Did I over stay my visa? OH MY GOD

ren

Oh MY GOD. I feel like a complete IDIOT for posting this.
Ok, so I have a one-year multi-entry visa. It says registration not required if stay does not exceed 180 days.

Ok. So, I've been here since late April. In JUNE, I managed to get a residental permit from the Police Commissioner's Office, Hyderabad. Everyone says it isn't possible, and it isn't allowed for people on tourist visas, but I have it. I was told at the PCO that I am now able to stay until March, 2007. That is 11 months, but my visa was issued on March so it's 12 months..

Uhm. So, I went to Delhi a little over a month ago to see about a PIO card. They said come back after i've been married to my Indian-citizen husband for one year. Okie. And I showed the guy my registration permit from Hyderabad and he said it's a complete waste, it isn't valid.

Maybe it was the fasting during Ramadan and working my ass off, but I didn't even think about it until about a week ago. I have now been here longer than six months. If that registration permit IS NOT VALID, that means I'm not ALLOWED to stay until March?

Oh my fucking God. I cannot go to the PCO in Hyderabad, they messed with me for 3 weeks (and 1500 rupees) just to get a paper saying I am legally married (I need it in Delhi, I'm try to get a 5 year x-entry visa) I dunno who to call to find out.

So, I am freaking out. I am such an idiot. I can't believe it. I think I've over-stayed my visa and I blame the f*ckers at the PCO in Hyderabad (Sharfuddin, I mean you, you bastard!)

So, I arrived on 26th April, 2006. It is now what.. the 5th of November. That is more than six months but I have a one-year multientry visa.. and a paper from the PCO HYDERABAD saying I'm allowed to stay until March.

What do I do??

ren

I found this.. http://www.indiacgny.org/php/showContent.php?linkid=23





TYPES OF VISAS AVAILABLE


TOURIST VISA: Tourist visas valid for six-month and one year (six months stay each time) are available. Ten-year Tourist visas permitting a stay of maximum of six-month on each visit are available to U.S. citizens who are frequent visitors to India. A person desirous of visiting India frequently but not intending to stay for more than six months at a time is advised to apply for this type of visa. Please note that it is not possible to extend your stay in India beyond 6 months if you are visiting India on this visa. For non-US nationals, who are permanent residents of US 5 year tourist visa with six months stay each visit is available.

ENTRY VISA: Valid for six months to one-year stay with multiple entries for legitimate purposes only. Five-year long-term stay visas are available only for US citizens of Indian origin. The five-year entry visa allows the holder to stay in India for up to 5 years after they have registered themselves with the authorities in India. This visa is advisable for people who intend to live in India on a long-term basis and for more than six months at a time. There is no Ten-year entry visa.



BUT I HAVE A PERMIT FROM THE FRO IN HYD.. well, I guess it's useless, like the guy in Delhi said, so I am over staying my visa. What can I do?

jyotirmoy

Contact your embassy first thing tomorrow

cyberhippie

No technically you haven't overstayed your visa, which is for one year.
So your resident permit is worthless (that COULD be because you are in Delhi, I think they are valid only in the state issued) however it still proves you did indeed register with a FRO which is all you're required to do.

Now you know how you managed to get a residential permit on a tourist visa!!

Yes contacting your embassy would be wise!!

Perhaps a few days in Nepal can get you back on course!

Nick-H

Not your fault if the residency permit was issued by mistake: you accepted it in good faith.

But it might be difficult to find an official that accepts that point of view. My advice is to go as high as you can in the hierarchy. Try to get into the immigration department director's office and explain that you have not intended to do anything wrong, on the contrary, you went to a great deal of trouble to try to do the correct thing, and wish to do whatever is necessary to regularise the situation.

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Nick-H

They are issued by the Ministry of Home affairs: a Central Govt, not a state govt*, department --- so they are valid in any state. But you have to inform change of address, other than for brief visits.

Having said that, my guess is that, should your change of address be to a different state, informing of the change might be akin to registering from scratch. Guess only...

*the stamp on mine says:

Foreigners Regional Registration Officer
Bureau of Immigration
M.H.A. Govt of India
Chennai-600 005

ie it says nothing about the state of Tamil Nadu

cyberhippie

Would it be valid to apply for a PIO card in Delhi without changing your place of residency Nick, this was the point I was trying to make (rather Badly) wouldn't it be better to do that in Chennai???

cyberhippie

A friend was registered in Rajasthan on a residential permit he was unable to buy a car, property in Goa until he had re-registered in Goa!!
Perhaps judicial processes like issueing a PIO card require the same change of status!

Also you card states quite clearly which state you are registered in to an official, in your case TN

Not being argumentative, you da man on this subject just musing over the possibilities??

Nick-H

being argumentative , it doesn't mention the words Tamil Nadu anywhere!

