Visas for Asia

We've booked Enchanting Far East cruise where the ports of call visa requirements for Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia are fairly clear.

However our friends are considering Secrets of Asia which also includes Sri Lanka and finally Kerala, India, from where they fly back.

Is anyone aware of the visa requirements for those two ports?

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

Assuming UK citizenship, visas will be necessary for Sri Lanka and India

Sri Lanka is an online ETA, India is more.........well, complicated and contentious! Supposedly there is an eVisa, but it seems fraught with issues......so a standard tourist visa seems a better bet. Not cheap, and involves some effort to obtain.

Hope this helps :)

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

 

Assuming UK citizenship, visas will be necessary for Sri Lanka and India

 

Sri Lanka is an online ETA, India is more.........well, complicated and contentious! Supposedly there is an eVisa, but it seems fraught with issues......so a standard tourist visa seems a better bet. Not cheap, and involves some effort to obtain.

 

Hope this helps :)

Thanks for that.

It appears that they would have to get a visa just to transit to the airport, and that would involve cost and perhaps travel to obtain it.

If they fly from Manchester they can have an extra day in Kerala for sightseeing, but that means further UK travel as they are in the south east......:rolleyes:

We have booked the secrets of Asia flying from Birmingham. We didn’t think about Indian Visa until after booking, it didn’t come up advising about it during booking process although vietnam and combodia did. We did go back to travel agent to ask, they were unsure if we needed it but said they would try to find out. They did get back to us to say they thought we needed it, in the meantime we had asked ont the Marella Cruise Facebook page who came back and said we didn’t need it and we would be covered by the ships group visa. So we have had conflicting answers and hoping we don’t need one just for a few hours on the day we will be travelling home.

If anyone else has any info/advice that would be great thanks.

Is the Marella Facebook site the official one or just normal passengers?

The consensus of opinion on various sites is that a visa is needed for any visit to India, and has to be obtained by the traveller.

Even the new brochure, in the a-z guide, says a visa for India cannot be obtained onboard, and must be obtained prior to the cruise.

I wouldn't take the advice of someone on Facebook unless you are absolutely certain it's correct.

Failure to have the correct visa could result in denial of boarding. There are some horror stories on the P&O site where pax had to leave the ship prior to India and fly to meet it after it left India, at their own cost. That was on the Aurora world cruise.

Hi, yes it was their official Facebook page, I spoke to them through private message, and queried about the Indian visa, they assured me we would be covered by the ships visa after taking my reference number. I did ask for clarification a few times and explained I was worried we may have problems at the airport and they assured me again we were covered by the ships visa.

We get into port at 6am and fly out at 4pm so only there for a few hours, so sort of begrudge having to pay. Maybe this is the reason they are covering it because of the short time we will be there. I also read about the visas in the brochure so making me unsure what is the correct information.

Still a long way off so hopefully will have definite answers by the time we go.

That's interesting. I'll pass that on to our friends who have been considering the same cruise.

There must be an agreement for passengers from ship to airport direct.

I wonder how those passengers who are flying back to Manchester the day after you are affected.

With an extra day in Kerala many will want to go sightseeing.

As you say its a long way off, but TUI should be clear in it's visa advice.

I did a dummy booking for the the Manchester flight with the extra day/night in India and isn’t advising about the visa either. Have looked at the other itinaries calling at the other ports in India and they are quite clear that a visa is required, hence the confusion. Maybe it’s just Kerala ? Who knows, but it really wouldn’t hurt marella to put a note actually mentioning that it is covered by the ship if it definitely is, as I too was under the impression that Indian visa was a must and your own responsibility. I’m hoping that if it does turn out we need one we are able to get an e-visa as I believe these are a lot cheaper than a standard tourist visa but again it’s unclear if these can be used on a cruise.

I presume you'll be docking at the seaport of Cochin and flying out of Cochin airport and I'm sure I've read recently that both are covered by the e-visa.

It's an interesting conundrum and many people will have the same queries so I'm sure TUI will sort it out.........eventually.

When in doubt - consult the oracle - in this case the Indian High Commission, London.

Specifically -

https://www.hcilondon.in/pages.php?id=3

That makes it clear WCM. It looks as if all cruise pax entering Cochin will need an e visa.

