Applying for an Indian Visa in the UK: Your Questions and Experiences

HollyPea

Thanks Nick and Haylo. I've been reading through the last dozen or so pages of the sticky and it's all much clearer now! I started from the beginning before and it was all a bit overwhelming.

Thanks again!

Haylo

I'm not surprised, I've been trying to condense it into a "how to" guide and I'm having enough trouble keeping up with developments! Plus, some of the earlier advice is out of date now, as the procedures have been developed and made clearer.

Nick's idea of reading the last dozen pages is a good one.

__________________
The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful - E.E. Cummings, poet (1894-1962)

HollyPea

Good luck, Haylo. It'll be a fantastic resource once its done. Fingers crossed there's no more big changes sending you back to the drawing-board!

One more quick question if anyone looks in again: is it ok to put 'Student' for the occupation field, or will this suggest that you really need a student visa? We've finished our studies and are having 6 months out before starting work. Purpose of the trip is pure tourism...

Thanks!


Moderator note:
Hi HollyPea - I've moved your thread into the sticky, where it seems to belong
Kingstonian.

Haylo

Putting "student" in occupation, then spending term time in India might ring alarm bells. Keep it simple, you're not a student, you're unemployed so put that.

Alternatively, if you know what your occupation will be (eg if you've just finished a degree in architecture) put that. They don't check with employers, your only problem would be if you entered an occupation either with the police or that suggests you have links to the media, for example photogapher, writer or director, in which case there are special provisions.

Careful what you write, company directors who have entered occupation as "director" have been refused visas on these grounds!

HollyPea

Thanks again, Haylo - much appreciated.

One (hopefully) final question: Is it necessary to send in the 'Checklist' which is available to print once you have completed the online application. The fact it has space for a date a signature suggests it's more important than just a helpful aid.

Haylo

No, you don't have to send the checklist in, it's not listed as one of the documents required. Plus, if you look at it, you'll see that "This Checklist" isn't listed on the checklist.

Good question though, I'd never noticed before that it has spaces for a date and signature.

HollyPea

Ahh..very clever deduction! Applications will be in the post tomorrow. Thanks again for all your help.

gw5458

I strongly advise applicants to buy and send their own Special Delivery Envelopes for the return of their passports and not to pay the extra fee for V F Services to do this. That way you can make a note of the Royal Mail tracking number personally. It seems that VFS do not bother to do so.

The passports for myself and my daughter are missing in the post. I phoned the VFS premium rate line twice to ask about them and was told that although they have posted our passports they have kept no record of the tracking reference number. VFS tell me there is no way to trace the package and that it is up to me to deal with Royal Mail. Not their problem. Might just as well have chucked them straight in the bin. Of course Royal Mail tell me they can do nothing without the tracking number...

We are due to travel next month and I now have to gamble on how long to wait for the passports + visas to turn up before (a) reporting the passports as missing/stolen, (b) applying (and paying extra)for "Fast Track" replacements, and (c) going through the whole visa application business again. So fed up today that I'm wondering whether it is worth the hassle

johnny five

Just when we aere lulled into sense of false security that VFS had got its act together!

I can understand your quandry, but you can cut it quite fine for applying for a replacement. See
Terrible passport photo - problem?
and read my post #3.This is what we did and its very easy providing you follow the instructions. If you do it all in person, 3-4 days max from apply for passport to clutching visa.
Good luck..........

gw5458

That would be OK if we lived anywhere near London but it's more difficult to manage from darkest west Wales where I live - 70 miles from a passport office and 150+ miles from Hayes. If it had been practical I would have applied in person in the first place. Should it really be necessary to give up the better part of a working week just getting a visa sorted out? Plus the minor matter of coughing out £194 to replace two nearly new passports, plus the visa fees which will no doubt be charged again...

Haylo

Thank you for emphasising this, I have repeated this advice again and again in this thread, including yesterday on this very page but the message just does not seem to get through. Presumably going to a post office to buy a prepaid SDE seems too much like hard work, but people have to go there anyway to post their application by special deliver... Beats me!

The VFS helpline in Mumbai will not be able to tell you the tracking reference number, but I am very surprised to hear that they say the tracking reference number is not recorded by VFS in the UK.

Previous contributors to this thread have had VFS track their package, I strongly suspect that the helpline has given you the incorrect information about this.

Contact the VFS complaints department, the details are on their feedback page.

Time.has.no.meaning

Hi all. I just wanted to share my experience of applying for the visa. I applied by post last monday (to Hayes) and had it back on saturday. A 5 day turnaround! Very happy with VFS. I didnt put any indian referrals either. That is not necessary on a tourist visa. Good luck everyone and i hope you're application is processed as quickly as mine was. India here i come!! x

pablogonzalez

Same here applied on sunday sent off the forms etc no indian references and had the visa by thursday.

Haylo

Good to hear about a couple of cases where it went so smoothly, I'm sure that reading all the problems highlighted in this thread must be offputting to a lot of people.

As for Indian references, the advice we gave on here for ages was to write NA in those spaces if applying for a tourist visa. Nobody, including myself, had any problems whatsoever getting visas without references. However, our resident mole at VFS did report a while back that several tourist visa applications had just been rejected on the grounds of there being no references, so it's a good idea to enter the name and address of a hotel, just in case.

johnny five

Sorry I bothered to reply!

I simply pointed out that you could wait until quite close to your departure before re-applying in the hope that the lost post would turn up.