My experience at the NYC embassy.

jwitt

I picked up my visa at the Indian embassy in New York City (I'm a US citizen) and thought I'd share my experience to help out others.

I arrived at the embassy around 11AM to take a number. This took only a few minutes, mostly trying to figure out what to do amidst the crowd.

There were 120 people in front of me and it took about 3 hours before my turn came. Not too much of a problem since you can leave and come back. I even missed my turn by about 3 numbers (had to find a bathroom) but the woman behind the window let me slip in. This took about 10 minutes.

I was instructed to return at 4:30PM to pick up my passport and visa. I returned at 4:10PM to find 20 people in front of me. The window did not actually open up until 5PM and I was finished with visa in hand by 5:15PM. I was glad I had arrived early as there was a huge queue behind me that wound through the room, up a flight of stairs, and onto the street.

So the process took a whole day but left plenty of time in between to grab lunch, stroll through Central Park, and window shop (although not the most exciting neighborhood in NYC!). There is a little photo booth at the embassy where you can get your two passport photos taken for $5. After you get your number in the morning go to the information line on the other side of the room to pick up a visa form, or print it out online the night before. I hope this helps others.

tacita

yes, it does! thanks for posting! i need to get my visa for a february india trip, and a sikkim permit as well. i was wondering how long it would take. sounds like a relatively painless experience. and it may be even more painless arriving still earlier in the morning.

you're right, that area of the UES isn't the most interesting, but the park's always nice to kill time. PM me should you need anything during your stay in NY and i'll try to help.

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jwitt

Glad to hear it. Don't forget the trip in the middle of the day to hand in your form and payment (when your number comes up). I also think you can have them Fedex your passport/visa for $14, thus avoiding step #3.

tacita

oh, right.

thanks.

NonIndianResident

Oh, but that NYC Consulate of India is horribly beaurocratic if you've got the slightest little anomoly in your visa application.

For example, Janice, they may tell you that it will take months to get the Sikkim permit for you, and insist you have no option but to postpone your trip until the permit comes through. But I think in fact you get your Sikkim permit on arrival in Sikkim (check on that; I haven't been there)

They always play that trick on people who want to travel to Ladakh: there are certain border regions of Ladakh that require permits and you can (and should) get the permits in Leh Ladakh, which doesn't require a permit, but the NYC Consulate loves to tell applicants who fill "Ladakh" as their destination that the permit will take six weeks longer than their planned date of departure. Agck!

tacita

thanks for the cautionary note. the consulate website specifies that permits for restricted areas can be sought with the visa if the application is accompanied by a letter request. i guess i'll find out when i get there.

weather permitting, i'll be crossing from west bengal into sikkim by helicopter, so i do really need it before i leave new york. i'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

do you think the fact that i work for the government might impede my chances of a smoothe visa/permit experience?

Nick-H

No. I don't recall any employer information being on the form.

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machadinha

Janice, if it doesn't work in NYC for some reason, try to arrange it in your place of landing (Delhi I believe?) Your guidebook will probably tell you about the appropriate offices. How long this might take to process is probably anyone's guess. I don't think Sikkim should be a big deal, although certain parts of it might be.

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tacita

i soldered closed the last link in my trip-preparations chain today with a visit - ok, two, to the indian consulate in new york. in the process, i discovered that the above-described three-stop process actually can be truncated if you do some advance preparation, as i did.

first, visit the indian consulate’s website: http://www.indiacgny.org/php/showContent.php?linkid=23
it’s not the most user-friendly site, and some of the links are dead, but the information is all there, even if you maddeningly need to go back and forth between pages to answer related questions that reason dictates should be on the same page. just think of it as i did - part of the india training program!

download the visa application and read the accompanying instructions carefully. you’ll need to complete the application in ink and “securely” affix one passport-sized photo. (i’m not sure what that means, exactly, but i used a glue stick and wasn’t sent away.) the application instructions also require the submission of a second passport-sized photo. i did so, only to have it handed back to me as superfluous. of course, had i not had it, you can be certain i’d have needed it. under the dictates of murphy’s law, i suggest you bring it anyway. if you plan to visit a restricted area, as i do (sikkim), also submit a letter of request, as set forth in the application instructions. fearful of giving any cause for rejection, mine was word-processed, rather formal, and full of "respectfully request's" and "at your discretion's."

in contrast to nick h’s experience, which was presumably in the UK, i did have to state my occupation and identify my employer on the application. for references, i provided the name and address of one of my hotels for india and my sister and a friend for the US.

