Immigration at the delhi Airpiort

Last week I came back from UK at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) (and thanks for all the help to IM folks for my plug point queries) and found that the immigration was pretty fast with all those ropes in place that aid in making an orderly queue. Is this common or was I lucky?

But the luggage belt was still a mess where they had to take luggage off it to make space or else it would get full.

Immigration and Customs at any Indian airport is situational.. how many flights have recently arrived is the major consideration.

Even so, it is not uncommon to be out of airports within an hour or so of landing, unless you have dutiable stuff on you.

Captain what I was impressed with was the orderly queues and a person guiding everyone to the next free counter. I mean my comparison point is a bit dated but I don't remember any such thing 3-4 years back. And all my experience is limited to IGI only.

you are right, the immigration few years back was really a pain with the queue going all the way up the stairs. lot of confusion with "indian passport' and 'foreign passport' queues. but in last one year, I've seen this change to a more managed situation. At the sametime, Capt is right, if there are many flights landing clos to each other (which is normally in the evenings or early night) the immigration area again becomes a long wait.
On the bagagge belt, I've seen ground staff of the airlines taking off all the bagagges at the end of the belt and keeping it there for pick-up instead of letting them go round and round. this could lead to confusons, as many keep staring at the belt only to find their bags already off-loaded and kept aside.

Vinay, thanks for sharing your perspective. I am sure chaos is just a touch away at IGI but I did like the way immigration went this time. For the luggage thing my husband had warned me to look for baggages at the end of the belt but I agree this can be pretty problematic if you are not aware that the luggage gets off the belt after a while.

Yes... I've had that luggage experience at Chennai. Once you know to expect it it is ok, otherwise, one can waste a lot of time!

Chennai airport has changed quite a lot since I last came through 18 months back, with all new arrivals hall and new machinery. They were not so good at having trolleys available, though.

There used to be be separate Foreign/Indian queues for immigration, but this time they didn't segregate and everything moved faster. It could be that I picked, as the Captain says, a good arrival time, but the baggage hall seemed quite busy.

(Glad you had a good trip, and that they let you back into your own country ok )

Hey now that is a scary thought, that they won't let me enter back to India! I mean it never even crossed my mind!!!

... ....

Last month was my first trip out and return with a PIO card.

On the way out, the woman examined everything, stamped everything, and then examined it again.

On the way back in the guy gave a quick glance and gave the stamp; all done!

When I first took Mrs N to UK the Indian officials asked her more questions on the way out than the (notorious) UK immigration official did on entry!

You can never tell with these guys !