Can a PhD student (realistically) expect to get a research visa?

Hello,

Long-time reader, first time poster. I've gone through the forums and can't find an answer.

Can a PhD student (realistically) expect to get a research visa?

The details:
I plan to do 18 months of research. I'm a social anthropologist. I'll (hopefully) be doing research in a city in Karnataka amongst different groups of people, including some city-level officials. I'm a British national at a European university (with funding). I plan to leave for India in Sep/Oct 2011.

I realise that dealing with officials might necessitate getting a research visa, but then I've read on here that it's extremely difficult to get one. It would be bad, but not the end of the world, if I changed my research plan slightly and did conduct research amongst officials.

Any advice/tips would be much appreciated. Thanks

If you are a PhD student here, why not a simple student visa. Much easier to get and much less explaining to do.

To get a student visa he would have to be enrolled into an recognised Indian educational institution - which he is not.

Your visa is going to be issued in Budapest. Have someone higher up in the academic food chain in your university arrange a face to face meeting with Second Secretary of Culture, Education & Consular at the Indian Embassy in Budapest.

The outcome and suggestions from that meeting with decide the course of action for the next step.

I would be surprised that people considered a research visa as such to be hard to get. Its been discussed here before. But, it seems much more obtainable now than in the past. My first one was a holy nightmare and was a minor political football that only succeded by bizarre luck. However, all since were easy. It helps to have institutional affiliation! God bless all at USEFI and a mentor's contact within the GOI. However, I don't think things are nearly as sensitive for the broad range of topics as in the past (great advancement, greater confidence). The exception will be hot political matters. Anthropology can certainly get into such. Perhaps the OP has a research topic, no? I am not knowledgable about the UK agencies that do this. I did know of UK scholars employing such. Canada has the excellent Shastri Institute to which I owe a debt. I would not suggest doing it on the sly, not only for ethics & the real damage it does to other scholars but also for the practicality of getting further entry..

Thanks for the quick replies! Very helpful indeed.

@nayan, you're right of course, no chance of a student visa.

@nycank, but it's not a decision to be taken in Budapest right? I understood that it's decided elsewhere? I though they just check the paper work is fine and then send it off?

@edwardseco, thanks for detailing your experiences. Most of the problems I read about on this site were from 4+ years ago. I also know an anthropologist that was deported from our uni in 2006. Of course I would prefer to do the research officially, but I'm concerned that if I have a research visa refused and then apply for a tourist visa it might look a little suspicious. Thanks for the tip with the the USEFI I'll try the UKIERI, I'm pretty sure the Hungarian state wont help me. What's the OP? (sorry if I'm being slow).

I don't think my research topic should be sensitive, but I think you're right about the perception of anthropology. I'll sound more like a sociologist instead (I'm at a joint department). Did you have some sort of institutional affiliation in India or just in the US? I could badger my outside supervisor who I've never met in India I suppose...

OP = original poster (ie you!)

(and good luck ...)

The humor of it was that I had been denied affiliation and perhaps the institute misunderstood (& misrepresented) that. But, in the standard Indian fashion after hanging about, joining a tea club, paying my respects, the issue never came up & the academic istitution just sort of accomodated me. Affiliation provides all your "door opener" to many people and it certainly was key to a research visa in the old days..

@Kingstonian, ah silly me, I was lost in the sea of acronyms and was looking to hard for something Indian. Thanks.

@edwardseco, thanks again for shedding some light on the process.

In case others in the same situation are reading this, I'll post back to let people know how it goes.

I do have one more question for those of you who are wise on such matters. What are the chances of my wife being able come with me on my visa/get a similar length visa. She won't be doing any research, but if she comes on a tourist visa she'll get stuck with the 6 months in 2 months out rule. Just in case it changes things: she's Hungarian (not British like me) and kept her name after marriage.

Any info or details of experiences would be much appreciated...

Once you get your visa, she's easily** get a co-terminus X visa.


[** There is many a slip between a cup and the lip. I think they might make her apply in Budapest. Which is kind of nice because it is easier and cheaper ]

My husband is an anthro Phd student researching in Kerala.

The advice that he was given was that it was best to be affiliated with an Indian university. Getting affiliation took about four months, and this would have almost certainly taken longer if not for his supervisor's academic contacts. Getting his visa was smooth sailing once he had the the affiliation letter from the Indian university.

However, my experience getting a spouse visa wasn't so happy. We explained our situation to the Indian high commission in New Zealand when my husband applied for his visa - ie I had planned to accompany him, but not work or study, we've been married for 10 years, both NZ citizens.

They said I would have to get a tourist visa (with all the restrictions in it - the standard 90 days max stay for me, with two months in between). They did say that if I applied for a waiver of the two month time period in advance on the basis that I was going to visit my husband, that would be fairly straightforward.

I do wonder if getting a spouse visa depends on on what office you go to, so I'm sure it's worth trying.

Good luck!

You should be able to get an X visa based on the FAQ posted in MHA's website

http://www.mha.nic.in/pdfs/FAQ-onX-VISA210510.pdf

Yes, that's exactly what we had assumed as we'd seen that information on the India Ministry of Home Affairs website - which is why we asked the NZ HC about it and submitted our marriage certificate etc. I still think it was a reasonable assumption to make!

That is also the reason why I think other offices might take a different approach. We decided not to push it too much with the NZ HC because we didn't want anything to jeopardise my husband getting his visa (we were applying for visas at the same time).

Hopefully for OP other offices don't take the NZ approach. It's difficult to be apart for such long periods of time, so I think it's definitely worth trying to get a spouse visa.

That is the error you made. To get an X visa, based on spouse's long term visa, the spouse has to have a visa in place. His/her visa becomes the basis for your X visa. Applying at the same time is a hit-or-miss situation. It does not matter if you apply the day after your spouse is granted one or a month later.