inasmuch as visa applications are accepted beginning at 9:15, i arrived at 9 a.m. at that point, about 60-70 people were already lined up outside the consulate under the flag of india, just off 5th ave, on 64th street. (take the N, R or W train to fifth ave.) as we entered the first door, an amiable man handed us each a number and directed us either left or right, depending upon our purpose. my impression was that indian nationals and those needing forms were directed left and US citizens, et al., with completed applications were directed right. (i was sent directly to the right without questioning)

at about 9:15 - not one minute earlier - the blinds went up on two of four windows, and two unflappable staff began accepting completed applications. the LED display kept things orderly, and it ticked steadily up, and not terribly slowly, to my great relief. it took only about 45 minutes for the 35 or so people ahead of me to submit (or to correct and resubmit) their applications. (as the unwary were advised they’d committed fatal errors, i quickly approached them to inquire about their transgressions so as not to face the same fate. one had no photos and another had inexplicably completed his application in RED ink. sheesh! sort of like showing up for an SAT exam with only no. 4 pencils - common sense alone tells you not to do it!

as i waited for my number to be called, a few things happened that foretold india, but for which the experience would have been incomplete. first, i watched as some poor man’s submission was stymied by the receiver’s inability to make change of a twenty-dollar bill! he called out helplessly for anyone who could aid, to no avail. (he came back a few minutes later with a fistful of small bills and a cup of street-vendor coffee in the ubiquitous blue, paper, greek-diner coffee cup.)

second, the man sitting next to me asked whether i had - i kid you not - “one pen.” not "a" pen, mind you, but “one” pen! isn't this what children ask tourists?

third, i noticed that when i'd find someone staring at me, they didn’t look away, as per the standard new-york american cultural protocol. (while i saw US passports almost exclusively, most in the room did not share my skin color.) so, it seemed, indian culture as described on the pages of IM is alive and well and living in new york holding a US passport. more preparation for for becoming an object of curiosity in india.

(now here i confess that the entire time i was there with all these would-be travelers to india, i had an near-overpowering urge to call out into the crowd, "is anyone else here a member of indiamike.com?" i stifled the reflex. however, when i returned later, i did engage in some IM proselytizing with a few guidebook-toting visa applicants.)

at 10:00 am, having committed no errors, grievous or otherwise, the consulate staff accepted my paper number (yes, you must turn it in), my blue-ink-completed visa application with glue-stick-affixed photo, letter requesting permission to enter sikkim, and $60 cash. i was given a receipt with a number written on it, and told to return at 12 noon when, i was told, the visa collection window would be open for that purpose for precisely 15minutes.

when i returned at the appointed hour, the orderly LED number system had been replaced by pandemonium in the form of a teeming mass of many more bodies than the room could comfortably accommodate. (again, this is training for india, so keep a sense of humor about the whole thing. you'll find everyone around you quite good-natured, with a ready smile, and excited to hear you're going to india.)

i somehow identified a line and put myself at it's end, as nearly as i could identify it -- sort of like those color-blindness tests, where you can only vaguely make out some sort of design in the entropy. when you reach the counter, a smiling woman will return your passport which - if all has gone well - you will find a shimmering, colorful and very official-looking visa pasted over a full page. in addition, mine had been stamped, verbatim, “permitted to visit gangtok, rumtek, phodang, pemayangtse, kecheperi and tashiging in sikkim for 15 days.”

so, indian officials here have seen fit to allow me into the country and typhoid-fighting antibodies (among other microscopic disease-fighting matter) are coursing through my human organism, and i have international and domestic flights, not to mention a train and hotel reservations. nothing to stop me now, i guess. (this is a good thing, right?)

Digital Drifter

Good that you did otherwise those other travelers in line would have pee'd in their pants either out of sheer fright or joy.

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PeakXV

The first time I went to the consulate in Toronto for a visa - they pulled the famous "rickshaw no change trick" at the Cashier's window - I was too green/naive to call them on it and ended up "baksheeshing" them a fiver.

I should have clued in that they were only preparing me for all the future shortcomings awaiting me in Hindustan ........

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

capt_mahajan

janice, really enjoyed your post, and your attitude to the experience.

though it sounds like a normal visit to a government office within India. Except, raise your pandemonium level another few notches.

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tacita

thanks, cap'n!

can't wait... may i retain my sense of humor!

Sama

janice, the experience you described is just about the same at the consulate in Chicago....only less people, and nobody stares....

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crvlvr

Can't you just mail the pasport in with the visa application and have the consulate mail it back to you? That's how I did mine. I don't intend wasting any more time than absolutely necessary at govt offices.