We have booked the secrets of Asia flying from Birmingham. We didn’t think about Indian Visa until after booking, it didn’t come up advising about it during booking process although vietnam and combodia did. We did go back to travel agent to ask, they were unsure if we needed it but said they would try to find out. They did get back to us to say they thought we needed it, in the meantime we had asked ont the Marella Cruise Facebook page who came back and said we didn’t need it and we would be covered by the ships group visa. So we have had conflicting answers and hoping we don’t need one just for a few hours on the day we will be travelling home.

If anyone else has any info/advice that would be great thanks.

You definitely need a visa for India. You need to apply for it yourself. The costs shown do not include the fees. The process is not easy for either type of visa. You have to have a machine readable passport with at least six months validity left on it at the time of travel. The two photographs required are NOT the standard passport size but 2 x 2. If the visa is denied the cost will not be refunded. Even with the E-Visa entry to India can be a lengthy process as finger print ID will be taken. They are very strict .

I would not take any notice of the information given on a Thomson / Tui / Marella Face Book site as Tui are simply in the business of selling cruises and have been known to give totally wrong information in the past.

If I were you I would email the Indian High Commission, print and keep the reply for reference.

There is also the possibility that the current information will change before your departure as it frequently does.

PS. The reason the Indian Visa is so expensive and difficult to obtain is a tit-for-tat response to the British Government for making a visa application expensive and difficult to obtain for Indian nationals visiting the UK. It's much cheaper for other countries.

I agree with everything nancyneptune has said.

When we went on Ocean Village 2 in 2009 on its repositioning to Australia - no, we only went as far as Singapore where the ship was rebranded and went on (sadly). I remember the filling out forms, which were done online, getting the right size photographs and sending passports with associated paperwork to Indian High Commission. It was a horrendous experience and if I recall they had to be sent with a self-addressed reply envelope, posted registered mail and only postal orders were accepted.

Oh skioncruiser I so wanted to be be on that cruise to Kuala Lumpur and the following year on OV but hubby wasnt able to get the time off work I'm so jealous.

Gosh I didn't think these Far East cruises would be so complicated it sounds very stressful

Oh skioncruiser I so wanted to be be on that cruise to Kuala Lumpur and the following year on OV but hubby wasnt able to get the time off work I'm so jealous.

Gosh I didn't think these Far East cruises would be so complicated it sounds very stressful

Hello Vitalsign

Must admit I was worried about sending passports away but they came back very quickly. The forms were filled in online so we were obviously vetted before they received our bits and pieces via post.

It was a cruise we absolutely loved. We did the week round the Greek Islands before the repo to Singapore (32 days). All the ports were super but I really loved Langkawi. We considered doing OV two years later but P&O decided to virtually double the prices and we decided to keep the memories of what we had done (did like their booking system and pre-cruise information and trips though. If only T/T/M had the same system booking would be wonderful). Consequently we will not be doing any of the T/T/M Asia cruises in the future. Btw we are on Discovery 2 in April.

Yes skioncruises they did have a great booking system why oh why can't Thomson get cabin booking online?

Sorry you'll be missing the Far East cruises but glad you're not jumping ship

We also will be on Discovery2 next April for the 25 day repositioning cruise but I'm getting a sneaky one in with a girlfriend on Celebration in January I just hope places will be getting back to normal by the time we get there as my friend has never cruised nor been to the Caribbean before

Hi all, Thanks for replies. Yes will will be sailing into Cochin (6am) and flying out of Cochin ( 4pm). Will definitely looking more into it closer to the time.

We know we are definitely going to need a visa, it was more a case of finding out for sure if Marella is giving the correct information saying we are covered by the ships visa for the few hours we will be there. All their other itinaries that are calling at Indian ports clearly state you will need a visa, it’s just The Secrets of Asia that doesn’t mention it, hence why we were thinking if they did have some arrangement just for travelling from the ship to the airport.

Think we will email the indian High Commission as suggested, thanks.

So I emailed the Indian High Commission about visas and they advised that all cruise passengers need a multiple entry visa, I queried about the e-visa as reading we would be eligible for this but they still came back saying we needed a multiple entry visa, even though we are only entering India once.

Have looked into the e-visa and it seems that the whole process once in port is very long winded - taking fingerprints etc so wondering if this is the reason a full visa advised. They short time we are there think it would be a risk using an e-visa as having to get to the airport for flight home can’t really afford to be delayed getting of the ship.

Also marella have since added the advise about needing a visa during the booking process for this cruise now.

Would have been helpful if it had been there from the start. Seriously thinking about changing this cruise now as the cost and hassle of getting the visas just doesn’t seem worth it for the few hours we will actually be in India.