Visa renewal

goangoangone

Here's a letter from today's Goa Herald:

Treat us as equals
Josephine Richardson MS
Your article ‘Alternatives’ was excellent. I am a British foreigner living in Goa now for sixteen months and have experienced cheating, serious garbage and also indifference and total disrespect from authorities. My home is here now, and I employ Goan people to work for me, have enormous respect for your traditions, pay my taxes & bills, etc. Yet I am being refused a visa even though I have an extended visa from London. I have had abuses & unnecessary delays, and been treated like a criminal, why? This also puts people off Goa; and if tourists do stop coming then surely people like myself will help to support the economy and out income will help the economy so why do we get treated with indifference and disrespect (not by many people) most are good.
Please don’t make it so difficult and expensive to remain here. Good, honest, law abiding people should be made welcome we can help and will help!


I presume she holds an X visa. I have a 1 year X visa issued in London expiring in June. I was told it was renewable in Panjim. I will be applying at the beginning of March. Looks like I might be taking a flight back to the UK

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GoanGoan......here

Nick-H

Good Luck and keep us informed.

Other recent news here from Goa would indicate a crackdown on undesirable foreigners. Could be that all foreigners are going to be given a hard time for a while while they try to weed out the ones they don't want?

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

goangoangone

.........so I got my new passport today and went to the FRO in Panjim with a friend.He's on his second 5 year visa and knows them in the FRO, chats to them and keeps them smiling. He was notifying a change of address. I said I wanted to extend my 1 year X. They asked what I'm doing here and why do I want to stay. I told them settlement and retirement. Have you bought a property? I said I have an Agreement of Sale. Another one pipes up that you can't buy on a Tourist Visa, which was in force when I "bought". I told them that I was seeing my lawyer tonight with regard to getting a Deed of Sale. Meanwhile another is telling my friend that they don't issue 5 year visas now. The woman next to her told me that if I take my Agreement of Sale to London, they'll give me a 5 year I said I already had and they gave me a year. They also asked how I would support myself. I showed them a Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate and a bank book and told them I'd be getting a pension as well.This is what they want: 3 Form of Application To Be Filled In By Alien Desiring To Extend Stay In India.(NOT triplicate), 3 copies old passport, 3 copies new passport, 3 copies old visa, 3 copies new visa,3 photos, (might need 3 copies Residential Permit. I'm not sure so I'll get them anyway ). 2800rupees application fee and 10000rupees Indemnity Bond (notarised) valid for a year to be paid at the Home Dept.(or something), and a sworn affidavit saying amongst other things that I've been in India more than 182 days. If my application is refused, I lose my 2800/- and must leave when the current visa expires in June. Otherwise I get "Visa applied for" and stay here on that.
I think that's all .............to be continued....

goangoangone

......the application has to be in "at least 90 days before expiry" of the current visa. That is 6th June. FRO reckon that was Monday, I reckon it's tomorrow,ie Wednesday. I've paid the visa fee (Rs.2860/-) at the Home Dept.
FRO said that the Home Dept. only accept payments between 9 and 12. Got there 9 o'clock but they don't open 'til 10. Went back later and paid. Got a dated receipt. I asked who deals with the Indemnity Bond etc. He'd gone to Court and would be "some time". Decided that meant after lunch. Went back in the afternoon to be told that the guarantor on the form must sign in front of the Under Secretary. What's the point then of having a Notarised document if the government don't accept it? My guarantor is in Margao so he's kindly offered to come with me to Panjim tomorrow. Another thing, the FRO said to get the Bond stamped on the back by the Home Dept and bring to them. The Home Dept say they want a copy of it to stamp.
The FRO also want 3 copies of my property document, which, as I explained to them, they already have on file from the issue of the Residential Permit.
It would be helpful if each department knew what they had to do and then maybe I would stand half a chance
So today it's more copying and tomorrow Panjim again. Hope I'm still in time for the application.
To be continued..........

GoanCanuck

This is the reply to the letter in question,

Do not be rude
Dr (Mrs) E Abreu, Assagao

This is with reference to Josephine Richardson’s letter “Treat us as equals’’ Herald 27/2/2006. Ms Richardson should realise that the antipathy growing against the white skinned tourist is mainly because of their behaviour and the dilution of the Goan ethos, by them. Most of us resent their ‘high and mighty’ attitude of the average tourist.

They do not respect our laws – drive recklessly on two wheelers without wearing helmets, throw their garbage into our fields, and treat us as if we our second class citizens in our own state. They have brought in the drug menace and paedophillia and they have taken over the prime beach fronts in north Goa.
In 1981 when I visited England I was asked whether I was going to Scotland or Wales, in a very rude manner. I told the female immigration officer that I had a tourist visa for the UK – I presumed that covered Scotland and Wales. She retorted “we WOGS like to sneak into the country.’’ She then asked me wait in caged enclosure for a virginity test despite me telling her that I was a mother of three. She then sent me to another official who read me a lecture on “unschooled Indians coming to their country in droves’’, despite my passport showing that I was a doctor in medicine.

Recently I was nearly knocked down by a helmetless, bare chested white skinned rider on a two wheeler who shouted “black devil get out of the way’’ instead of apologizing. If you are suffering rudeness it is a reaction to the general treatment we get in our own land, from the whites. You claim you employ Goans probably as domestic help but back home you would probably not be able to employ a charwoman or maid. Why are you on an extended visa? Would we be allowed to get one in your country of origin?

goangoangone

Yes, I saw that. A tirade against white skinned, presumably British, tourists.
I suppose the money in the economy's OK, but blame everyone else for the problems!

goangoangone

Meanwhile.....went to the Home Dept with my friend/guarantor. Told to go to the Under Secretary to get a signature. She looks at the form and asks where the original is. I explained that the Advocate copied it out. She called in the guy who wouldn't do anything on Monday to check the form by which time I found the original .This was OK. I didn't need a guarantor at all! Crossed out my friends name and address and added mine where it says he agrees to maintain me, my wife and any children in the event that I can't.
She signed it. Stamped the copy of the Indemnity Bond and handed everything back to me. So it looks like I guarantee myself with my own money. Took the papers back to the FRO. My application is accepted and I will hear from the Home Dept. FRO also wrote my Residential Permit no. on the new passport. I must sign a statement at Colva or Margao Police Station on Monday. Not entirely sure what that's about. That's about it. Will fill in any details as they occur....................



ps. The Under Secretary mentioned to my friend that they've got big problems in Anjuna with drugs and Russians.

GoanCanuck

Yeah that's the reason for the recent deportations.