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India Visa questions

volunteer1980

By volunteer1980,
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volunteer1980

volunteer1980

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Were leaving in Oct. for a cruise to India. I have been having problems trying to reach the new BSL international company handling visas with questions. Today when I called I was told the number has been disconnected. Has anyone applied for a visa to India since July 4th with BSL?

 

If you don't have a visa for India can you simply stay on the ship? Thanks!

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Zach1213

Zach1213

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Were leaving in Oct. for a cruise to India. I have been having problems trying to reach the new BSL international company handling visas with questions. Today when I called I was told the number has been disconnected. Has anyone applied for a visa to India since July 4th with BSL?

 

If you don't have a visa for India can you simply stay on the ship? Thanks!

My company gets Indian business visas a couple times each year. We ALWAYS go to Travisa, who is in fact the official visa outsource agency for India in the USA. India used to do their own visas, but they became so slow and inept (as per my Indian expat boss) that they acknowledged their faults a few years ago and outsourced to Travisa.

 

Travisa is quick and professional. I highly recommend going to them. I have never heard of BSL on all of my business with Indian visas.

 

It's my understanding that you do need a visa for a cruise, whether you stay on the ship or not. I've not personally cruised to India, but this is what I have heard and it sounds right to me.

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Zach1213

Zach1213

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EDIT: Wow, guess Travisa is out of the game and BLS has taken everything over. My apologies - should have done a bit of research first. We haven't done anything with Indian visas since BLS took over on 1 July. I hope they are as good as Travisa...but so far, based on your experience, it sounds more like they are reminiscent of the days that India did it themselves!

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Scrapnana "Live from...." Rare

Scrapnana

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India is one of the ports on my next cruise. We were advised by Cunard that we would be denied boarding (at the start of the cruise) if we did not have the necessary visas even if we were not planning to get off the ship.

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kitty9

kitty9

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Were leaving in Oct. for a cruise to India. I have been having problems trying to reach the new BSL international company handling visas with questions. Today when I called I was told the number has been disconnected. Has anyone applied for a visa to India since July 4th with BSL?

 

If you don't have a visa for India can you simply stay on the ship? Thanks!

 

Once you're in the territorial waters of a country, you're considered IN that country. If you don't have a visa for India, you will not be allowed to board the ship, and you will not get a refund of your cruise fare. You need a visa, and staying on the ship doesn't change anything.

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volunteer1980

volunteer1980

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Well I sure hope BSL International gets it's act together and post email & phone numbers that will actually connect to the company, since the no.s posted on their website are disconnected. India has authorized this company to handle visas for USA as of July 1. The best we can hope for is sending in our passport later on and cross our fingers that BSL won't lose them.

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trainfan

trainfan

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I have cruised to India and yes you need a Visa or you cannot get on the ship. The people who did the visas in the Toronto area when I went were terribly frustrating to deal with. It took me three attempts to get the paperwork correct. They state "The photo requirements are very strict" - they are not kidding - don't try to take your own photo - take the requirements to a passport photographer who will guarantee their work. The first person I went to would not do photos for India or UAE visas. I see that Transvisa is now doing them for Canada - I can only hope they will be better. As a heads up - if you are doing two ports and you never leave Indian waters you only need a single entry visa. If you stop at one Indian port, then go to another country, then go back to India you need a double entry visa. We did Mumbai - sea day - Cochin and only needed a single entry visa.

 

Good luck

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Sekhmet

Sekhmet

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They state "The photo requirements are very strict" - they are not kidding - don't try to take your own photo - take the requirements to a passport photographer who will guarantee their work. The first person I went to would not do photos for India or UAE visas.

 

Please heed the warning above. If things haven't changed since we last got Indian visas 18 months ago, the size of the required photograph differed from that of a (in the UK at least) standard passport photograph, so the photobooths found in Post Offices, supermarkets etc. were of no use.

 

UK passport size 45mmx35mm, Indian visa 50mmx50mm (ca. 2"x2") - I'd suggest checking on your local official website for the latest spec.

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NMLady

NMLady

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Well I sure hope BSL International gets it's act together and post email & phone numbers that will actually connect to the company, since the no.s posted on their website are disconnected. India has authorized this company to handle visas for USA as of July 1. The best we can hope for is sending in our passport later on and cross our fingers that BSL won't lose them.

 

Can you use a visa service such as Zierer? Zvs.com

We used them for our Brazil visas. Reviews of them are positive and we were also pleased.

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J_M_F

J_M_F

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Just went through this process. This is for US citizens. E-visas are only good for flying into selected airports. If you arrive by ship, you must have a regular visa. The current agent for the visa is Cox and Kings. The cost is about $120 and is good for 10 years. There is a lot of paper work to submit but for us the turn around time was a week.

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NMLady

NMLady

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Good luck..............the India visa is a pain in the B$#t. :eek:

 

Just went through this process. This is for US citizens. E-visas are only good for flying into selected airports. If you arrive by ship, you must have a regular visa. The current agent for the visa is Cox and Kings. The cost is about $120 and is good for 10 years. There is a lot of paper work to submit but for us the turn around time was a week.

 

I'd always heard that the visa for India was a real problem. That's why I was surprised to see the easy e-visa. Didn't realize it was not for cruisers. So I understand once again all the complaints about getting a visa for India.

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