Applying for Student Visa while in India

hello all

things developed exactly as i feared they would: i got accepted to study at my dream school, but i got news of this very, very late... now i'm not sure whether i can get all the documents for my student visa together in time. as of now, i'm waiting for my acceptance letter and that itself might quite some time to get here.

so: does anybody know whether it would be possible to enter the country on a tourist visa and then apply for the student visa from within india... say from bombay or delhi?

what would be the best course of action if that isn't possible? i'm supposed to leave in 3 weeks time and i really don't want to fly back to switzerland just to get the visa thing straightened out... does anyone know wheter bangkok would be a viable option in terms of such a visa run?

ps: i did talk to the indian embassy here in switzerland, but they weren't very helpful to my questions... or to put it more bluntly, they didn't even try to understand what i was asking them...

Good luck with this one! Not sure if this is of any help to you, but...

You definitely need this letter of acceptance. Try to get in touch with the administration of your school in India and tell them about your situation. It usually takes less then a week for a letter to arrive from India in Switzerland. So there is still enough time. Once you got it, head to the embassy.

I applied for a student visa at the Swiss Embassy myself two years ago (I am Swiss) and they first refused to give it to me even though I presented the letter of acceptance... They told me that I should apply for a tourist visa, fly to India, get the admission and then fly back to Switzerland again to get the student visa. Of course, that was not possible. I could only get the admission at the Indian University (JNU in Delhi) if I presented a student visa. So, I printed out a few documents from the (Indian) university`s homepage, that clearly stated that I need a student visa to get the admission at all! After a discussion at the embassy they finally gave me a 9 months visa (even though I had to pay the fee for a full year...).

Changing visa within India is very difficult and in general not possible.

Are you absolutely sure, that you need a student visa to get the admission? A friend of mine also arrived with a tourist visa and they let him study for a semester...

actually, the school has admitted me and they never made my attendance contingent on my holding a certain type of visa. this visa thing appears to be just between me and the indian government - meaning, i'd be able to attend with just a tourist visa as well. i just googled around on this and i come up with a 180 day max. stay for a person holding a tourist visa. is that correct?

even if i go that route i'll face a problem though. as they told me that the first break in the school year will only come around may - this means i'll have to leave the country at some time and get my visa renewed anyhow (i'm still thinking bangkok for its proximity).

alas, i'll just have to cross my fingers and hope that the letter of admission arrives in time for me to go the proper route!

Hi serra,

Yes, with a tourist visa you`ll be allowed to stay only 180 days.

Which country (think also of Nepal and Sri Lanka) to renew your visa is best is debatable. I can`t help you with this, but there are many threads on it. Please read them.

My understanding is that, like employment, acceptance for the course comes first, then the visa.