India is considering Visa on Arrival for UK USA Germany France and Japan Nationals

indiaprof

For those seeking a little more background, if I may? The restriction of immigration into India goes back further than most people realize. Even when India belonged to Britain, not just any Englishman was allowed to go there: you had to apply to the East India Company for a permit to travel, and even most European employees of the Company - even Governors - were required to leave, immediately, as soon as their term of employment ended. There were only a few exceptions to this rule. The Company, like India, tried to prevent missionaries from coming to India, too, and forget about opening a private business: you could do it, but it was a nightmare. And buying land? They made that hard, too. Not much has changed. They did not want a permanent, locally-rooted European population in India. And that was the British! They didn't even let you leave the major coastal cities and go into the interior without a pass signed by a Government official. Sound familiar?

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the British were very restrictive about letting foreigners into India - people had to indicate their itineraries, etc., and even so might expect to be tailed by secret service operatives of the British colonial state - especially if they were German, Russian, American, or Japanese. Because something like 25% of all foreign missionaries in India in the late 19th century were German or Austrian, rounding them all up and putting them in internment camps during World War I, or at least registering them, and seizing their property, laid the groundwork for a number of restrictive laws applied to foreigners. The laws were kept on the books and used again during World War II.

India inherited all of these regulations in 1947, and they formed the basis of the Foreigner's Act, which still governs what foreigners can and can't do. The irony underlying all of our complaints is that before the advent of the British Raj, no one in India cared who got off the boat, or how long they stayed. It can be argued, as it sometimes has, that India is paranoid about foreigners, or that it fears foreign take-over (remember what happened last time we let them in?), but these obnoxious regulations are in fact all legacies of the British Raj.

The economic situation suggests that things ought to change, but that's not the only thing happening in South Asia. There's also the national security and international terrorism angle, and that makes everything very different.

Nick-H

Interesting history, and quite believable, given the monopolistic nature of the East India Company, and the fortunes made on the side by some of its employees.

In the middle-distant past, however, I think that all a Brit needed to visit India was a passport, in accordance with the fact that citizens of (some, many, all?) Commonwealth countries had free right of entry into UK

Wanderer22

Right you are Nick. As a Canadian citizen I didn't need a visa for India or UK during the seventies. Had to get visas for Afghanistan, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia but not India. Too bad it changed, but think the system was getting abused too much.

In many ways travel has gotten more difficult not easier! On one of my early trips I decided to go to India on a Monday and boarded the plane the following Saturday. Doubt you could do that today without diplomatic pull and very deep pockets. Flights never seemed to be booked solid like they are today and never had to buy train tickets more than a day or two in advance. Guess it should be mentioned that India only had 555 million population back in 1970 as compared to its present number. http://www.xist.org/default1.aspx

Times, they are a changing..... Damit, now I'm starting to feel like an old geezer.

W22

indiaprof

I remember talking with an Indian consulate official in San Francisco in the late 1980s. He joked about how people would overstay their visas, show up for renewal, and get it as a matter of course. What a different world that must have been. Of course, even in the mid-90's you could get a year-long visa with no questions asked - just, "Have you got sufficient money?" All you needed to say was, "Yes."

Nick-H

You Americans still have an easy life of it, comparatively, though! Ten year Tourist visa! Mention that in London and they would throw you out of the building . Six months is what you get, and you'll like it or lump it!

Until very recently, barring public holidays, it would have been possible to decide to go on a Monday and be on a plane by, or even before, the end of the week. Visas were available same-day to visitors to the London High Commission; within a couple of hours, in fact. Now it takes a couple of days at least, assuming you manage to have all the right documents to get through the hoops of the outsourcing company.

Planes will be booked at peak periods, but I have travelled return to London and back twice in the last couple of years at just a few days notice. The first time included getting a UK visa for my wife, with my mother on her deathbed. The visa took 24 hours (now, biometric, it takes a week). I think we went from the visa agency to the travel agency, booked the tickets, went home, packed and went to the airport.

The last time I did it, though, it was expensive: cheapest tickets were "Premium Economy" --- and I'm now spoilt and never want to travel economy ever again

Haylo

If you lived within reasonable travelling distance of London Birmingham or Edinburgh, and decided first thing on a Monday morning to go to India, you could have a visa by lunchtime and be on a flight that same evening.
No they wouldn't they'd say "We are only agents to the Indian High Commission and do not have any authority to throw you out of the building ourselves"

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karuna

"....please complete this Throwing Out form, give us £30 and we will send your application for being chucked out of here to the Commission. You should be chucked out within the week but this cannot be guaranteed so do not make other arrangements until you've heard from us".

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Mosquitos suck.

Nick-H

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lovish

thats a good news for the citizens of these countries.....

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True Indian BLood will Never think twise before giving his Life to save his Motherland INDIA- Lovish