General: India

*******August 2008 UPDATE ****************
Since originally posting this review it's had over 7000 external hits so clearly people have been reading it.
As a result of the complete horlicks that the Consulate and High Commission were making of the visa issuing process in 2007, the decision was taken to outsource the process of issuing Indian visas so that you now have to go through an agency called VFS. I have reviewed this process ...
...be able to find it.

The below review is now obsolete - read it, (hopefully) enjoy it, but be aware that it's no longer valid. YOU CANNOT GET VISAS FROM THE HCI IN LONDON OR THE CONSULATE IN BIRMINGHAM ANY MORE

I would appreciate it members considering rating the review please keep in mind that at the time or writing it was an accurate picture of the process and just because that process has changed 2 years later, it ... more

*******August 2008 UPDATE ****************
Since originally posting this review it's had over 7000 external hits so clearly people have been reading it.
As a result of the complete horlicks that the Consulate and High Commission were making of the visa issuing process in 2007, the decision was taken to outsource the process of issuing Indian visas so that you now have to go through an agency called VFS. I have reviewed this process and if you hunt around on the site you should be able to find it.

The below review is now obsolete - read it, (hopefully) enjoy it, but be aware that it's no longer valid. YOU CANNOT GET VISAS FROM THE HCI IN LONDON OR THE CONSULATE IN BIRMINGHAM ANY MORE

I would appreciate it members considering rating the review please keep in mind that at the time or writing it was an accurate picture of the process and just because that process has changed 2 years later, it shouldn't be an excuse for a bad rating - please!

UPDATE OCTOBER 2007
This morning my husband went to the Consulate in Birmingham to get our visas and reported that all hell is breaking loose over there. He arrived an hour before opening time to find 250 people in the line ahead of him. After the first 50 were processed they were only accepting people with flights in the next 24 hours, then 48 hours and finally 7 days. He gave up and came home. He says he'll go back on Friday and leave home at 4 am - I hope he shuts the door quietly when he leaves!

Scanning the net it seems that the High Consulate in London is even worse with visitors not even being allowed to leave their passports. All they get is an appointment to come back on a future date (7-10 days later) to drop off their papers. The Consulate in Edinbrough will no longer process visas if you aren't from Scotland.

This has come about because the High Consulate and the Consulates took the crazy decision to stop ALL postal applications earlier this year and now is the peak season for getting visas. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Birmingham Consulate then cut the daily number of applications from 200 to 50. Anyone would think they really don't want people to visit India.

My advice now would be that until this is cleared up - and surely it can't continue for too long - plan on using a visa agency such as Travcour and plan early - allow 6-8 weeks. Don't go to the consulate if you don't need a visa urgently - it's too traumatic and too time consuming and finally take what you see on the High Commission website with a pinch of salt. Only go in person if you now - like us - have no realistic alternative.

This advice will be removed when (hopefully) the situation improves
Good luck!
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Advice on getting your Indian Visa from the Birmingham Consulate General:

I confess that a review on how to get a Visa for your Indian holiday doesn't completely fit the 'Indian Experience' listing. However, I do believe that the Indian experience starts with your first contacts with the country and that may well be applying for your visas. I want to put this review somewhere where the people who will be most likely to find it useful can easily find it. So, take a deep breath and accept that it's all part of the broader experience and try not to accuse me of being off topic. Is that OK? Will you let me?

Here goes then. If you want to take a holiday in India, I would be the first person to say DO IT. This is my favourite country in the world and I keep going back time and time again. You will always find something new and India will never fail to surprise you. However, some people may be put off by the bureaucracy (after all, after the judicial system, the plumbing and the railways, it's probably Britain's greatest 'gift' to the Sub-continent) of the visa applications.

Most likely your travel operator will draw your attention to the need for Visas when you book and will recommend you use a visa agency - typically this might be a company called Travcour but there are many others. If it's the first time you've done it, you'll probably just go along with the suggestion but there are alternatives. I certainly went along with using the agencies until today.

What does a Visa Agency do?
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Typically the agency will supply you with visa advice and the necessary visa application forms. You complete these with any supporting paperwork and send them to the agency. If you are paranoid like most of us, you'll pay for Next Day Delivery to be sure your passport gets there OK.