Car-buying may be more complex: don't cars have to be registered in your state of residence, and re-registered if you change state

(change state: like, err, solid to liquid.... tee hee . Small minds.... )

And Goa seems to be making sure anything to do with foreigners is difficult just now, so they might have made up their own version of the laws.

Which brings me back to my assertion that every single individual bureaucrat makes up his own version of the rules

pooch

Ren, stay calm. The residential permit you have been granted overrides the stipulations mentioned on your tourist visa. I am also assuming your res. permit states you are allowed to "remain" until .... <--being the expiry date of your tourist visa in all ie. 1 year.

I have twice used a tourist visa (one year multiple)and converted them to a residential permit on arrival and have exited and reentered India several times the duration of the res. permit.

I don't know what the law really says but I am pretty sure you are supposed to have registered within 14 days after arrival in India if you knew you would be exceeding 6 months but you are also allowed a so called grace period of "90 days before your visa expires" in your case that would translate to 90 days before spending 6 months in India.

Now someone has granted you a RP and what you have is legit, period cos it was granted before you even spent 90 days in India. Nothing to worry whatsoever. There must be some who are either ignorant of the "grace period" cos if they looked up the rule book they wouln't read beyond "must register within 14 days" or they are just trying to make a fast buck out of your ignorance.

dzibead

Actually, I think technically she has overstayed it, because even the longer multi-entry visas include the provision that one stay cannot exceed 180 days. For example, I couldn't stay for five years at a stretch on the kind of 10-year multi-entry visa we lucky dogs in the U.S. can get without getting into big trouble, even though the visa is "good for" another five years. And I don't think pooch's statement that the residential permit overrides the visa is correct. The visa is the basic immigration authorization and it controls all, ultimately.

Nick's advice to try to get as high as you can in the immigration department, and jyotirmoy's advice to contact your won embassy (or consulate, seem to be the most sound.

But try to stay calm. You didn't do anything deliberately wrong, you clearly were trying to do things properly, but were caught in an objectively confusng situation. My guess is that once you explain the situation to someone high enough in the system not to be afflicted with "petty-bureaucrat-itis", you will be given a short extension of the 180-day period - enough time to depart in a reasonably orderly fashion - possibly accompanied by a lecture, and possibly (worse case scenario?) a fine. In the circumstances you describe, I doubt that you will be abruptly deported and/or barred from future re-enty.

But if you take a cavalier attitude and ignore the situation, you run the risk of either or both of these latter things happening when you ultimately leave. You can't count on having the same kind of experience pooch had. I think he just got lucky with the particular immigration functionararies who cleared his entry into the country based on a residential permit. Most of them are probably too lazy to pay much attention, or are on automatic pilot. But another person might be more scrupulous about examining the actual visa, so why take the risk of getting ensnared in a mess?

Sama

I've got news for them -- I'm a US citizen, NOT a permanent resident, and the Indian embassy in Chicago gave me a 5 year visa!

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BE THE REVOLUTION

Nick-H

From the New York Consulate General Of India website. All it is saying (as I read it) is that resident non-US Nationals can get 5 years, not 10 --- US Citizens can get 10 years, but just because they gave you less is not casting aspersions on your citizenship.

There is a thread about it, but little information on exactly what that Registration Certificate/Residential Permit signifies or allows. Does it permit a person to reside? Does that override the visa, or length of stay? Perhaps. It is not unreasonable that Ren thought it did.

Ren has a tourist visa: but, as the spouse of an Indian citizen she is entitled to an X visa, allowing her to stay longer term in the country with her husband. The Director of the Immigration office in Chennai said to me, "you have married an Indian Citizen: you are welcome to stay in our country as long as you wish" --- but most of his subordinates that I had met seemed determined to be as obstructive of that as possible.

Ren, you have met even worse bureaucrats than I did: I wish you may meet (as I eventually did) a helpful gentleman.

cyberhippie

I see what you are saying dzibead and you're right of course, but she has fullfilled the FRO obligation. The fact that someone in another department says it's useless, surely shouldn't matter, she acted in good faith and has the visa for a year and to all intents and purposes a residency card which entitles her to stay??

I'm still thinking this is just one guy in Delhi, interpreting the rules HIS way, either as pooch has mentioned or in relation to the PIO card and her not being registered in Delhi, rather Chennai.

That said I totally agree the best way to fix this is to be proactive, talk to the head Hioncho and your embassy, explain the mistake (if indeed there is one) and the situation you find yourself in.

You've done nothing wrong, at worst somebody mucked up your permit in Chennia.
You didn't purposely "oil" the wheels did you, cause that could get real complicated!!

edwardseco

Just don't swear like a sailor to the higher bureaucrats or they will think you are the latest import on the Delhi call girl circuit..