can not exceed a 6 months stay? |
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Nov 22nd, 2005, 17:31
| #1 |
| Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: isr
Posts: 1
| can not exceed a 6 months stay? hi people i'm on a 1 year visa. do i actually need to get out of india or is there any other procedure i can sort it out with. secondly, is it 6 months or 180 days, as some sujested here, or both are possible? thanks. |
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Nov 22nd, 2005, 19:51
| #2 |
| Member  Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: India
Posts: 48
| You must register within 15 days of arrival at the Foreign Registration Office at the Capital of the State you arrived in, that's all. Hope you kept the other half of the card you filled-out on the plane, just bring it in with your passport and 2 photos. Welcome, and good luck! |
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Nov 22nd, 2005, 21:08
| #3 |
| This is just a cameo appearance  Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Chennai, India
Posts: 38,260
| Hello Alu, welcome to IM. What Nationality are you and what sort of visa do you have. The answer is probably no or we don't know but we need more info before we can have a go at this one. The registration thing is for staying longer than 6 months, but you have to have a visa that allows you to do that before you can register and stay. Back to square one! |
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Nov 22nd, 2005, 23:21
| #4 | |
| Maha Guru Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Vancouver
Posts: 3,552
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Nov 22nd, 2005, 23:24
| #5 | |
| Maha Guru Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Vancouver
Posts: 3,552
| Quote:
That is not the case for 1 year tourist visas. You have to register only if you are coming in on a business, employment, research visa which has a duration for more than 6 months. | |
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Nov 22nd, 2005, 23:32
| #6 |
| Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: India
Posts: 48
| Dear Goan Canuck - I am living in Goa for over 2 years - on a 10-year tourist visa ( for US Citizens), and have to renew it every 6 mos, but first visa was a ONE-YEAR tourist visa ,that I was told by a custom officer on arrival to the airport in Goa to register in Panjim Police Station, Foreign Office, within 15 days,( as written on visa itself, by the way), which I did, and ONLY a year later I had to go to Sri Lanka (with no trouble for not leavind after 6 mos!) to get a new visa (incidently, only for 3 months!), after which I went home to the US to get an allocated for the americans 10-year tourist visa. I also managed, because of staying a whole year without leaving the country, to meet the requirements for buying a house ( a stay in India for more than 182 days), and working on getting a Ration Card from teluka on Form 114, as a home-owner, registered in ponchiat. Will let everybody interested know how that turned out - but it takes a LONG time! So, I am giving advice from direct experience. May be, things with a year-visa changed since - everything changes! |
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Nov 23rd, 2005, 00:21
| #8 |
| Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: India
Posts: 48
| Thank, Nick-H, I checked the site you've supplied, and on the left-hand side found the "Registration Requirements". Seems, for a visa over 180 days other than Missionary, Research, Employment or Student, you are required to register within 14 days, no nationalities other than Pakistanis are mentioned, with the Police FRO, if the intentions ARE to stay more than 180 days on a long-term visa. So, again, my info seems to stand... |
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Nov 23rd, 2005, 09:10
| #9 |
| Maha Guru Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Vancouver
Posts: 3,552
| Kirpichik, from your post it appears that you have purchased a house in India and you are now considered from the authorities point of view to be a long term resident of India. This would mean you are no longer a tourist and as a result you have to register with the FRO. This puts you in the same category as the British expats who have retired long term to Calangute and Candolim. A regular tourist from the US on a 10 year visa is not eligible for a stay exceeding 180 days continuously unless he/she is a PIO(Person Of Indian Origin). Because you had already completed your residency and purchased a house you had become eligible for stays greater than 180 days as long as you completed the registration process. Hope this clears the confusion. |
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Nov 30th, 2005, 22:57
| #10 | |
| Eeny meeny mango  Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: All India Permit (somewhere between Delhi & Dharamsala)
Posts: 1,213
 | Quote:
Having said that, I overstayed my first visa by 1.5 years (quite a story which is now straightened out and I am legal). Since I stayed a total of 2.5 years without leaving the country EVER, does that mean I meet the requirement for buying a house - even though it (the stay) was quasi-legal? 
