Sikkim permits NOT issued with visa

lyndy

Hi there. We mailed off our Indian visa applications on Friday 10/2/06 also requesting Sikkim in-line permits.

Just had a phone call from the Indian Consulate in Sydney stating "they do not issue Sikkim Inline Permits" with visa applications, except for tour groups???. Not sure if I understand logic of this but gave up thinking about it as head started to ache!

So, any Aussies looking to travel to Sikkim should get their permits at Sikkim Tourist Office or Foreigner's registration Office in Delhi, Kolkata or Siliguri. There's also an office in Darjeeling, but the process sounds like a real drama!

dzibead

This is odd. Maybe the rules for Australians are different from the rules for Americans (although I wouldn't think so), but last year, I got an inner line permit with my visa, and then got the additional restricted area permit allowing group travel into North Sikkim once I got to Gangtok.

Below 's the text of a post I made in the Sikkim forum about a year ago, and I don't think the rules have changed, so I don't know why you had a problem unless you were trying to get the additional restricted area permit (which is only issued locally) as well as the inner line permit. That shouldn't have caused them not to give you the inner line permit, though. Here's my previous post:



"February 22nd, 2005, 01:24 AM

You can get the Inner Line Permit to enter Sikkim when you apply for your visa just as the woman at the Indian Consulate in NY said. I got one last fall from the Consulate in San Francisco, no problem. You can also get it once you are in India, and can even get it at the border as you go into Sikkim.

To go into North Sikkim, however, you need an additional restricted area permit and I think you have to get that once you are in Sikkim. You also have to arrange it through a recognized tour agency. Even though you can't get the restricted area permit until you are there, you can contact a tour agency ahead of time about working with them, which you probably need to do anyway to work out your travel arrangements if you are going into an area where the additional permit is required because you won't be allowed to travel on your own in such areas. Make sure you take extra passport-type photos, which are needed for the permit, and also make some photocopies of your passport.

It used to be that you had to be part of a group of four to get the restricted area permit but now they give it for as few as two people traveling together. If you are traveling alone I think the tour agency may be able to construct a "group" of others in the same situation assuming your schedules work together. My arrangements were made through Blue Sky Tours and Travel, which has an office in Gangtok. The arrangments were actually handled by local relatives of a friend of mine who knew someone at that agency, so I really can't give you any feedback about that tour operator because I didn't deal with them directly, but they seemed OK. I think the State of Sikkim has its own webpage with a lot of this information."

joy_g72

Hey Lyndy !!

Greetings from India !!


Well let me tell you for a fact that the Inner Line Permit is certainly not issued for FIT's from the Indian Embassy in the respective countries !!

But the ILP is not very difficult to get (infact its kinda very simple). You can get it from Siliguri upon arrival. If that is not possible then when you go to Gangtok you can Get it from Rangpo (the Sikkim Border) or even Darjeeling.

You will just require the Xerox copy of your Passport, Indian Visa & Two copies of Passport Size Photos.

Happy Travelling !!!

Cheers

dzibead

If foreigners can't get an Inner Line Permit from Indian consulates/embassies in foreign countries, then what did I get last year from the Indian Consulate in San Francisco? It was definitely a specific permit to visit the areas of Sikkim that don't require a restricted area permit or protected area permit. Here's some info I copied from www.sikkiminfo.net, with the pertinent language highlighted, and it's consistent with what I experienced:

Foreigners Entry Formalities:

Visa & Permits : In addition to an Indian visa, foreigners must obtain Inner Line Permit (ILP) to visit Sikkim. The permits can be obtained from all Indian missions, Tourism Office, New Delhi, Sikkim Tourism Office, Calcutta and Sikkim Tourism Office, Siliguri on the strength of an Indian Visa.

Foreigners are issued a permit for initial period of 15 days duration on the spot without any delay provided photocopies of Passport and Visa details along with two passport photos of applicants are made available then and there. It can be extended for further 30 days of 15 days each. The extension of permits can be obtained from Foreigners Registration Office(FRO), Gangtok and Superintendent of Police of North, South and West Districts. The FRO is located at Kazi Road, Gangtok. Phone no 223041

For those interested in going for trekking in the interior regions of the state, you also require a Restricted Area Permit (RAP) OR Protected Area Permit(PAP) which is obtainable in Gangtok from the Police Check Post and Department of Tourism which is available for certain specified area for groups consisting of 4 or more foreigners subject to the condition that the trekking program is arranged through a registered travel agency.
NOTE: This permit is issued to LOCAL GOVERNMENT REGISTERED TRAVEL AGENTS ONLY. While travelling in Sikkim don't forget to get your passport stamped at all check posts.

davyd

Why all this suffering with obtaining Sikkim permit in advance?
Free Sikkim permits are easy to get on the border in Rangpo. Even if you go with shared jeep, just inform driver in advance. This is easiest way though not so convinient for trekkers who bought packages from Darjeeling based companies. I never tried Darjeeling or Siliguri but can say if you come to Sikkim through Delhi it's very easy to get permit in New Sikkim House.
What was not so convinient inside Sikkim - too many restrictions for foreigners and strange system of registration of foreigners at all monasteries or even Guru rinpoche statue at Samdruptse. Boring policemen in Rumtek sometimes asked stupid questions like maiden name of their mother and such stuff from foreigners.

lyndy

Thanks for input people, however in Sydney they most certainly do not issue ILP's for Sikkim. No discussion could be entered into! If you get my drift. I was told point blank "not possible unless tour group"!

