India visa stuff

Everywhere we look we are seeing conflicting advice regarding visa requirements in India. One day in Cochin looks like it is going to cost a fortune. Is it even needed if staying on board.

Does anyone actually know what we need

Thanking you already!

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According to the P&O website you don't need a visa if you stay on board. For going ashore you should have a full tourist visa (current price approx £110) not an e-visa. P&O suggest that you can use an e-visa but it will cause delays but according to the foreign office travel advice and Indian government website the e-visa is only valid at airports.

The P&O page link is https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/before-you-sail/Visa_Requirements

I hope that helps.

I really wish India would introduce a short trip visa for cruise ship passengers, in a similar way to Russia. We know from 3 land based visits that an Indian visa is expensive and a pain to apply for and modern technology hasn’t improved it. It continues to demonstrate the Indian’s love for bureacracy.

Arriving by air we had numerous different stamps and pieces of paper in our passports by the time we boarded!

Staying on board is fine, but Cochin is an amazing place and its a long way to go to just view from a port.

The P&O link contradicts itself.

First it says this

• With the exception of Russia (St Petersburg), please note that if there is requirement to obtain a visa prior to travel for a particular country, and a guest chooses to not disembark the ship, then the guest is still required to obtain the necessary visa.
  

Then under the India section it says this

If you do not hold a visa or E-Visa, you must remain on board the ship when in port in India

Which implies that you do not need a visa if you stay on board.

It also states to use CIBT, who will charge you extra over the actual cost of the visa. The official agency for the Indian government is VFS Global who will not charge extra.

http://www.vfsglobal.com/india/uk/

It is my belief that the Indian authorities require all passengers to have a valid visa, whether they intend to go ashore or not.

Brian

The P&O link contradicts itself.

 

First it says thisThen under the India section it says this

 

 

 

Which implies that you do not need a visa if you stay on board.

 

It also states to use CIBT, who will charge you extra over the actual cost of the visa. The official agency for the Indian government is VFS Global who will not charge extra.

http://www.vfsglobal.com/india/uk/

 

It is my belief that the Indian authorities require all passengers to have a valid visa, whether they intend to go ashore or not.

Brian

I know there was some trouble on last years world cruise when some passengers and crew had the wrong visas. My understanding is that they had the visas to arrive by air and not by sea ( the air ones were cheaper). They had to disembark the ship, fly to Mumbai and stay there until the ship arrived there a few days later and pick it up then. I believe it cost them a small fortune. Worth checking and double checking the situation just in case.

I was on Aurora on the first leg of the world cruise earlier this year and spoke to passengers who were having to Disembark before reaching India and fly to Sri Lanka to rejoin the ship at their own expense. An e visa is only valid when arriving by air, and then only at selected airports. Even if you intend to stay on board you still need a visa so you may as well get off and have a look around Cochin. It is certainly a place worth seeing.

I was on Aurora's world cruise and you absolutely had to hold a full 3 month tourist visa for India. People were refused embarkation in Southampton and Dubai for having e-visas or none at all, or had to do as Tallulacruiser says. We were calling at Mumbai first though.

Kerala is beautiful and it would be awful to stay on board, even if you could without a visa.

If you go to your cruise personaliser and download the visa pack it will specify what you need. You don't need to use the company P&O use, I did it myself.

If you go to your cruise personaliser and download the visa pack it will specify what you need. You don't need to use the company P&O use, I did it myself.

OP is apparently sailing on QM2 and asked the the same question in the Cunard Forum. Didn’t seem to be able to wait for replies before subsequently asking here as well.

I swore I would never use a visa agent, but I did for India.

I found it impossible to work out the correct fee and payment was tricky too.

I also had to send a letter from my employers ( interesting as I’m self employed) to confirm I wouldn’t be working in a professional capacity over there.

All was simple through CIBT (not a recommendation, just a fact)

OP is apparently sailing on QM2 and asked the the same question in the Cunard Forum. Didn’t seem to be able to wait for replies before subsequently asking here as well.

The info may be useful for pax on Arcadia 2018 though.

I would recommend:-

https://www.visagenie.co.uk/home

I used the above for an Indian Visa when sailing on Princess and visiting Cochin.

I was on Aurora on the first leg of the world cruise earlier this year and spoke to passengers who were having to Disembark before reaching India and fly to Sri Lanka to rejoin the ship at their own expense. An e visa is only valid when arriving by air, and then only at selected airports. Even if you intend to stay on board you still need a visa so you may as well get off and have a look around Cochin. It is certainly a place worth seeing.

This is from the Indian Embassy website and clearly states that an EVisa is OK for three specific ports.

• e-Visa is valid for entry through 24 designated Airports (i.e. Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Chandigarh,Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum & Varanasi) and 3 designated seaports(i.e. Cochin, Goa, Mangalore). However, the foreigner can take exit from any of the authorized Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) in India.
  

This is from the Indian Embassy website and clearly states that an EVisa is OK for three specific ports.

 

• e-Visa is valid for entry through 24 designated Airports (i.e. Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Chandigarh,Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum & Varanasi) and 3 designated seaports(i.e. Cochin, Goa, Mangalore). However, the foreigner can take exit from any of the authorized Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) in India.
  

Thats interesting. I wasn't aware that some seaports were included in the evisa. But India does keep changing the rules on a regular basis. When we first started going there several years ago we had to make an appointment at the Indian Embassy in Birmingham, then the next time we could apply by post, then back to the embassy. I know at present postal applications are being accepted. When we were on Aurora last year we could have got the evisa as we Disembarked in Dubai and flew to Delhi to do a land tour but the visa is valid from the date of issue, not the date of arrival so the time scale would have been too tight with sailing out of Southampton. We opted for the year visa which, strangely enough was the same price as a 6 month one. We specified multiple entry, which again is the same price as single entry and enabled us to go back to Kerala for a land based holiday within the year. I wish they would simplify the system, especially for cruising as some people feel it is not worth the expense just for one day. On saying that, India is an amazing country, like nowhere else I have been.

Thank you for replies. Looks like it will be 120quid each for a one day Cochin adventure. Outrageous.

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