Change to tourist visa rules re multiple entries - 60-day-out rule scrapped

Hello perfumes, welcome to the site. Please, don't SHOUT! It is an internet convention that using CAPITAL LETTERS means you are yelling about something. Typographically, it is hard to read too.

I'd guess that Pakistan and China on the list might raise eyebrows, and certainly repeated visits to Pakistan in your passport might even cause them to ask you for an explanation --- but most of the world is not going to bother them at all. I'm not terribly well up on international affairs, but I think India has a good relationship with Russia.

I'd have thought being in the travel industry would be a good enough explanation, that's if they're bothering to look.

If you could organize some paperwork showing you are in the travel industry (company & your postion in it, etc.)--just in case you are questioned, as goangoangone points out, you should be able to make that work for you rather than against you.

Then write as many as you can on the back of the form. If you submit an incomplete form to an Indian bureaucrat, there is likely to be only one outcome, and that is return of the application for it to be completed.
Don't see why visiting those countries would be a problem, after all, Indian visas are routinely given to Russians and Iranians.

If you have worked long enough in the travel industry, you should know that in fact they don t like you. They prefer tourist groups to come without tourleader/guide (you can get yourself imprisonned for this in Thailand even), so they can move along the groups freely (to tourist shops among other things).

AirAsia (budget airline out of Kuala Lumpur) will be flying to more destinations in India in 2010. It will be a cheap way to take your 60 days out of India in Malaysia.

I don't think this is a problem in India. I know one person who has been running cultural tours from UK for decades. As a highly respected academic, he was even in India's civil honours list last year.

Here is some anecdotal information as to one person's experience.

I heard yesterday about an individual whose father is known to us and lives in Maryland. He holds a US passport - although he is of Indian origin - and he came from the US to India on a tourist visa and then proceeded to Singapore to attend a wedding with a view to returning to India before heading back to the US. Immigration, upon his departure to Singapore, told him that he would not be permitted to return to India for two months subsequent to departure. He apparently began to argue vociferously about this since he already had a return ticket to the US from India.

The long and the short of it, was that he was referred to some other immigration officer at the airport and given a waiver. So what it seems to suggest is that the officers at the airport have the authority to grant a waiver but one would be taking a chance if one counted on getting one since I suspect if the officer had taken a contrary position, one would be stuck outside of India or have to make alternative flight arrangements to return to one's country of origin.

Thanks for that information, lifeisbeautiful. That story is consistent with other incidents people have reported.

The uncertain, catch-as-catch-can quality of this procedure is really unfortunate. The GOI really needs to establish a more consistent and predictable procedure for getting clearance (before one leaves India) for doing one of these "sidetrips" out of the country. At least this guy got the approval he needed, but getting the wrong immigration official on the wrong day might lead to an entirely different result, even for identical circumstances, and that kind of arbitrariness is just not OK.

I think that sums it up very well.

The MHA FAQ states that the Immigration officers have the power to let people reenter early, even if they do not have prior permission, but it does not say that if they meet certain requirements the immigration officer must let people reenter early.

... or does the MHA FAQ actually say anything? - can you (still) provide a route to it from the MHA home page?

AndyD 8-)#

The MHA FAQ is still being hosted on the MHA website.

Right now, the MHA does not appear to be linking any visa information at all from its home page, whether it's the Student Visa FAQ, the Employment FAQ or the Tourist Visa FAQ.

There is nothing to suggest either from reports on here or press reports that the rules set out in the Tourist Visa FAQ have been changed, and it seems that they are increasingly being implemented on the ground.

Curious: the entire Foreigners Division section seems to be invisible, unless one knows the direct link!

As you are graced with the Secret Knowledge, you could send a note pointing out the omission to:

http://mha.gov.in/uniquepage.asp?Id_Pk=59

Then we could start a survey on how long it will take to correct...

Funny you should say that ...

Actually, the last time I emailed an Indian Govt dept about its website, I did, at least, get a polite answer, and fairly promptly too.

Breath holding for this, though, is not advised