Anyway this is not the end of the world as we know it however, being a considerate person (?) I thought it would be better to have the ILP arranged before we get to Rangpo in a jeep or bus full of people who already have their permits! Don't you just hate people who aren't organised?????

We will not be staying in Delhi until after our Sikkim trip. We will arrive overnight from Amritsar on the train & fly late morning to Bagdoghra. We can always waste part of our 3 days in Kolkata & get an ILP there! Or when we fly into Bagdoghra & get a jeep to Siliguri, I think the office might be closed. Then we get on the toytrain next morning at 9am so no time then!!!

Anyway, thanks for input. I think we'll do the Darjeeling Dash & be prepared!

Padma

Hey Lyndy,
The Sydney consular people are not very flexible (not warm and definitely not fuzzy) and there do seem to be different rules getting papers from them to other places (like the UK). Though I have never tried to get my permit from them (have always done it in Darj. which is a pain). I know people who have go theirs from Rangpo without any hassle. And I have never had anyone in a jeep in Sikkim complain about the fact that I had to get out and do random paperwork at the border (it is often a welcome chance to pee).

I am still deciding whether to get mine at the border of to try for Delhi or Siliguri but I also found info from http://sikkim.nic.in/sws/tout_off.htm that says there is a tourism office at Bagdogra Airport. I don't remember seeing it but I wasn't looking as I only went there on my way out.

Hopefully it won't be too much of a hassle. It's really just an archaic formality and a chance for some rubber stamping (until you want to stay past 45 days), so I'm hoping we'll both have no worries whatever we decide.

Have a great trip. I've only got 16 days to go
Padma

dzibead

Sheesh! What a drag! I suspect you ran into some embassy employee who had his or her head "where the sun don't shine" (if you get my drift ).

When I got my last visa (the one that included the Sikkim Inner Line Permit, no problem), the woman at the Indian Consulate, apparently noticing Dharamasala listed as one of the places I planned to visit, told me that no "non-Indian nationals" may visit "any Tibetan Buddhist temple" in India without a special permit that takes up to six-months to obtain. This is simply not true. Although one is supposed to obtain a special permit to visit certain "Tibetan Settlements" - NOT including McLeod Ganj/Dharasala - there is no blanket prohibition against non-Indian nationals visiting Tibetan Buddhist temples, or even Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in India. If that were so, even Tibetans from Tibet (or from the U.S. or Switzerland or wherever) would be barred. Heck, even most ethnic Tibetans living in India would be barred as most of them don't have Indian citizenship. (and even for the areas that technically do require a permit, the authorities don't seem to bother to check or enforce the requiremnt.)

Nevertheless, the woman actually asked me to submit a statment in writing that I did not intend to visit "any Buddhist temples" in India before she would issue my visa! So I gave her the damn statement and then completely ignored it. What a bunch of B.S.! I called the Office of Tibet in New York about this and they were stunned. They'd never heard of anyone having to do this before. Frankly, I think half the people working in Indian embassies and consulates have no earthly idea what they're doing.

lyndy

Sorry, I meant to post "Thanks for the info!

Great news if the Bagdoghra airport has a ILP issuing office.

Seems like most of us have felt the wrath of unhappy Indian consulate staff. Just as well all this nonsense is worth going through. What a joke dzibead. I'm surprised you kept a straight face!

Hey Padma, we fly Feb 27 for a few days in Singapore & then on to Kolkata. Have a great trip!

Thanks again!

vistet

I got my Sikkim permit from the Indian Embassy in Sweden, this was made on their standard visa form(but not the online form). Seemed easiest, no questions asked.

dzibead

Actually, I didn't keep a straight face. My jaw dropped, and I was, like, "Wha ...?" I told the woman I'd never heard of such a thing, was this a new rule, etc., etc. I'm afraid I spoke rather sharply to her - that's probably why she made me write the stupid statement. Thank goodness she didn't deny the visa. But if she had, the you-know-what would have hit the fan. I'm not exactly a shrinking violet.

Yep, my experience was just like vistet's. No problem at all with the Sikkim part. Only with the "Tibetan Buddhist monasteries" part.

I shudder to think what kind of constipated bureaucratic nightmare would ensue if every non-Indian national tourist who intended to visit a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India actually did apply for this supposed permit!

Padma

Hey Lyndy

I hope that it is true about Bagdogra but if not there is always the tourist office in Siliguri (though stopping there is never on my to do list) and then the border post if that fails.

You'll be a couple of days ahead of me. have a great time.

Padma