Aiming to guide travelers searching for how to apply for an Indian visa, I will describe the adventures I had and examples of situations some people I met in Jaipur went through at the time I was there.
It was in 2012, there was no solution for online visas such as iVisa, and we need to be grateful for their services in occasions of applying for painstaking visas. Despite many things that have changed for the Indian visa, you can situate yourself on what does Indian visa process looks like, what option is more suitable to your purpose, and, most importantly, be informed to avoid falling into traps.
If you don’t like to waste time with papers and bureaucracies, don’t underestimate the Indian bureaucracy. Although the Indian visa process has modernized last few years, from the moment you land in the Indian territory you’re going to deal with corrupt and incompetent clerks, followed by annoying bureaucratical proceedings carried out by tons of papers.
When I went to India for an AIESEC internship, I applied for a Business Visa. At that time, back in 2012, either I applied by myself or hired an agent, so I did it on my own. Luckily, I received great support from AIESEC in Jaipur, which sent me the invitation letter and the documents from the company where I interned. But this is not always the case, I have seen lots of AIESEC interns arriving without any support during my time there.
To apply for a Business Visa, I needed an invitation letter from the company where I would intern, a document from AIESEC detailing what was included in my internship contract, my salary, and how long I would stay in India. And the document I had to print from the Indian Consulate for the visa application.
Depending on the country you’re based in, India may have more than one consulate in addition to the embassy, and some of these consulates focus on tasks such as visa processing. Below, I list some points you need to be aware of when applying for your Indian visa.
Desired Time of Stay in India
The first thing you need to observe is how long you want to stay in India based on your invitation letter and other relevant documents. When there is no length of permanence specified under a certain type of visa (90 days, for example) and for long-term residence, Indian authorities usually issue the visa based on the length of stay specified in the invitation letter. For those who are applying for a business visa, it’s worth negotiating with your employer an extra time for your trips after finishing your internship.
How to Pay for the Indian Visa Fee?
Another important detail to pay attention to is how to pay for the Indian visa application fee because the process and rules vary from one country to another. When I made my application in Brazil, it was necessary to pay straight at the specified bank agency. If I paid using an ATM, it wouldn’t be accepted and I wouldn’t have my money back. Plus the postal service for the consulate sends your passport back home.
Multiple Entry or Double/Triple Entry
If you want to travel to neighboring countries during your time in India, apply for the multiple entry visa that is also available for business visas. If you enter the country holding a single entry visa or a double or triple entry, you won’t be able to leave and return as you want.
Registration at the Foreign Registration Office (FRO)
For foreigners staying longer than 180 days, check if you need to register your arrival at the Foreign Registration Office (FRO), which usually has an office in the biggest city in a region in every Indian state. As far as I remember, the deadline for registering is on the first 15 days from your arrival and it’s expected that you leave India showing a FRO certificate on the passport control. At least in theory.
In my case, I had registered late and had to pay a USD 30 fine and got no certificate. Some months later, I became aware that I would need to show a FRO certificate when leaving India, so I went to the FRO in Jaipur. The 2 clerks that were there found my registration in the middle of the mess of papers, just by luck. But when I left India, the security at the passport control only checked my visa and everything ran fine. However, you can’t rely on the mood of Indian authorities…
A friend of mine from Latvia, who was in Jaipur at the same time I was there, didn’t receive any support or any information about the FRO registration and ended up having trouble leaving. Just after a month, I left, and she couldn’t fly back to her country because didn’t have the FRO certificate. She had to fly from Delhi to Jaipur, costing some €400, to solve this bureaucratic trap.
Is it possible to extend my visa in India?
In theory, it may be possible to extend the visa in India but, in real life, every interaction with Indian bureaucrats is an epic adventure. From the moment you get in touch with clerks, you’ll notice that even a simple task becomes an adventure due to their incompetence and willingness to receive bribes. Normally, they don’t know what they’re doing at their position, what is their job role and what are the steps for issuing the visa.
So, I don’t recommend considering the option to renew your visa in India. The best option is that you issue a visa that allows you to stay there for the time you want and nothing else.
What if I want to renew my visa while I’m in India? Or what if someone has told me that’s possible to extend my visa there if I want to stay longer? That’s where the traps such as what I’ve seen start. Let me describe 2 examples.
In my first week in Jaipur, I met a Brazilian girl who planned to stay in India for a year but had to leave in less than 2 months. Why? She planned to do a volunteer internship for 2 months and, afterward, a paid internship for about 10 months. In Brazil she was misguided to apply for a volunteer visa and, once in India, apply for a business visa. But arriving in India, she noticed how was time-consuming to find a solution in the black hole of Indian bureaucracy.
8 months later was my turn of adventure with Indian bureaucracy. The clerks at FRO were pushing the game to force me to pay a bribe. I just decided to leave India and jump on a world tour. Excluding foreigners who were there through marriage, most of the ones I met had trouble renewing their visas. Either they flew to their home country or a neighboring one or solved paying bribes. Anyway, it’s a long and stressful process, lasting at least 2 months. I have heard about bribes of USD 3,000 for a long-term residence for about 5 years.
I hope to have guided you to situate yourself on how to apply for an Indian visa, whether for a tourism or business visa. The most important message is that you land in India holding a valid visa for your desired length of stay instead of wasting time with painstaking bureaucracies. Be grateful that you can take advantage of iVisa services.