__________________ "Why do people go to India to find themselves? India is where you go to lose yourself." Feringhee: The India Diaries | |
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Dec 1st, 2005, 00:16
| #11 |
| Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: India
Posts: 48
| Dear Sirensong, after reading your letter I was wondering myself, so I went and took a good look at my 10-year visa - and NOTHING there says I have to leave India every 6 mos.! The same - and it is for sure, my lawyer in Pandjim scrutinized it under a microscope - happend with the first, 1-year visa, when I was buying the house and when I left for Sri Lanka to renew it after 1 year, not a word was said by custom officers in Trivandrum airport! Now, the official immigration site Nick H listed says in Reg. Rules Part : anyone with long-stay visa exceeding 180 days , (except Missionary, Student and some others, but not TOURIST), must register within 180 days at the place they intend to stay, and within 15 days if they plan to leave before 180 days expire. But again - no mention of leaving India after 180 days if your visa is a long-stay to renew it! Now - my question is: WHERE is this info about leaving India every 6 mos coming from? where is it eritten? Tomorrow I'll try to go to Panjim and register , just in case, my 10-year visa and bring my house ownership papers, just in case, because the only thing my visa mrntions is regidtration is needed within 15 days. May be they ran out of room to say I don't need to, if I stay longer then 6 mos at the time, like on the Immigration Site, - we'll see. I'll let you know. Worst that can happen , they can charge me 30 bucks penalty for late registration( according to Nick's immigration Site), since I came back more than a month ago, but I'll try to clear the matter as much as I can and let you know. Thanks for renewing the interest in the legalities maze for me - I was oblivious, I must say... Fine print is such tricky matter! Wish me luck! |
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Dec 1st, 2005, 00:23
| #12 | |
| Account Closed by User's Request  Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: the Netherlands
Posts: 6,009
| From the India Embassy website washington!! Quote:
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Dec 1st, 2005, 00:38
| #13 | |
| Maha Guru Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Vancouver
Posts: 3,552
| Quote:
From the Indian Embassy's website in Washington it very clearly says, TOURIST VISA: Valid for 6 months to 10 years. Ten (10) year visa is available only to US citizens under a bilateral arrangement. Irrespective of the duration of validity of visa, on each visit maximum period of stay in India is limited to 6 months (180 days). Multiple entry visas are given. http://www.indianembassy.org/consular/visa_guide.htm The only reason this 10 year multiple entry visa is being issued to US citizens is because the US government has agreed to issue 10 year multiple entry visas to Indian citizens. This does not mean that an Indian citizen can live continuously in the US for 10 years. The same applies in reverse to US citizens visiting India. As far as the attorneys in Panjim are concerned be aware of the fact that lawyers in Goa are not very competent in the area of Immigration Law. In fact very few lawyers in India practise Immigration Law because there is no money to be made in this line unlike the US where Immigration law is a very lucrative line of practice. | |
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Dec 1st, 2005, 01:18
| #14 |
| Maha Guru Member  Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: New York
Posts: 2,238
| Everyone is usually puzzled by the 180-day arrangement. If you could just stay in India for years at a stretch on a tourist visa, India would have lost control of immigration (observe how sensitive immigration issues are in your own country). Americans and Brits are not the only ones to be issued tourist visas to India. Plenty of people from all over the world would happily immigrate to India--to participate in a free, stable, market-oriented democracy (consider the region's other options). As it is now, India's visa requirements are hardly burdensome, and the fact that all tourist visas are multiple-entry is very generous. Almost no one who seeks to holiday in India is denied. Visas are not purview of the Department of Tourism--they are part if immigration and customs (which in the US is now called Homeland Security). Given how difficult it has become to travel to some countries, India remains refreshingly free of all the scaremongering and criminalizing that some countries indulge in when it comes to visas. |
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Dec 1st, 2005, 01:34
| #15 |
| Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: India
Posts: 48
| Dear Merchant, are you an Indian? On a tourist visa to New York? If so - why can't I, an American, live in India, and be a Merchant? That's what we are talking about here! Population of USA is 3% indian Indians, who live and work there, and no other country has more variagated population! In India no foreigners are allowed to be residents, only tourist, it seems... And those Indians that go to live abroad loose their mother-land, becoming NRIs, which is even sadder... |
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