My stay in Kathmandu for Visa 25.12.06 - 3.12.06

whatiyam

i have ten-year year indian visa. you dont need to leave india every 180 days. i stayed for a year before going to nepal. no problem returning to india via kakarbita, border people see 10 visa and don't look any furhter. thats how it should be.

Haylo

Please do not advise that you do not have to leave every 180 days, this is untrue and may mislead other members.

You have simply been very very lucky.

__________________
The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful - E.E. Cummings, poet (1894-1962)

Nick-H

... and the immigration staff that stamped you in and out were very, very bad at their job.

Unless your visa is not type "T"?

whatiyam

i did it twice. in sikkim i met the vice minister in charge of permits and the fro who said i only need to register with police
if i intent to stay in one place for more than 180 days. is that what you were told when u got your 10-year visa? i would like to see that on official site.

dzibead

Nick will not have gotten a 10-year tourist visa because he's British and that type of tourist visa is available only to U.S. citizens.

As for what you experienced (and as Haylo said, you lucked out), local officials, particularly in out-of-the-way places, often don't know what they're talking about. After all, the FRO in any place other than one of the big regional FRRO's is just the local police commissioner and they aren't actually very conversant with immigration rules. The 10-year tourist visa that only Americans can get is unusual -- even most American tourists don't have them -- so most local officials will never have seen one and don't necessairly understand that it's like all Indian tourist visas in that the duration of each stay in the country cannot exceed 180 days. But don't count on universal ignorance of the law. If you run up against a more knowledgeable official, e.g., one in a larger city or somebody who actually works in a regional FRRO, or even someone at airport immigration, you could find yourself in a real pickle because you have illegally overstayed your visa. This could have various consequences: immigration officials have a lot of individual discretion so the results are unpredictable. This could end up with you having the visa canceled and being barred from ever getting another one. At the very least, you could be fined and/or actually detained (for days) when you try to leave and forced to obtain clearance to exit the country.

You asked for an official site, so I'll give you one: https://indiavisa.travisaoutsourcing.c om/homepage Rather than having its Consular offices around the world process visa applications themselves, the Indian Government now outsources the process to various third-party companies. In the U.S., the processing is now done by Travisa, whose website I have just given you. When you check the requirements for a Tourist visa, you will see that it says: "A Tourist Visa is given to those visiting India for tourism or other non-business related purposes. Valid for 6 months to 10 years. Ten (10) year visa is available only to US citizens under a bilateral arrangement. Irrespective of the duration of validity of visa, on each visit maximum period of stay in India is limited to 6 months (180 days). Multiple entry visas are given. Please note the visa is valid beginning on the day it is issued. So a 6 Month visa issued on January 1 would be valid until June 30." (Emphasis added.) The same limitation is also plainly stated on the site for the different outsourcing company that handles Indian visa applications in the United Kingdom. So when you say, "border people see 10 visa and don't look any furhter. thats how it should be" [sic], you are just flat wrong.

If you keep overstaying your visa, you're playing Russian roulette and sooner or later someone who actually understands the law is going to nail you.

__________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln
"The perfect is the enemy of the good." - Voltaire

stepmyrjov

What kind of visa *DO* you have? I am assuming a tourist visa valid for 10-years as that is the only one I'm aware of that they give for that long of a period, unless of course you have a PIO card, but those are good for 15 years...If you have a tourist visa you should look at the bottom of your visa...there in the fine print it says, "Registration required within 14 days of arrival in India for visas valid for more than 180 days" but also, as dzibead has pointed out...you simply *CANNOT* stay for more than 180 days at a time on a tourist visa. Please read the regulations and rules for your visa before giving others incorrect advice.

I will however follow the rules, because I value my current visa, and my following PIO card too much to mess around with such things. Thanks =]

stepmyrjov

I am an American citizen intending to go to Nepal, would there be any problem with me bringing INR to Nepal instead of USD? I understand that I can't bring 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Thanks!!

~ Stephanie ~

JessR

Does anyone know the typical processing time to get a 6-month tourist visa for India from the Embassy in Kathmandu? ie - if I'm there to submit my application on a Tuesday, I should get it back on...?

I'm a UK citizen.