India visa

[suekay]

Having just returned from the Rhapsody cruise from Singapore- Dubai which called at 4 ports in India, can I offer some advice to others planning to visit India? Most people we spoke to had experienced problems getting the necessary visa. I heard that 200 passengers were denied disembarkation for various reasons.

 

We had our first application returned as "applied too early" despite applying for a six month visa three and a half months prior to the cruise and enclosing a copy of the itinerary. Apparently they can decide whether to grant a three or six month visa (others applying at the same time were given six month visas)

 

Some people had their application returned more than once, and ran out of time to get the visa. They were allowed to board the ship but couldn't disembark at any of the Indian ports. One of these men had produced his own photo on the computer and it was rejected as too big. When returned, he cropped it, but this one was rejected as too small.

 

Others were granted single entry visas so could only disembark in one of the four ports

 

Another was given a transit visa instead of a tourist visa, but didn't realise until he tried to disembark and permission was refused

 

So my advice would be......to apply 3 months prior to the date of the last Indian port, use an approved photographer (we used the photobooth in Tesco supermarket) and double check your issued visa to confirm that it's a multiple entry tourist visa covering the dates of travel

 

Good luck!

[hallasm]

Thank you very much - extremely important information.

[Donna_In_India]

I hope those who even got on the ship with the incorrect visas realize how lucky they were. If you don't have the proper visa, you're not getting on a plane! And a couple of years ago several Indians were left on the dock in NJ because they didn't have proper visas for Bermuda.

 

The Indian visa companies have been changed 2 times from the original company (who was doing an excellent job) over the last couple of years. Getting a visa from the U.S. is now a horrific experience for most people and now there's the new Visa on Arrival (at airports) to screw it all up. :)

[ckl001]

I got an Indian visa about 3 years ago for a cruise and has not problems. Not sure if that is because I am in Australia but mind you the photo sent with the visa had to be certain size, you could not smile and could not have your hair over your face. All of the details were on the information sheet with the visa form. It was a hassle but I got my TA to fill in the form and send it off to make sure it was all done correctly.

 

I also hear that the Chinese visa can be troublesome as well.

 

Chez

[4774Papa]

We used the same visa company that acquired our Russian and Chinese visas in the past.

They corrected minor errors that I made twice and we got our visa just fine. I think the Indian visa review was the most picayune. At one place I abbreviated a word, didn't at another place, that was a no no. Had to list a hotel in India even through we stayed on the ship.

 

What was worse, was getting past the same picayune immigration folks trying to get off the ship. It makes you wonder if they really want toursts.

 

The visa process seemed to have a huge focus on whether or not you had a connection with Pakistan. Go figure, no surprise there. That is once country I have no plans to visit.

[Donna_In_India]

We used the same visa company that acquired our Russian and Chinese visas in the past.

They corrected minor errors that I made twice and we got our visa just fine. I think the Indian visa review was the most picayune. At one place I abbreviated a word, didn't at another place, that was a no no. Had to list a hotel in India even through we stayed on the ship.

 

What was worse, was getting past the same picayune immigration folks trying to get off the ship. It makes you wonder if they really want toursts.

 

The visa process seemed to have a huge focus on whether or not you had a connection with Pakistan. Go figure, no surprise there. That is once country I have no plans to visit.

 

You may have used the same agency/agent but the actual visa processing company for Indian visas has changed from VFS, to BLS, to Cox & Kings. BLS and Cox & Kings have been horrible for people to deal with.

[take us away]

The China visa was a pain to get but once you had everything ready, it was no hassles. It would be sooo nice if they would add the Indian Visa on Arrival for the cruise passengers. Hope springs eternal.

 

Does anyone else think it interesting / funny or ?? that India outsourced the visa service to non-Indian companies.