Visa for UK citizen with no travel history except for Libya

Jadoaus

Hello there all, lovely to post on this very informative forum.

I'm intending to go to India as soon as I can get the money, and stay for a good long time (more than six months). I'm a full UK citizen of English heritage. The only stamp in my passport is a three month visa to Libya last year. The passport is quite new, in the previous one there was a Libyan visa too. The only other countries I've visited were Spain, France and the like for which no stamp was necessary.

I might be being paranoid, as all that I can read indicates relations between India and Libya are quite good (far as I can tell they have embassys/consulates in eachothers countries, at least a thread in this forum tells me the Libyans are in India). But I would just like to ask if anyone thinks this might be a problem (for example, I can now not visit Israel whilst the stamp is still in my passport).

Also, as it should be obvious that I'm a complete n00b with this, my current understanding if I want to stay longer than six months is: I almost certainly wont get a year long visa, if I do I will still need to leave and re-enter before six months have passed. I will in all likelihood be issued a six month visa, the traditional means of bypassing this being a short stop in Sri Lanka or Nepal to apply for a new one before re-enetering.

However, from reading the threads in this forum the Indian Government is 'clamping down' on this, but I can't find anything more specific than this. Would I be refused another visa if reapplying in short succession? What's the fallow period? If I actually spend a decent amount of time in either of these places (say more than two weeks, which I could very well do, both also looking like wonderful places to visit also), should I have no problem reapplying?

Sorry to ask an odd question followed by an old question as a first post, but I've been wanting to lose myself in the land of colour for years now, and just want to be sure. Thanks in advance.

Nick-H

I don't think India is sensitive about previous countries visited, although one can never tell what is in the mind of the visa officials when you look at your passport. If they were sensitive, it, I would have thought, would be Pakistan and China that would worry them.

There's one way to find out...

Haylo

Fortunately India, for all its faults, is no Israel.

There has been no official statement to explain why people who leave India purely to seek another Indian tourist visa are now often not being given the visas they apply for, for instance getting a three month instead of six month visa, and there probably won't be one. All you can go by is other people's experiences.

It is worth bearing in mind that whatever the length of visa issued, and Americans for instance can get a ten year visa, the longest you can stay in the country at any time is 180 days. Clearly the Indian authorities consider that 180 days is the maximum reasonable time for visiting India for the purposes of genuine tourism, which may explain the reluctance of Indian embassies in nearby countries to keep issuing visas back to back.

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indiaprof

A friend of mine who had a passport full of Israeli visas went to the Iranian embassy in Tashkent and got a visa to go to Iran. He was advised to stick the pages with the Israeli visas together with jelly. At the Iranian consulate, they pried them apart, examined the visas, laughed at him, and stamped his passport with a visa. They said, "Good try, but not a problem."

India and Libya have essentially no diplomatic history. I wouldn't worry about it.

RPG

Libya has a problem with Israeli stamps, but I've never heard that Israel has a problem with Libyan stamps. It might trigger more intense security questioning when you enter, but to my knowledge there is no specific rule forbidding it.

The idea that India, of all countries, would be worried about a Libyan visa seems to me to be entirely a product of your imagination

The repeat-entry thing is a real concern, though. Different people have had different experiences; you can't count on being able to do what you want on a tourist visa. Rather, it seems that you are NOT a regular tourist if you need to stay that long, and so you should submit the paperwork for what you want to do and get the category of visa that allows you to do that for the necessary length of time. If in fact you just want to hang around, maybe you can apply for admission to an educational or volunteer program of some sort.

RWeHavingFunYet

I don't think India discriminates any countries at all. India doesn't care if you had visited Libya before and have arrival/departure stamps in your passport. (In fact, India and Libya are friends and lots of indian doctors and engineers work in Tripoli.) You cannot visit Libya, if you had visited Israel. Also, you cannot visit Libya if you are jewish. It states clearly in the libyan visa form.

Jadoaus

Thank you for all the replies.

I'm glad there is no problem. I didn't really see a reason for one, but my life essentially consists of get up-go to work-think about going away now, and this forum had by far the most information on visas that I have come across, which I had up till now assumed would be an easy affair (show's how much I have globe trotted perhaps), and the idea popped into my head. Seemed paranoid at the time (as far as I know, Israel is the ONLY country that might have a problem with Libyan stamps, and truth be told now that I think about it I read that on wikipedia) but as this is what gets me through the day right now I just wanted to be sure. Never know where that rascal Gaddafi might have sent funds in the 70-80's! (In fact I'm not sure even he knows)

That story about the Iranian embassy and glue is hilarious. Hi-fricken-larious

Hmmm. I suppose I will have to hope for the best as regards the length of stay. Six months doesn't seem to do the country justice. Hell a lifetime prob couldn't. Not saying I couldn't immerse myself within 180 days, just that once I had, I would want to stay immersed a lot longer than that. Oh well, not my country, not my place to moan about.

Perhaps I'll take some advice from RPG. When I hit the six month mark (from date if issue), I could find some language program or ESl program and reapply for a student/work visa.

RweHavingFunYet, I applied for the Libyan Visa not three months ago, and there's nothing about being Jewish on the visa form (In the UK). Any whif of Israel will kill your app though, certainly.

goangoangone

The 180 days proviso is to prevent you applying for resident status.

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edwardseco

Lets not get too paranoid in these challenging times..

johnny five

Quite agree!

Used to be paranoid but now I KNOW everyone is out to get me.....

Digital Drifter

That's the kind of advice I like. So open ended that the OP will be gnawing his brains out.

Will they, won't they.....I'm wearing this arabic t-shirt.....will they....[1]

On a more serious note, do come. It'd be interesting to know what the immigration hijinks are.

1. In the US, they offloaded a guy wearing an arabic tshirt. he sued and won 250K $.

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edwardseco

Ain't it the truth..

Jadoaus

I'm not paranoid, I'm paranoid about the extent of other peoples paranoia in these challenging times.

Seriously though, I asked if there is any reason this might be possibly be a problem. There isn't, so it shouldn't. Inshallah. Oops!

Nick-H

More muslims in India than in Pakistan, I believe

edwardseco

We'll have to deplane you sir..