Read this before you travel to India!

Visitors to India who plan side trips to neighboring countries during the course of their six-month tourist visa are now given a wonderful insight into India’s world famous and staggeringly confusing bureaucratic process.  Thanks to Dianne Sharma-Winter for this article.

Since December 2009, India has introduced new and confusing and seemingly arbitrary rules regarding Tourist Visas to India. Up until recently tourists were given a six-month visa to India, and (if you ticked the right box on your application form), the visa could include multiple entries. So you could pop over to Nepal or Sri Lanka for a month and then return to India without any problem.

Now if you plan to step outside India during the period of your current visa, you will have to stay two months outside India before returning. Or you can apply for a Permit to Re enter India before the two-month stand down period and that’s where the fun begins.

In order to apply for a Permit to Re enter, one must visit the Indian Head of Mission. But only after you have left India. You can’t apply for the permit in India; only in the country you have left India to visit.

Currently the requirements for applications for Re Entry seem pretty simple, you show evidence of an outward booking from India, hotel bookings, and itinerary. Go to the Embassy or head of mission with all your paper work and fill in some more pieces of paper and pay a small fee. These papers disappear into the great machinery of Indian Bureaucracy and when you return later that day or the next you are either given a Yes or a No.

Whether you get the re entry permit or not depends on many variables which are not available for public scrutiny. Currently they seem to favour people who are returning to their home country. Long-term travellers are viewed with suspicion. Many tourists intending only to transit India on their return home complain that they spend longer applying for permission to re enter India than the time they wanted to spend in India anyway.

In order to soften the blow, at the same time India has introduced One Month Visa On Entry for nationals of Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Singapore and Japan.

Confused? Well that’s actually the current situation. As I was told by the Head Of Mission in Kandy, Sri Lanka the rule is currently still in its formative stages and is likely to change on a daily basis.

He agreed with me that the law was less about protecting India from terrorism and more abut shaking the branches of the mango tree to see how many foreigners are living or doing business in India without the correct visa.

If you are given permission to re enter India then you will be required to register with the FRRO within fourteen days of entry. This applies whether you are in transit or intending further travel in India. So if you simply need to enter back into India in order to catch your flight home, you will still be required to register.

You can follow comment and debate on forums and share peoples experiences (including mine) but the bottom line is that India is reporting an increase of foreign tourism. A total of 15.63 Lakh foreign tourists visited India during the January-March period compared to 13.86 lakh in the same period last year.

For more great advice on India check out these links.

http://www.immigrationindia.nic.in/instructions_foreigners.htm

http://www.indiamike.com/india/indian-visa-and-passport-questions-f9/

http://blog.diannesharmawinter.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

Category: India, Travel Blog, Travel News