Visa Requirements ?

CatCat

Hi,

I am planning to pick up my visa from Birmingham - no worries there, i know the times etc....
But i am little bit worried as to the visa requirements.
Are you ok to book a one-way flight into india ?
As some guide book say that the visa may require a outwardbound journey from India !!
I did telephone the consulate and ask the question, they did say it was ok - but you never can be too sure if i explain it right or they got the wrong end of my drift!!
I might be stressing for nothing, but if any of you can help me by telling me any of your recent experiences - it would give me peace of mind.

J&M

Hi

Looking for the same answer here, booked a one-way to Delhi and concerned now about the visa. Will be keeping an eye on this thread,

Alan D

Sorry, can't give a definitive answer on this as we always have a return ticket but quite a few people from UK have said previously on the forum that there was no problem with having a one way ticket.

I'm sure you will get a definite answer soon.

Have a look at this thread

Also look at butterball's post on this thread (post 90)

Padma

Hiya,
What an exciting morning.
Last time I went to India (9 months ago) I flew from the UK on a one-way ticket. No questions asked when I got my visa or when I entered India. Today I show up in Sydney with a one-way ticket and the answer is no way. No visa unless you have a return ticket : They say the rules have changed but no-one, not even the travel agent knew about this. Check in your home country before trying it with a one-way ticket.

So having forked out $700 for a changed to my ticket, tomorrow I will try the visa game again. Here's hoping I don't have to wait 2 hours in the queue again. It all seemed so easy in the UK and there I was a foreign national
Padma

ashwika

so you are going from UK to India -
to go off the subject if a person from India comes on a tourist visa - would he / she have a return ticket ????????to go back to India.............

Nick-H

Probably. Tabloid-media inspired Britain is not very immigrant-friendly

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ArjunaWeeping

CatCat

Well, I went to the CGI in Edinburgh today, so that should be the same as Birmingham. The form you fill in does NOT ask anything about your ticket or method of entering India at all. And there are no questions asked by the man taking your form, it's just a sort of factory production line. So I think the answer to your question is that it should be okay.

I suggest you phone the CGI in Birmingham to query this (their website is http://www.cgibirmingham.org/). You will have to do this on Monday as Friday is a holiday (and next Friday too BTW).

Some advice for getting your visa based on my experiences:

1) check the website for holidays

2) get your visa in person (a woman behind me had to get an emergency passport to replace the one the CGI lost when she posted it in)

2) be prepared to enter "Indian time" when you go into the CGI (although I must say the Visa man in India was very hard-working and processed everything very quickly)

3) go there first thing in the morning to hand in your visa application, and return half an hour before they open to return your passport (as there will be a queue of people waiting already)

4) plan something to do in-between these times

5) when you get your passport back, check it before leaving the environs of the counter - man in front of me was given 2 wrong passports (which could have led to 4 unhappy people) and another one they still hadn't found his passport when I left.

Still, all went well for me (despite 1 hour wait when handing in application) and I now have a nice shiny 6-month tourist visa for my departure on 25th.

Cheers,

Scott

gregs64

yep will not be a problem at all...have fun!

CatCat

Hi ArjunaWeeping,

Thanks for your advice, i'll phone and check out the website today.
I'm hoping to go over to birmingham and get my visa on monday, it will give me peace of mind before i fly out on the 31st Jan.
I'll report back after.

Wish me luck!

CatCat

p.s Have a great trip yourself!

pooch

An Indian will have to prove his/her intent to return to India via a return ticket to obtain a visa itself.

goangoangone

I hear in Goa that if you throw away your charter return you will be charged 50 sterling when you buy your one-way to get home. Anyone know why, other than another way to extract money?

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GoanGoan......here

CatCat

Hi all,

Sorry i haven't written before now...... i am still getting over my experience of getting my visa for india!!

It was a long hard slog, but i got there eventually!!

Basically it took me two days rather than the one day!
Turned up at the very very busy Indian consulate in birmingham on monday morning. Queued for 3-4 hours to hand my application in. Had no problem at all with the one-way flight issue, but encountered a problemo with my boyfriends Irish passport. Fantastic..... i waited all this time to be told that i need to prove that my boyfriend had been in this country for the past year!!
Fortunately for me the chappy behind the counter was quite sympathetic and said if i can get hold of this information asap i can go straight back to him and submit my boyfriends application that day too - without having to queue again!!
So managed to put our applications in on the monday, but due to the time of the day i was no way gonna get my visa that afternoon!!
So i went back on the tuesday to collect our visa's and had the pleasure of standing in another queue for 2-3hrs!! Joy of Joys!!

So finally after much waiting around and queuing, we have our visa's and they are multiple entry too.

Morale of my story is....
1) Don't assume that an Irish Passport is treated the same as a British, even if it was issued in london!!
2) Bring a book to read!
3) Assume it will take two day's to get your visa, if it takes less it will be a bonus.

If you can handle the Birmingham consulate on a monday morning after an Indian holiday....... you can handle anything in India!!!

Take it easy everyone......
India here i come

CatCat

p.s Have no idea about the Goa issue!!

alsch

hi,

No problems on the one-way ticket front, never been asked to se any travel documents by the embassy, although I have only used London.

I like this:

"If you can handle the Birmingham consulate on a monday morning after an Indian holiday....... you can handle anything in India!!!"

I don't mean to be rude but I think you are in for a shock. As far as the embassies go the only thing that will prepare you for India is the procedure (As in the masses of paperwork that never get looked at again) which governs everything from booking into hotels to buying train tickets. It also will introduce you to the concept of horizontal queueing. Other than this I have never seen anybody in the embassy urinating in the corner, never had my bag nicked by a monkey, never got offered "anywhere for 10 rupees", never got shouted "friend, friend, only looking" incessantly, never heard a cacophony of car horns or had to traipse accross a pile of plastic waste, never had to squat in the embassy toilets, never got my shirt tugged by beggars or asked for a pen and never had a goat fall asleep on top of me.

And this is just the bad side. The amazing things of India never happened to me in the embassy either. Get ready for the culture shock of your life.

goangoangone

On the ticket front,I'm waiting to speak to someone who had problems renewing in Sri Lanka after discarding the return part of a charter.The only thing I can think of is that they expect you to return to your original departure point.The people concerned had to pay a hefty bung.
I'll let you know.............