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Indian Visa


4774Papa
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I work for the cruise lines part time in the summer at the dock. We have had to turn away passengers because they didn't have the right documents to visit a foreign country. It is not up to the ship to deny you on board - it is a requirement of the country.

 

We have traveled extensively and always just applied for the visas myself. With India I used a service as the application is not always clear and they are extremely particular.

 

Good luck

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I just received our passports back with our multiple entry Indian visas. It took seven days. In Canada, all Indian visas are processed thru a company called BLS. They have excellent instructions, but some of the links go in circles and the excellent information isn't easily found. If you are on Royal Caribbean. They have listed their agents address in Cochin to be used as the address in India. They want names and addresses for use in case of emergency. In Canada, the CAA has the ability to take the photos the correct size. Now that I have our passports back, I could very easily apply for another visa for India if I had to.

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We are sailing in a few days on Holland America's Rotterdam out of Singapore, Does anyone know if you can board the ship without purchasing the India visa and NOT get off the ship when it gets to Port in Mumbai?
We are on the Ocean Princess sailing from Singapore to Cape Town in April with two port calls in India. We were informed that it was necessary to have an India visa whether or not we would be disembarking because we would be entering Indian territorial waters.

 

Is there any possibility that you could apply for an expedited visa once you are in Singapore?

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Is there any possibility that you could apply for an expedited visa once you are in Singapore?

 

Boy, I Couldnt see that happening, the cruise departs Singapore on Tues 3rd.

With a weekend in between, it would not happen there either...especially if she was from a different country.

I am curious where guidinggirl is travelling from, I sure hope its not from the States, and she has not checked all this first..how sad for her if she finds out at the dock.:(

Wish she would let us know what happened.:confused:

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Boy, I Couldnt see that happening, the cruise departs Singapore on Tues 3rd.

With a weekend in between, it would not happen there either...especially if she was from a different country.

I am curious where guidinggirl is travelling from, I sure hope its not from the States, and she has not checked all this first..how sad for her if she finds out at the dock.:(

Wish she would let us know what happened.:confused:

I have to agree, it would be nearly impossible to get a visa in time. Maybe an expeditor could pull it off.

 

Another possibility would be to skip the first 10 days of the cruise, fly directly to Mumbai and join the ship there. That way she could get the "Tourist Visa on Arrival" (https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html). Maybe it would be better to miss 1/3 of the cruise instead of the whole thing.

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I have to agree, it would be nearly impossible to get a visa in time. Maybe an expeditor could pull it off.

 

Another possibility would be to skip the first 10 days of the cruise, fly directly to Mumbai and join the ship there. That way she could get the "Tourist Visa on Arrival" (https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html). Maybe it would be better to miss 1/3 of the cruise instead of the whole thing.

 

I guess we will never know...she is not a prolific poster....(dontcha hate that when you don't know what happened)

its probably too late to change air, hotels, etc..

and it may appear that she just didnt turn up if not at Singapore for boarding.

for those wondering what 2 reference addresses to put on their VISA form,

we put the cruise line's address and phone number from our area,( eg RCI in Sydney head office)

and the Port address and phone number for our Indian port of Cochin...so look up your addresses .

and ours has been approved.

Edited by jannandjohn
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I guess we will never know...she is not a prolific poster....(dontcha hate that when you don't know what happened)

its probably too late to change air, hotels, etc..

and it may appear that she just didnt turn up if not at Singapore for boarding.

Of course, both the cruise line and the country where she is boarding would need to approve her change in itinerary. Just because a ship has a port stop somewhere doesn't mean that it is legal to board passengers there.

 

Along the same line of thought, with proper permissions, she might be able to cruise to Sri Lanka, disembark in Colombo, fly to India and rejoin the ship in Mumbai. Again, it would be a lot of extra expense but maybe better than forfeiting the whole cruise.

 

Yes, I would like to know how she works it out (if she can). Maybe I will be in the same situation some day.

 

PS For the visa form, I used the address and phone number of my emergency contact as my reference in the USA. I used the name of the ship with the address of the port in India and the port authority phone number as the reference for India. That worked fine for us.

Edited by cboyle
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  • 4 weeks later...

For UK travellers, I read in the Daily Telegraph this weekend that they have rescinded the idea of Biometrics and having to apply in person, you can apply via post as previously done.

Edited by downsmead
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  • 2 months later...

While reviewing the India Embassy website, I noticed that you can now get a tourist visa for 30 days on line - called an ETA like Australia. Are the days of the convoluted form over? Seems pretty simple now...

 

 

 

Am I missing something? Answered my own question...

 

The ETA is only available if you arrive by air. Seaports don't have the biometric screening capability

Edited by Pete and Judy
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  • 1 month later...

We're from the UK, and have just got our visas in 4 days. In the UK we have to use VFSGlobal, they have numerous offices around the UK or you can post it off. We made an appointment for 1300 at the office in Cardiff for this monday just gone 10th Aug. We were seen on time and out of the building in 20mins, they checked over our applications and then sent them to the Indian High consul the next day for our visas to be issued. We received them back yesterday, Friday 14th Aug. Really easy and painless in the end.

