Visa free travel / Visa on Arrival for Indians

Epicure

As per Wikipedia, Indians have the opportunity of either Visa free travel or Visa on arrival to around 60 countries. The following link gives the list of countries offering visa free travel or visa on arrival for Indians. Click on the link and scroll down to the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_passport

I hava a question here, i know that Indians do not need visa for visiting Nepal, but there are quite a few other countries in the list like Andorra, Bangladesh, Micronesia, Samoa, Jamaica, Bermuda,Turks and Caicos Islands, Bhutan etc., which offer Visa free travel to Indians for certain period. Does anyone here (Indians) done visa free travel in those countries or there are any hidden terms and conditions associated....?

Nick-H

Strongly advise checking with the appropriate national authority on these issues, or at least taking advice from a good travel agent.

No independent website (not even this one! ) should be seen as authoritive, though it can be a very good place to start.

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shashank.aggarwal

you are right, atleast here is a starters list, we can check our destination here first and then verify the same from other sources..

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Goldendeer

Stongly advice to carry some kind of identity paper even if visiting a "visa free" destination. My mother was asked for id when she went to Nepal. I think it is because of terrorists infiltrating Nepal. [ grandma terrorists ? ]

shashank.aggarwal

I assume for all the countries except Nepal, you would need a passport.

In Nepal they ask for identity because they need to make sure that you are an Indian citizen and not from some other south Asian country OR anyplace else for that matter.

Nick-H

Visa-free does not mean passport-free.

You are almost certainly not going to get on the plane without a passport.

And don't forget that, in Indis, emigration is controlled too.

And before someone says --- surely you have to show your passport when leaving other countries... well, so far as UK is concerned, you have to show to the airline check-in desk, for ID and also (where appropriate) visa checks. You do not have to show to any government official, which you do in India.

matt67

small correction there Nick

Embarkation controls were abolished in the Uk in 1996 (1998?)but have been reintroduced in some airports. Heathrow TN3 has had embarkation checks by immigration officers for the past 2 years. Other airports have spot checks on some days. There are plans to reintroduce embarkaion checks of passports throughout the Uk but it may take a while, if at all.

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Epicure

What i understand from Visa Free Travel mean , you need to have a passport and no charges for VISA or lets say Visa is given free of charges / Visa not required for a certain period. Correct me if my assumption is wrong.

Has anybody here gone to another country with valid passport and no charges levied towards issuing Visa / no need to apply for Visa for certain period...?

Goldendeer

Some Carribean island nations allow US and Canadian citizens without any visas. But they need to have a return ticket in case the authorities want to kick them out.

It seems because of political pressure by US these Carribean nations are forced to check visitors for drugs and guns. Otherwise they are not bothered much about how long you live there or even how much cash you are carrying in your pocket.

No I havent been to the Carribeans. But I know a few friends living there and I been doing research on how to get in

Dilliwala

Indians cud always enter Hongkong with a pp and no visa when it was under Britain. I presume that hasn't changed under China.

Nick-H

I wouldn't make such an assumption!

Matt --- thanks; I have never seen or experienced such a check. Maybe I never used LHR T3 (4 is my usual, 1, occasionally, I think.). Monitoring departures makes some sense --- but the Indian government actually controls emigration in that certain people require clearance to visit certain countries. Anyone unfamiliar with this can check out the ECNR link on this page

Epicure... yes. Visa-free. Me too.

K_2

Well, upon reading the article it appears the situation is not quite as simple. There are lots of caveats like the Swiss wanting the Indian passport holder to have a US green card or that Andorra, which, as far as I know, does not even have border control, allowing everyone to enter from France or Spain. Similarly, one might say that Vatican allows visa free travel to every nation, but one still needs to be allowed to Italy.

kiramakora

Ok, this is one place I can help. Of course, visa regulations change frequently, so definitely check on TIMATIC site and then reconfirm using an embassy.

Visa-free travel and visa-on-arrival schemes are afforded by the following countries to Indian nationals. Remember, it can be a lot other countries (as they work on recriprocity, especially South American countries), but until India is willing to make a reciprocal move, they will continue to ask for visas.

I did this list in Jan 2007:

1/ Andorra
2/ Azerbaijan
3/ Belarus
4/ Bermuda
5/ Bhutan
6/ Cambodia
7/ Cape Verde
8/ Comoros
9/ Cook Islands
10/ Cuba
11/ Djibouti
12/ Dominica
13/ Egypt (I believe Sharm or other South Sinai only)
14/ Eritrea
15/ Fiji
16/ Grenada
17/ Haiti
18/ HK
19/ Indonesia
20/ Iran
21/ Kenya
22/ Korea, ROC (some lame restrictions)
23/ Liberia
24/ Liectenstein
25/ Lithuania
26/ Macau
27/ Madagascar
28/ Malaysia
29/ Maldives
30/ Marshall Islands
31/ Mauritius
32/ Micronesia
33/ Montserrat
34/ Mozambique
35/ Nepal
36/ Nieu
37/ Oman (package tourist)
38/ Palau
39/ Samoa
40/ STP
41/ Sri Lanka
42/ St Kitts
43/ St Vincent
44/ Tanzania
45/ Thailand
46/ Timor Leste
47/ Togo
48/ Turks & Caicos
49/ Tuvalu
50/ Uganda
51/ Vanuatu

I recently went to these countries without visa:

52/ Jamaica
53/ Burundi
54/ Rwanda

and I believe there might be only CARICOM visa which Indians might be exempt from post ICCWC 2007.

Hope this helps.

Dilliwala

Ok, we need to be accurate here. That is not a "control", it is a "protection" for the large numbers of Indian semi-skilled and unskilled labourers leaving these shores, the OFFICIAL idea being to protect them from unscrupulous recruiting agencies, both here and, ahem, points west of here but east of Suez. In these, employers' credentials are verified, among other things. The concerned office is accordingly known as Protectorate of Emigrants (POE). The above category of workers need a "clearance" every time they go for a new job, the rest of us need it once per passport cycle as a formality (cancellation of the default ECR status) at the most, and often not at all. This is hardly the same as an exit visa, which I know was still in use by some African countries in the 90's, hope it has changed.

I will not enter a discussion about how well the Protectorate does its job or whether it's free of corruption; similar threads and discussions exist all around IM for easy referral.

You are right, the Swiss require all Indian visitors to have visas, except US green-card holders. And with this visa u can also visit Liechtenstein - same as the situation with Andorra and the Vatican. But one benefit in the case of those 3 countries for example (Spain,France,Italy) is that one Schengen visa counts for all 3 (plus another 12), we don't need 3 visas from 3 embassies.

According to kiramakora's list, HK still allows entry for Indians visa-free. It's that 50-year carry-over rule from 1997. Well, 40 years to go........

Nick-H

That amounts to a control. Though I'm not going to fight about it and it is barely relevant to most IMers, even the Indian citizens, as large numbers of people/destinations are exempt.

I'm aware of the history and reasoning behind it (having learnt about it here on IM; where else? ) Others may not be so will be glad of your post

The point is, you do not get out of India, Indian or foreign, without your passport being examined and stamped. In three out of four times that my wife has visited UK it was just that. The first time she was asked some very pointed questions, even though UK is not covered by ECR.

I didn't mean to imply that there was any sort of exit visa system (although I do not know what those guys who do need clearance do to get it...). It is not like Soviet Russia! But there is an official at the airport who may, occasionally, be quite willing to let you know that your trip is in his hands!