Visa of my Canadian Child expired. Where to go for long term visa ?

Hi, I have read some threads etc. but none of them match my case so not v. sure what to do.

We (parents) are both Indian citizens and came to india last year in December. At that time we were to stay in India for about 3-4 months but due to some unavoidable circumstances we have decided to extend our trip for about 1 year. Now my son's (3 yrs old) visa was issued for 4 months initially so his visa has already expired. I took this v. casually thinking noone is going to check his visa on exiting India etc. so did not do anything for his visa till day. But now I realized that it could be a problem while we leave India. For us (parents) its not a problem since we hold indian passport. I forgot to mention his passport also expired in May which we have renewed thru the Canadian Embassy in Delhi. So now he holds a valid passport.

Also, our going back to Canada is not yet decided. Since I have lost my job and have taken up some projects here in India it could be that we stay here for another year also.

So guys my question is what should I do ? Is there any way possible to get his Visa being in India ?

Also, does anybody check the Visa validity at the airport while leaving India ?

Plz. post your comments,

Thanks - Sanjay

Someone recently suggested to get an India passport for your child and show it upon exit - then no body will question.

Of course! And they may check also that you have not exceeded the maximum stay. The fact that his visa (expired) will be in an old passport will hightlight the discrepancy.

I hope you won't mind my saying that you were very foolish to take any visa or immigration matter casually; I guess maybe you are realising that, as you are posting this here.

In the short term, suggest that you go to your nearest FRRO/Immigration Bureau (Link)and do some grovelling to the officials to get your child's stay in India regularized.

In the long term, suggest you get a PIO card for your Canadian son, so that he will be able to remain in India with his Indian parents without having to think about visas for the 15-year validity of the card.

If you apply for an Indian passport for your son he will have to give up his Canadian citizenship.

As Nick says, they do take this matter very seriously, without a visa your son is an illegal immigrant, so do NOT think about leaving the country right now.

Anyone without a valid visa is prevented from leaving the country until the situation is resolved, there have been posts from people on here who have overstayed their visa by only a day or two thinking that it wouldn't matter, and who have been prevented from taking their flight home. In some cases this caused serious hardship as they could not really afford another flight!

In the case of an adult, visa infractions result in people being blacklisted and means they are unable to obtain another Indian visa for many years, someone on here recently suggested it was ten years. Hopefully in the case of your son, being so young this won't apply. However, as I'm sure you realise by now, you do need to sort this out asap.

Let us know how you get on.

Another thought ...and it is very unlikely that citizenship would be granted to an illegal immigrant --- you'd haveto pretend that your son had been born in India, and never had any other citizenship, and always lived there. I don't think that the person who suggested this was thinking very clearly.

on another thought. What if I go to the below SOP (Sup. of Police) and say that I lost my child's passport that had the visa on it and get a new 2-5 year visa on the new passport ?

Also found this website where I can get the visa for the child :
http://www.immigrationindia.nic.in/visa_extension.htm

The link you provided says:

So you cannot lie about losing your child's visa, because they obviously check that it has not expired.

If you try that approach, you might end up with a lot of explaining to do.

That link applies to extending existing visas, and I doubt they would extend a visa which has already expired, and so in effect does not exist.

What's the problem with telling the truth?

That's the link in my post. You can't get the visa from that, or any other site.

You are in the wrong; you need to sort it; immigration officers of most countries are very good at spotting the windups.

A good dose of grovelling, and repeated use of the word 'sir' may oil the wheels. Otherwise, just get to an FRRO and tell it like it is. I doubt that you are the first Indian-citizen parents to forget their foreign-citizen children's visa. They may like to excercise their egos on you, but I am quite sure that they will sort it out.