Indian Visa on Arrival

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Huseng
Former staff member
Posts: 6336
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:19 pm

Indian Visa on Arrival

Post by Huseng »

This will make it a lot easier for people to get to India:
  • India intends to extend visa on arrival facility to tourists from 40 more countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, a move which will make the country a more tourist friendly destination and promote foreign exchange earnings.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatime ... nt-deficit

Earlier they dropped the requirement where you had to exit the country for two months before getting a new tourist visa and being allowed in. It sounds like they're easing all these policies. Let's hope they provide some kind of easily obtained long-term visa. Practitioners in India often struggle to stay long-term. This is a big problem for monks and nuns in shedra programs with strict schedules.
Huseng
Former staff member
Posts: 6336
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:19 pm

Re: Indian Visa on Arrival

Post by Huseng »

A visa agent here in Kathmandu told me that the visa on arrival scheme will probably only be for 1 month tourist visas and not 6 months.

I suspected this would be the case given how the existing visa on arrival scheme for some countries like Japan only offer visas for a few weeks.
Rroman
Posts: 97
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 3:04 am

Re: Indian Visa on Arrival

Post by Rroman »

This has been close to a year now since they have changed the requirements. Yes, you can have a 6 month visa and leave the country for as little as a day and come back. I just did two weeks out of the country and back with a 6 month visa. But, I could have I done a day and back if I wanted.
Hope this helps
Huseng
Former staff member
Posts: 6336
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:19 pm

Re: Indian Visa on Arrival

Post by Huseng »

The problem is that they don't always give 6 month visas when applying outside your home country.

For instance, you could fly to Kathmandu after 6 months in India and apply for another 6 month tourist visa, but many foreigners report getting 3 or 4 months, or sometimes only 1 month. It is unpredictable and quite arbitrary. You can't plan anything in advance because of this.

You could send the passport home and have someone get the 6 month visa for you, but then that's risky and you spend a lot in a secure FedEx or UPS delivery. You also don't want to be in South Asia without a passport in hand.

Getting long-term visas in India is often a nightmare. Quite often, I hear, you need to apply for them in your home country. For poor monks like me flying all the way back to Canada is unaffordable.
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