Where to renew 6 month visa immediately?

This is kind of an emergency since the answer will determine if I go with my friend in mid Feb or by myself in mid March. I posted this before and did not get a clear answer. PLEASE help if you can! Eeek! Friend is buying her ticket today...

Where can one fly from India to be certain of getting another 6 month visa right away, rather than having to wait 6 months OUT of India before being able to return?

Am doing a Tibetan language course that begins mid March. It lasts for 6 or 9 months. I can do the entire 9 months IF I can be sure of getting another 6 month visa right away If I go in mid Feb, I won't even be able to finish the 6 month course unless I can renew my visa.

So, you see the bind I'm in, yes?

Help me! I'm melting! Oh, my beautiful wickedness!

Kiki, There really is no definitive answer to this, so the lack of response. What works for one would not for another. I know for a fact certain nationalities find it hard to get an immediate fresh six month visa. I had an American friend who was refused any visa at all at the Indian High commission in Cyprus but then he had filled in Goa as his destination on the form and that didn't go down well with the officials there considering the fact he had every visible organ pierced.

I would really like to hear from Brits if they've had problems with fresh 6 months visas right after using up one.

Thanks for the prompt reply, Pooch. Now I see why there's been no real answer. By the way, I'm American if that makes any difference. (No piercings except one in each earlobe!) If I hear anything from other sources on this subject of visa, I'll post it.

Why can't they just let us go and enjoy it without all this beaurocracy?! I guess I'm a hippie at heart...

Whatever you do, take a letter from your language school, making sure the course's starting and ending dates are clearly noted. At least you will have a document attesting to your being in India for legitimate (and finite) purposes. It might make getting a second visa a little easier.

Good idea. Thanks. I was hoping the school could even offer a student visa, but they don't.

Kiki,
americans can get a multiple entry 10 year visa.
Only valid for 6 months entry at a time.

So, with that one I could leave and come back after just a few days? That would be glorious. Say it's true!

Hi! Best place for you would be Bangkok.
I have received mixed response about Nepal and Bangladesh.
You can take off for 3 - 4 days and fly Calcutta - bangkok (which is a CHEAP flight - pricewise :-) ) get your visa and get back to your school.

Wonderful. I'll give it a go. Thanks, mountainmama!

Kiki,
If you do decide on Bangkok, come back here for information, many of us know Thailand and will be able to steer you in the right direction, Maree actually lives there with her pet elephant!
I will be in BKK late Jan next year to pick up an Indian visa and organise a flight to KolKata and back, great place to meet people for a beer or two!!

Thanks, Colin,

I've been to BKK before, but that was in '89. Lots changed since, I'm sure. Thailand is one of my favorite places ever.

ANDERS or anyone, I cannot find info on how long one has to be out of the country on a multiple entry visa such as the 10 year visa mentioned above. The Indian Embassy/Consulate site is, naturally, not much help. I seem to remember reading somewhere that even on a multiple entry, you still had to "officially" be out of the country for 6 months before returning.

I love this forum!!

Get a 1-year or 10-year visa even if they have 6-month max stay on each visit, and then you can go over any border (eg Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka) and come back without getting a new Indian visa.

Do NOT tell the consulate when you apply that you are doing a study course, or else they will insist on proper papers from the school, which you won't have, and then they'll refuse your visa. You are going for tourism purposes only!

In theory this sounds easy but has anyone on the forum actually done it? Before Kiki goes at some expense to another country she needs to know that it will be possible to re-enter India.

Ask one of your Indian neighbors (or some Indian tourists) what they had to do to get THEIR visa to the US and you'll know why the Indians pile the restrictions on us and almost every other Western country.

Oh, I'm not referring just to the Indians. The "they" referred to governments everywhere. Sorry for not being more clear. Just sometimes it seems so ridiculous, especially these days when the world is actually so small, that people have to go thru all this hoo-ha just to travel. Don't you think?