No Arrival Stamp

riddhip26

I came from usa with a us passport.
I arrived in india on july 30,2009.
I came here with my grandmother.
We both hand our passports to the immigration officer to get it stamped. He stamped my grandmothers.
Both of us didn't pay much attention and left.
I was suppose to return to us on the sept 26.
They didnt left me leave because there is no arrival stamp.
I do have proof such as my iternary of when i arrived. no boarding passes. i threw them away as soon as i landed.

What can be done now?
the airport authority wont let me go inside the airport to talk to the immigration office.

Absolutely makes me hate coming to a country i love.

Nick-H

What city are you in? Are you still in the city in which you arrived?

Go to the Immigration bureau at the appropriate address from this link, with your air travel documents (ticket, even though you don't have the boarding pass), grandmother and grandmother's passport and explain the situation to them.

Before you do, look through every blank page in your passport; sometimes they skip a few blank pages before stamping. Annoying, but it happens.

Otherwise, just expect that you might have a slightly longer passage through immigration on the way out of India. If you are leaving from the same airport as you arrived at, I wouldn't worry too much, as they must have the record of your arrival.

sash561

You could contact the "airport manager" or the "airlines manager" of the airways you flew in and hopefully they will give you the necessasry proof that you travelled on flight number:.. and disembarked at ....

Good luck

riddhip26

city= ahmedabad.
and yes still here.
thank god i have family here.
I flipped through my entire passport maybe a few hundred times. the officers at the airport too. and my family has too. all pages are there. no page has a arrival stamp.
and an new update: I came here in dec 2005 for my sisters marriage. and return feb 2006. india again failed to stamp a departure stamp[if there is one]. USA doesnt stamp on arrival if you have a us passport. So now these idiots think i been living in india for three years. [i did travel to italy in 2007. i have stamps of both arriving and leaving the country].
and yes i contacted the airprt authorities. and everyone says different things. i feel like i gone through circles and that they themselves don't know what to do..
There are security guards before every door at the airport. and the immigration office is inside the airport. the guards don't let you in unless you have some sort of permit or if you are traveling. I even asked them to get someone to the door. and they did. The "commisioner" that came was very rude. I ingored it and even smiled for the dumbass. He said stand here i will be right back. I believe i waited 4 hours. The idiot didn't return.
excuse my languague. I am just so angry

sash561

The aiport manager is the only one who is authorised to give you an entry slip/permit, so contact him first.

Contact the Main airline office of the airlines you travelled to india in. Speak to the manager and request passenger manifest and confirmation of your name in it.

He will most probably refer you to the aiport manager who will have records of passenger manifest in his pc.

Haylo

Perfectly ridiculous as a security measure, because they accept printouts of etickets that anyone with a word processor could knock together in two seconds flat.

Not that I'm suggesting you do that; for a start the immigration people inside the airport are highly likely to query how you got in, I'm just saying how useless it is to have a "security measure" that stops genuine people from seeing immigration staff, but that won't keep out terrorists with half a brain.

__________________
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bigjed

you haven't contacted the US Embassy or Consulate? Would have been my first stop. I mean what would the situation have been had you lost your passport or had it stolen? No different imho.

Fanks

Haylo

It is easy to overestimate the amount of help, which in real terms is very little, that an Embassy is prepared to provide - especially if you cannot demonstrate that you have already exhausted the avenues that are already open to you.

While you might want to keep your embassy informed of your situation, sash561's suggestion of asking your airline for proof of your latest entry into India is a sound one.

bigjed

indeed, but I would have at least contacted them before posting on a website. As my first point of contact with any official country/country problem - at least it would demonstrate you doing things by the book. Anything else can be construed as less than honest - digging a hole deeper even if you are being up front. It is the nature of officialdom to be skeptical.

Nick-H

Go to the FRO in your city, which will be a department of a police station.

Records are kept of entry and exit... that is what they consult if you loose your passport and need a temporary travel doc endorsed with permission to stay/leave the country.

Haylo

You may have done, but many people, possibly including those with prior experience of their embassy, would not choose to involve them lightly. Embassies do not readily involve themselves in issues like this, other than ensuring you have access to (though not payment for) legal representation if the situation becomes so serious that you are incarcerated.

Besides, take a look at the time of the OP - when riddhip26 finally decided to bite the bullet and start asking advice about this, everything in India, except IndiaMike of course which never stops, was closed!

bigjed

nothing light about not being allowed to leave the country! Fair enough the embassy might have been closed (it has a 24hr hotline) - but I'd be lining up first thing.

From the US Embassy India Website -

"For U.S. Citizens - In case of emergencies, please contact MumbaiACS@state.gov or 24-hour reception at U.S. Consulate, Mumbai - (91-22) 2363-3611, ext.0"

Haylo

I would not try and dissuade someone from contacting their Embassy, if they felt that it was necessary, but a 24 hour emergency number?

Please do believe me when I say that the US authorities will most certainly not view this matter as an out of hours consular emergency!

bigjed

it's not going to wake anyone up or nothing. They would be available for advice. If I were a citizen not being able to leave India for any reason - I'd give them a call. Maybe not in the middle of the night - but it's good to know they are there.

Haylo

If someone lost their passport or had it stolen, they would have to go to the FRO in person for an exit permit to leave India. The OP presumably does still have a valid visa, so an exit permit is not necessary. However, as was advised by Nick-H many posts ago, the FRO are the people who have the means to sort this out.

Well it would be absolutely lovely if the OP telephoned the US embassy and they responded by agreeing to deal with it for him.

riddhip26, it is worth a try. For the cost of a phone call, why don't you phone your Embassy to ask them to sort it out for you.

It would help other people who might find themselves in the same position if you could keep us posted, so do let us know what they say...