Staying Longer Than Six Months

samjay

HELP HELP

Ok here's the deal, all I want to do is stay in India longer than six months. How the heck do I do it? I am receiving conflicting information. The Indian embassy here in Canada said I could just leave the country near the time of expiry and have the tourist visa renewed. I suspected that meant Nepal. But I see from comments on this site and the Indian embassy in Nepal that repeated applications for tourist visas will not be entertained. I realize authorities are apt to say one thing and do another, sooo, does any have the straight goods on this or what? If it's a 'wink wink' kind of thing, I need to know. If it is definitely impossible to get another tourist visa after the six months are up, I need to know this too, so I can make alternate arrangements. Heck, people talk of trekking through India for years. How is it done?

Thanks for your comments!

Samjay

Merchant

Get a ten-year visa (or just a one-year visa). You still have to leave the country every six months, but it's just a matter of collecting entry and exit stamps. You will have a valid, multiple-entry visa.

Tourist visas usually aren't extendable, so if you have a six-month visa you'll have to get another one at the end of your term. You can't do this in India. Maybe Nepal doesn't want to be merely a visa-processing center. But if you came home to Toronto when your six-month visa expired, there's no reason why you won't be given another six-month visa if you apply for it.

As far as I know, all tourist visas (six-month, one-year, and ten-year) all are good only for six months at a stretch. But they are all multiple-entry (you can come and go as you please within your alloted window). So just get one of the longer ones, and take a trip somewhere outside of India near the end of your first six-month.

Alan D

Samjay

I am assuming you are a Canadian national and possibly a PIO (person of Indian origin). Have you checked this site?

Firstly, 10 year visas are only available, as far as I know, to citizens of the United States.

If you are a PIO and wish to stay in India for more than 6 months then your best bet is to apply for a one year entry visa or a 5 year long term visa. The 5 year visa would be ideal if you plan to make repeated visits to India but these are issued at the discretion of the relevant officer. It would probably help if you had relatives in India.

The 6 month tourist visa is a bit dodgy. I've been trying to find out how easy or difficult it is to leave India, go to another country and be issued with another 6 month visa but have had very little info on this, mainly because most people are in and out of India within the 6 month period.

samjay

Thanks for the posts, so far folks. I am a Canadian national but not a person of Indian origin (though I'm starting to wish I was). 10 year visas are unavailable to us. It appears the 6 month visa is the only thing available. I really don't mind leaving the country but since I am on a tight budget, I hesitate flying all the way back to Canada in order to be re-issued a visa to go back. Unfortunately, India is surrounding by 'unfriendly' countries so scooting across borders and getting the paperwork done becomes more challenging....

S

renedu

I have twice applied for a 6 month visa (here in Rome) and been denied. THey will only issue a 3 month visa for some reason, I explained that I wanted to stay longer, but was told, since I had just returned that I was 'suspect'. (Fortunately I have another passport that they don't know about!!) Has anyone else had this problem? Could be as well, that we have to deal with Italian bureaucrats at the Indian Embassy - can you imagine what a combo that is??

aghori

I got another 6 months visa in Kandy, Sri Lanka after first one was finished. There was no problem at all, only a guy in embassy said that when this visa finish i have to return to my country and apply there.
I know many people who did the same.

Bryan

There are some immigration/visa offices in india where backsheesh can get you most things ...I'm not gonna divulge where so as not to ruin a good thing. However it is possible if you can pay to basically never leave and keep getting new visas as extensions...and basically each lenght of time has a price which you pay. Never heard of anybody approaching in the correct manner being turned away

If you do it the normal official way ...UK citizens cannot get an extension from what I know and we're limited to 6 month multi entry non extendable visas. Thats not to say you cannot just go in and out again though some people I know have had problems in the Bangkok embassy getting a new visa ...but finally succeeded and went straight back in

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ray

Hi Bryan,

We are moving to Goa on January thr 28th. (hopefully for good).
Even with piles of medical files, and prove from the bank about our monthly income, the Indian Embassy in Belgium would'nt give us more than a 6 month touristvisa, and told us, once there we could try to contact a Yoga/Meditation centre, and than with a letter of admission, go to Nepal to apply for a 1 year student visa, with wich we can apply for a residence permit.

So we where reading your post, and i would like to ask you:
Since we don't know how to approach in the correct manner, we are going to take a lawyer to handle this for us. ( is this a good idea ?)
And also, do you think Rs. 20.000 per person is enough ? Plus the lawyers fee of course.

Hope you have any advice for us.

Cheers