Aussie looking to move to India... job advice anyone?

edwardseco

Mumbai is different but I leave that to experience. Sometimes posters give a reply that is unwanted but still accurate and ultimately needed. Recall the adage of the Persian emperor and bad news and let ego go..

machadinha

Nope, not that I know of. You'd need employment, or to have your own business there, or to be married to an Indian. Or to be the legal partner of someone on a work visa then, which won't be open to you.

As an American, you can get a 10-year tourist visa.* This is valid for any period of up to 180 days in a row, after which you need to leave the country to get it stamped abroad, then re-enter. Reports on this so-called "visa run" or "back-to-back visas" vary, however I've not heard of any trouble for holders of this particular visa (holders of regular tourist visas, which are valid only for 180 days, sometimes report trouble getting a new visa abroad and then back into the country just like that).

This could be your best and easiest bet. And don't pose as his partner I guess, at best it will be irrelevant.

And note that as far as I know you wouldn't technically be allowed to do freelance work for foreign media even, but if you don't shout it from the rooftops I wouldn't expect it to be a problem. Ah and just apply for a tourist visa, you don't need to tell them you're a journalist, which can raise some alarm bells & make them want you to apply for a journalist visa, which is said to be quite hasslesome. Of course, if you are to move around on the ground conspicuously as a journalist and esp. covering Indian affairs no matter how innocent to you, this could then get you into trouble I imagine. India likes to keep a tab on what foreign journalists are up to on its soil (hence the visa for it, with all the precise specifications it calls for I believe), and they're touchy about people snooping around. Keep this firmly in mind, you wouldn't want to be mistaken for a foreign entity's infiltrator there, and in any case you'd be breaking the law.

Finally, good luck with it

* Whoops, I see now you're Australian though, I misread. Forget about all this visa business, sorry, it doesn't apply to you at all. Like most others then, you'd be stuck to getting a regular tourist visa, valid for up to 180 days, then leave the country and apply for a brand-new one. As noted, there's a steady trickle of reports indicating that this is getting less and less easy all the time. There have been negative reports on doing this in Nepal and Sri Lanka, for instance, with some people getting no new visa at all, or others just one 3-month one, then no more, and so on. If you get none, I guess that means a spell back home or abroad of an unknown number of months, until you are eligible to apply again.

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