just downloaded - from the Visa Department of the High Commision of India in the UK - the new (01/02/04) application form. There is quite a difference in the wording of the 6 month visa requirements.

Before -
30.00 UK Pounds valid up to 6 months for purpose of holiday/visiting relatives. The duration & No. of Entries permitted will be at the discretion of the High Commission of India.

NOW
Tourist Visa Fee 30.00 UK Pounds - short duration visa for the purpose of holiday/visiting relatives.

No mention of 6 months or whatever on the "new" one. What is short duration? We knew something was going to happen re charter flights allowing Indian Nationals to use them but why should this alter any other visa!!

We were in touch, by e-mail, to the Indian High Commission in Madrid but the only reply we had was they would give us a 1 year visa for 50 UK Pounds - they would not give us a 5 years visa although we have had a 6 months one for the last 20 years - and that is all we want - but are we going to turn up in Birmingham a couple of days before our flight and they only give us a 4 week one or whatever.
Does anybody know?

shere

From experience they usually give you a 6 month multiple entry tourist visa as standard.

Get the Brummie version form and use this at the Birmingham Consulate General of India

http://www.cgibirmingham.org/VisaGen.pdf

Question 15b asks for validity of visa and gives you a choice of 6 month, 1 year and long term. Just choose six month.

charlotte

This years London one is so different now that I have just looked at the Brummie one - even the holiday dates are different.
We don't live in the Uk so tried Madrid first then London thinking they would tell us - having 20 years of visas with no problems this is the first one we have encountered with problems - or not now as the case may be.
Cheers.

shere

Do you have a UK passport ?

Many years ago a relative who had a UK passport but was working in the USA applied for a visa for India. It took him longer than US applications as the application had to be referred to the UK (India High Commission) before they gave a Visa. I was in the Birmingham consulate just over a month ago and was behind a travel agent and a visa application he was handling for a Portugal passport holder had been referred for more than a week.

If you have a UK passport and try for a visa in Madrid they may follow a similar procedure, similalry if you turn up in Birmingham with a Spanish passport they may refer it to Madrid. This delays things so I would try and sort my visa out well in advance if I was you.

Turn up with a UK passport in Brum and you should in practice be OK. Just fill the Brum form in rather than the London one.

mr pastry

Have just got my new visa in London. It is 6 months from date of issue, multiple entry and £30. It is no longer a "rubber stamp" but is now a flash "stick in" tamper and forgery proof "thing". Other than that (and the price) nothing has changed since my last one in 1997.

charlotte

Thanks for the reply

This is what we have had for the last few years - the stick in one -
but the wording was so ambiguous we don't want to turn up in Brumm with 6 month ticket and they will only give us a short term visa.

Although "residents" Spain - only spend about 4 months of the year there and we still have UK passports and travel to the UK to get our flights to where-ever we are going (cheaper) but thought we may get a visa for 5 years in Madrid as less people would be going there for one but they wouldn't give us anything more than a year one. We have 20 - 6 month ones - from Nov - March but even these would not grant us a 5 year visa.
Don't want to con a 5 year visa - as we know we can by claiming business status - just wondered how this 6 month was now working