Hi
Not long till I head off to India & Nepal for Christmas (4 weeks tomorrow) and I can't wait!!
Im off to get visas for India next week and it sounds like you have to line up really really early to get the visas. I was wondering what people's experiences with the Indian HC is like.
Is it worth standing in line or posting them in?
And also, we need two references for India - are you able to please tell me what to put.
Cheers
Brooke
Re: Getting indian visas
Hello Brooke W
Many thanks for your post. We have been advised today that the Indian embassy is not accepting postal visa's at the moment (for what reason I am unsure) This is also affecting Travcour and other visa specialists. I would advise you to be aware that there will be huge queues as every body has to get their visas direct from the embassy.
Sorry for the bad news!
Good luck
Kate
Re: Getting indian visas
Hi Kate
Thanks for replying back - that's awful news to hear about them not accepting postal applications and just as well I asked.
I'll let you know how the queuing goes!
Cheers
Brooke
Re: Getting indian visas
Hello again Brooke,
I have just been told that the embassy are only issueing 25 visas a day, so I would get there super early. There is a back log of around 700 visas apparently.
I hope it all goes well
Kate
Re: Getting indian visas
Only 25 visas a day??![[Frown]](frown.gif)
oh that sounds awful - how did you find that out? Guess it will be an ultra early start that day then considering I have 4 visas to get for me and my friends.
Re: Getting indian visas
Eek!
A client called today, and said that she was having problems so we contacted Travcour. Hopefully the situation will improve, fingers x'd.
Kate
Re: Getting indian visas
What do Travcour do? Do you think your client will be okay?
Re: Getting indian visas
I am not sure how Travcour are coping with this problem to be honest. From what I have been told our the client is going to go direct to the embassy like you are :-(
Sorry I can't be more helpful.
Kate
Re: Getting indian visas
Hi,
I think a bit of confusion has crept in.
The Indian High Commission did stop accepting postal applications for a period, but following protests has now restarted. See the following for more information:
[url=http://www.hcilondon.net/visa/restoration-of-postal-visa-app.html]http://www.hcilondon.net/visa/restoration-of-postal-visa-app.html[/url]
The High Commission has continued to accept applications via approved agencies (such as Travcour), but these agencies are allocated a daily quota of applications. The 25 per day figure is Travcour's daily quota - i.e. the maximum number of applications per day that the High Commission will accept from Travcour. The High Commission is actually issuing 1,000 plus visas per day.
My friend and I successfully obtained visas via Travcour last week - the process took about two weeks in total. If you get in touch with them, they will tell you how long their queue is currently.
Hope that helps!
Andrew
PS We're on the Christmas Buddha to Bollywood tour - is that the one you're on?
Re: Getting indian visas
P.S. We gave the Imaginative Traveller local contact as one Indian reference plus the hotel in Delhi where we're staying prior to the start of the tour.
Re: Getting indian visas
Hello guys,
We have had some more information about this subject:
'Please note that, whilst it was the case that the London Embassy and Birmingham Consulate had stopped issuing Indian visas by post in October, they re-instated this service from 5th November, and are now again accepting postal applications for Indian visas, though there is a backlog of applications to be cleared. They suggest allowing 14 days for processing.'
I hope that this helps
Kate
Re: Getting indian visas
Hi Andrew
Thanks for your message. How much was it to go through Travcour? I'm gonna try and wing it on Thursday morning and see how I go but its nice knowing that they are issuing 1,000 visas rather than 25. Means I can hopefully have a bit of a sleep in rather than getting there for 4am...
i'm on the road to kathmandu tour - really wanted to do tour that you're doing but dates didn't quite fit with work.
Are you getting excited?
Re: Getting indian visas
Hi Brooke,
Travcour charged
Re: Getting indian visas
Hi Brooke W,
Once you're there by about 7.30 - 8.00 you should be fine. There'll probably already be a queue but once they open up you move reasonably quickly. Obviously, the closer you are to the front of the queue, the shorter the wait for your visa (about 1 hr in my experience). It all seems a bit chaotic when you're there but the process is nonethless fairly efficient if you have all the correct paperwork.
Re the references, although the form says otherwise, you only need 1 Indian one: the local Indian ImTrav office address will suffice. I've successfully applied for visas for a few years in a row and had no problems with that approach.
Good luck and enjoy your trip !
Re: Getting indian visas
Hi there
got there at 4am and glad I did. Met some awesome people in the queue and we were out by 9.30am. There were still people waiting outside when we left and its just not a risk I wanted to take.
I heard that the week before there were over 2,000 people lined up for the visas and they are only issuing 1,000 a day. Also they were only issuing one visa per person - I had 4 passports needing visas and I was lucky to get them all processed on the same day.
Thanks to everyone for your advice.
Brooke