Indian Visa

Received the following from Cunard last week with regard to the QM2 World Cruise 2019

Guests visiting India by ship are required to have a valid Indian visa, whether you intend to go ashore or remain on board the ship. India has introduced electronic visas (E-visas) which are now accepted at the ports visited by Cunard.

Please bring a print out of your E-visa confirmation showing ‘GRANTED’ at check-in for immigration purposes. You will also be required to show the print out when attending immigration checks on arrival into India. Please ensure the information on your E-visa confirmation matches your passport information. Guests who arrive without a valid Indian visa will be denied boarding.

Please note: Cunard require all guests visiting India to obtain a visa in advance whether they intend to go ashore or remain on board the ship. This position has been taken to protect guests from any restrictions that are imposed by the Indian authorities, in the unlikely event of having to disembark the ship in India due to an emergency or for any other reason.

An Indian tourist visa (sticker in passport) is also acceptable should you wish to obtain this instead, however the E-visa is easier to obtain and less expensive.

Please be aware that visas will be processed by Indian Immigration officials on arrival into your first Indian port which may delay going ashore. Please allow time for this when planning your day.

It is a four page form to fill in to get our visa and £54 last time we sailed there

Thank you for posting this. We were wondering about this as it seems a lot of hassle for the single Indian port on our cruise. I had read that some folks on a previous World Cruise had got Cunard to agree that you didn't need the visa if you were staying onboard, but it look like they've changed this.

To be on the safe side, I think we'll bite the bullet and pay for the evisa and do a tour in Goa.

The best way to apply online for India etourist visa is watch the steps on utube.as you need a 2/2 photo in JPEG and passport in PDF.when you have completed and payed you will receive email that says your visa is granted you then have to go back into the application website and print your visa that shows your picture.The cost for U.K. Citizen is $100 US.Were travelling on sapphire princess in October and will be in India for 11 hours.

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Oh, how the rules change All The Time!

This past April for a 1 day stop in Cochin India, on QM2 you didn't need a visa if you stayed on board.

Some ladies were annoyed that since they didn't have a visa, they couldn't get off, to only go to the pier-side to shop at the trashy stalls. They seemed to feel that wasn't the real "India" and therefore a visa should not be expected. !!!!!!!!!!!

I was happy to stay on board, having visited hot HOT HOT India a couple of yrs earlier via QE~~~ + at that time You Had To Have a Paper Visa.....in your passport, electronic ones were not available, back then.

As I said... Rules are Forever Changing.

Thank you for posting this. We were wondering about this as it seems a lot of hassle for the single Indian port on our cruise. I had read that some folks on a previous World Cruise had got Cunard to agree that you didn't need the visa if you were staying onboard, but it look like they've changed this.

To be on the safe side, I think we'll bite the bullet and pay for the evisa and do a tour in Goa.

When we visited 2013,we had to have a visa even if you stayed on board reason being if the ship had to dock because of fault ie fire and everyone had to disembark, it is in Indian waters.