visa issues

does anyone know exactly why it is a bad idea to put dharamsala as one of your destinations on your visa application? after i dropped of my app and came back in the afternoon to pick it up they questioned me as to why i was returning to dharmasala!! i let them know i had never been there! then they asked me if i was buddhist or was going to the buddhist temples at all. i know that some of the tibetan refugee areas one needs a permit to visit. but dharmasala is not one of those places as far as i know. i ended up having to write on my visa application that i was only going there for sight seeing and not for any buddhist reasons- otherwise i was not going to get my visa. i was freaking out if you can enlighten me as to why this was an issue i would be much obliged...

Very weird and I can only hazzard a guess as to whats behind it. Perhaps it's the sheer numbers staying for a long time in McCloudganj to learn buddhist teachings (it's a small place for the numbers that arrive) .
Or Something to appease the Chinese who are still a bit touchy about His Holiness the Dalai lama and the amount of publicity he receives.
More than likely it's just some overbearing embassy worker throwing their weight around.
Still pretty scary though getting your visa held hostage like that is real smack in the chops!! What do you do sign of course!!
I'm still nervy everytime I go for my visa as the staff in The Hague are a right officious lot. I seen one guy get refused a tourist visa when he put photographer as his occupation on the application form. He was asked if he was going to take photos in India and he tried to say yes but not professionally, to late!! He was told to apply for a work visa!!
People beware when you announce your destination in India or inded your profession if you work in journelism, photo or otherwise!!

very disturbing

I would guess its because the Indian consulates are seeing a correlation between tourists who visit Dharamsala and those who overstay.

That may well be an issue!! I had the idea there were a few people staying long term!!
Still it must be easier to just round up the overstayers?

how does one overstay? can't you get in big trouble for that? sorry- i am not all that educated about visa traveling- as i have never had to get one before...

The stereotype may be that you are a doper so they avoid all that by discouraging you. Just give them the port of entry, I am going to Mumbaii for the next 4 months (yech)..

its simple, really.. just don't go back. a lot of airlines offer 1 year open ended tickets..


I think its almost impossible for any govt agency to track overstayers.. (Even the US cannot do it). .How will they find you? Its usually when you show them your passport when you are leaving the country.. and then what can they do? not let you go? that would defeat the whole point, would'nt it?

However, I think it will extremely difficuult for overstayers to get another visa to return.. Even if they had a multiple entry visa, I have heard of situiations where they were turned back when they landed in India..

I just found this on http://www.virtualtourist.com/f/p/19990/

"Before you take a one way charter here for a visit of more than one month please check out the following alarming news I heard a couple of days ago. Apparently if you arrive on a charter your visa will be stamped for 1 month entry only irrelevant of the length or type of visa. This is because charter flights are for tourists only and one month should be sufficient. I also heard this was due to pressure from major carriers concerned at the loss to there business by people coming direct to Goa and not transitting Mumbai."

Anyone know anything about this?

I think this is actually an international rule that is now being enforced.
I heard whispers of this from several places but I'm yet to read of anyone this has happend to!!
I think this is an IATA rule that has been ignored over the last few years but since many people now use this option to get to India it may have been brought to some big wig's attention.
I also read somewhere, that under the same rules you are supposed to leave on a charter if you arrive on one!!
If anyone comes up with something concrete on this let us know as I myself know several people who use this method to come to India every year and they would be pretty pissed off if they get limited to one month!!

Looks like I'll have to go through Mumbai now. Bit more pi55ing about. Still I'd rather find about before I go than when I arrive

India regulates people coming in for religious purposes--I dealt with this issue a few years ago in organizing a Christian higher education conference in New Delhi. Regardless of what you're doing, the best thing to do is always play the tourist on holiday. You just want to see the mountains near Dharamsala, etc.

A Christian missionary in Kerala--an American from New Jersey who had traveled to India frequently for decades--was attacked a few years ago by some RSS thugs. While he was in the hospital, he was told that he had to leave the country since he was pursuing religious activities on a tourist visa.

The religion-themed visas are, obviously, much harder to get. The visa officials just get nervous over anything that smells vaguely religious. Just play dumb and assert your holiday-making intentions, even if you are going to India for some actual religious reason.

I don't think India's regulation of visa for "religious purposes" has anything to do with visiting Dharmasala. IMHO, there are two types of people visiting India for religious purposes. 1. People who are coming to India to learn about the religious experiences available there and 2. People who come in representing some religious institution and will qualify for a Missionary visa.

For #1 the risk is the possibility that the visitor will overstay. Hence the concern when they see a final destination of Dharmasala. These visitors will not qualify for a religious visa and usually applyy for tourist visas.



For #2, the risk is the possibility of exploitation. Now I have to tread carefully..

While there are missionaries who do good work India. A lot of so called missionaries especially with camera crews etc, are looking for an opportunity to use the plight of India's poor to raise money in other countries or support their agenda (whatever that might be).


A couple of years ago there was an episode on 60 Minutes II called Tobacco Slaves of India. the documentary was shot with support from a missionary and was factually incorrect. As a matter of fact they promised the poor that they would get paid for being in the documentary (the only reason the poor did it), They never got paid and the with voice overs, the producers portrayed that the people were bonded laborers and the missionary was doing great work to "free" them. Episodes like this can become a huge PR nightmare for the India govt, especially with international labor laws etc. Hence their understandable reluctance to provide visas to missionaries or the fact that it takes 3 months to issue them.

when i had my visa aplication forum, they asked about the places im gonna visit in inida.. cuz im gonna visit so many i just filld in a few like the big cities.
but can i get problems with this in some kind a way?

cheers

nope... you did the best possible thing.. just write the name of the city your flight is arriving into, which is obvious anyways. . any additional info will be used against you.