Long term visa?

I'm planning on going to India (Himachal Pradesh) for a year or so. What's the best visa to get for this? Thanks.

That depends on your reasons for going and what you plan to do when you get there. Work? Study? Tourist?

Voluntary work, although it's not through an NGO or anything, so might officially be classed as tourism.

you should try for an employment visa, as you probably wont get a tourist visa for a year.

Get whoever is employing you to provide a letter saying they are employing you, and will look out for you in India. Also you will need some documentation saying that the organisation is a real one (certificate of registration etc), submit these to the consulate and hope for the best!

What about multiple entry visas, how long do they last for? Thanks.

Would an employment visa work for a volunteer job though? It's an honest question, I don't know.

KP, there are all sorts of varying visas, and they may vary for different nationalities; all I know is that the most common tourist visa is valid for 180 days from date of issue, after which you can (have to, rather) leave the country & apply for a new one. This is at the discretion of the employee in charge at whatever embassy you find yourself at, but I don't hear about too much trouble with it. You can search the forums here for people's views on different countries to do this. Bear in mind that technically at least you may find yourself locked out, although again most people seem to get by.

There seems to be something going on with new (shorter and/or more restrictive) visa regulations for EU residents, so you might need to look into that. Have not heard of too much trouble in that field either, though, but I'm not sure what the current deal is.

I can't be sure but I imagine no one will mind you doing some volunteer work on a tourist visa, provided you generally behave and don't shout it from the rooftops (conversely, doing it for a year in one spot? Hmmm -- I just don't know.)

More on visas, different embassies and so on at http://meaindia.nic.in/ ; try also http://mha.gov.in/ while you're at it, or look up your own embassy's site.

Try to obtain a Business visa for 6 months and extend it in India.

get the organisation write you a invitation letter, and try to get a sponsor letter from a home based company.

I just got a visa for a year, and I'm also going for volunteer work, so this might help:
As you probably know, volunteer visa as such don't exist, so you're probably going to end up with a tourist visa, which are usually valid only for 6 months. At first, I called the embassy to inquire about a longer tourist visa and they said it wasn't allowed for volunteers. However, after carefully avoiding the use of the word 'volunteer', using instead the word 'trainee' at the embassy office and backing this up with a support letter and a paper describing the NGO (in my case) in question, I did receive an adjusted tourist visa which is valid for a year.

I don't know about the possibilities of student or business visa, but this worked for me.

good luck!

Weatherbeat, welcome to the site

A great lesson in how much difference a word can make when dealing with the bureaucrats!

Thanks Nick.
I'm leaving tomorrow morning early for Uttarakhand (woohoo) and here I am, checking out Indiamike one last time before turning in, just shows you've got a good thing going here!
By the way, don't get me wrong, the folks at the embassy were really very helpful & friendly. It's more a question of reading between the lines when someone says "no" because that's what he has to say, while actually what they're saying is "no, but actually it could be done some other way"