 

For the 'Indian Reference' section we put the name of our ship and for the address just listed the ports we are visiting ie. Port of Mormugao, Port of Cochin. Once we explained we were on a cruise and just in each port during the day they were happy.

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Posted today by Se@wing

Good news in this mornings Sunday Times regarding the thorny issue of obtaining the Indian Tourist Visa.

The article outlines plans for the expansion of India's e-visa scheme being opened up to more countries including the U.K. and the U.S.

Passport holders will be able to apply and pay for a visa at http://www.indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa

It suggests the cost will fall from £89 to £39.

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Posted today by Se@wing

Good news in this mornings Sunday Times regarding the thorny issue of obtaining the Indian Tourist Visa.

The article outlines plans for the expansion of India's e-visa scheme being opened up to more countries including the U.K. and the U.S.

Passport holders will be able to apply and pay for a visa at http://www.indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa

It suggests the cost will fall from £89 to £39.

 

Thanks, that is good news. I did look at the link and it seems the visa is available now, around £60? Love the thought of not having to send off my passport.

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The electronic visa is only valid if you arrive by air. You still need to mail in your passport for arrival by sea

 

"eTV is valid for entry through 16 designated Airports i.e. Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Cochin,

Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum & Varanasi. However, the foreigner can take exit from any of the authorized Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) in India."

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This a game changer for us. I agree with Papa about the difficulty of the process just a couple of years ago. At least the Chinese visa is valid for ten years. Many thanks to Se@wing for the info.

 

Not yet 10 years for us Brits. China obviously likes you guys more than us:)

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The electronic visa is only valid if you arrive by air. You still need to mail in your passport for arrival by sea

 

"eTV is valid for entry through 16 designated Airports i.e. Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Cochin,

Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum & Varanasi. However, the foreigner can take exit from any of the authorized Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) in India."

 

Thanks for the clarification. That is important info.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We got our India visa back last week. From time of mailing via Fed Ex to receiving the visa (TEN YEAR) was 8 days.

 

Yes, it took some time to fill out the application to get it all right (as in several hours) and we got new passport photos taken.. but we did it!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'd like to thank everyone on this forum for advice help and encouragement!

Yes the forms are awkward to complete, a little unclear etc. However I managed to complete it on line, upload my photo, pay online. I sent all my documents plus cruise itinerary copies of payment receipts etc and pre paid postal envelope for special delivery, to the London mission in Hounslow. I had no idea how this would link up with the documentation filled in with VFS global online (the company the Indian embassy said I had to use), however it all did! My passport with my visa was returned in less than 1 week.

So we are all set for our trip in November

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It would take some clarification to know if the eVisas would be valid on a cruise where you went to several Indian ports. They are for a single entrance into India- which might rule out the eVisa. And trying to get solid information is very very difficult. I am transiting through India, leaving withing 11 hours, returning a week later for a few weeks and it is still very much up in the air as to whether or not we can use eVisas, unless we plan on sleeping on the transit lounge floor.

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It would take some clarification to know if the eVisas would be valid on a cruise where you went to several Indian ports. They are for a single entrance into India- which might rule out the eVisa. And trying to get solid information is very very difficult. I am transiting through India, leaving withing 11 hours, returning a week later for a few weeks and it is still very much up in the air as to whether or not we can use eVisas, unless we plan on sleeping on the transit lounge floor.

It states on the website they are only valid for entry into India by AIR into certain airports.

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

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  • 3 months later...

We will be arriving by air in Delhi on March 10, 2016 for a pre-cruise tour. Any information on applying for an eVisa would be appreciated. I am nervous because we leave Feb 24 and cannot apply until Feb 6. Is that truly enough time? We are USA citizens.

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We will be arriving by air in Delhi on March 10, 2016 for a pre-cruise tour. Any information on applying for an eVisa would be appreciated. I am nervous because we leave Feb 24 and cannot apply until Feb 6. Is that truly enough time? We are USA citizens.

 

I applied on Dec 27 and it was approved on Dec 28.

 

I'm in India right now, and it all worked surprisingly well. No questions at immigration, but they wanted a printed copy of the approval email (in fact I needed that before they would let me on the plane at every step of my flight here), and my boarding pass, and I had to fill in a form (just like the customs form) that the airline had not given me. The fingerprinting machine was ludicrously temperamental and took several attempts. But it was all civil and took only a few minutes. There was only me and two others at the desk. This was at Kolkata/Calcutta.

 

You might want to do a practice run of the application process beforehand as some of the material takes a while to prepare: photo in unusual (square) format as a jpeg under 1MB, copy of photo page of passport as a PDF under 300KB, serial number of previous Indian Visas (mine is in my old passport, which is in CA, and I was doing this from Chile), countries visited in last 10 years (for me this is about 60, but they allow only 100 chars), stuff about your parents, religion, etc.

 

As noted by others, you can only use this method if you arrive at specific airports and it is single entry, so not much good for cruises.

Edited by someotherguy
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