The agency hires a poor underfed and underpaid student or similarly desperate soul to get up early in the morning and take your paperwork to the Indian High Commission. Another pour soul goes back the next day to pick up your passport with your new shiny visa. The agency then posts it back to you - probably by registered mail. They will typically advise you to send your passport to them four to six weeks before you are due to travel. You won't be sure when it will come back and if you are a control freak you may experience some unease about how things are going.

Typical charges and turnaround times vary but as an example, Travcour will charge you £25 for processing the Indian visa plus an additional £6 to post your passport back to you. If you are submitting more than one passport the postage fee is a one off and covers all the passports. These costs are on top of the visa charge - for a tourist visa for a British citizen, this is a further £30. So in total, £61 per person for one passport or £58 per person for two.

Why Can't I do it Myself?
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The simple answer is - YOU CAN! But you might decide that it's not worth the bother.

I'm going to talk you through how to get the visa yourself and save a bit of money and you can decide whether the saving is worth the effort.

I am currently in the position of being 'time rich, cash poor' as a result of my job being made redundant. Yep, that's poor as in 'feeling the pinch but not willing to cancel the holiday'. I know, it's not exactly skid row but I'm doing my best.

Faced with paying £58 to Travcour for getting visas for my husband and myself, I figured I ought to be able to save some money.

Step one - I logged on to the High Commission website www.hcilondon.org to check out the latest advice. Scroll down the page and the Visa link is half way down on the right hand side. Click on the type of visa you need and you can download the application forms and all the info you need.

In short - for a tourist visa you'll need two COLOUR passport style photos, a single copy of the application form and £30 in cash to pay the fee.

The form is pretty straightforward although some of the questions are a bit bizarre (e.g. your mother, father and spouse's names and places of birth). If you are travelling with a tour company, check with them on how to answer the section on local contacts in India - typically these will be the local agent's address or the first night hotel. Everything else is pretty obvious.
You will need a passport with at least 6 months still to go before expiry.

Step Two - find the nearest place where you can get your visa.
If London is convenient use the High Commision at India House in Aldwych. You can also go to the Consulate General of India (CGI) in Birmingham or Edinburgh. We are 50 miles from Birmingham so that was our choice.

There are also occasional visa 'surgeries' in other towns and cities - typically, those with a large Indian population. You can get a timetable showing the dates and locations for getting visas at these surgeries. Locations include Gloucester, Blackburn, Leicester, Bradford, Batley, Coventry, Huddersfield, Leeds, Luton, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Nottingham and Wolverhampton. If there had been a suitable date, I would probably have gone to Leicester.

The website gives a contact number so you can check opening times. Don't call between 12.30 and 2.00 pm as they are closed for lunch. The staff are helpful and give very clear instructions on the requirements.

Birmingham accepts applications from 9.30 am until 12.30pm. Collections are same day from 3.00 to 4.30 pm

So what should you expect at the Birmingham CGI
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The Birmingham Consulate General is on Augusta Street in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham. This is quite a pleasant area and there's lots of on road parking as well as a multi-storey near by. We had no idea how long the process would take so took a ticket for 2 hours at 80p.

Entering the Consulate you find a shabby lobby with absolutely no instructions on where to go or what to do. However, there's a staircase and process of elimination suggests that's a pretty good start. There's also a lift for the elderly or handicapped. The stairwell is shabby and dirty and the carpet would give any health and safety professional nightmares. It's a good preparation for what you'll find when you get to India!

You enter through a security scan doorway - like the ones in an airport. Don't worry - nobody's paying a blind bit of notice to the doorway and it beeps away like a door buzzer in a shop. Similarly nobody was the slightest bit interested when we pointed out the cheap plastic briefcase abandoned by a pillar in the middle of the room. It wasn't ticking as far as we could tell.

The room is large with lots of plastic seating. You'll hit a long queue of people waiting for the Information Desk - ignore it - go to the front and take a number from the red ticket dispenser at the front of the queue and then sit down.

We arrived at 9.45 am and got ticket 540 - the display was showing 495 at the time so we were glad we'd brought magazines. The waiting area has Hindi newspapers, a library (all the books are locked up but maybe if you asked, they'd open them for you). There are toilets (a bit shabby) and a couple of drinks vending machines.

It soon became apparent that a lot of the numbers weren't being used and a lot of people waiting were not waiting for Visas so everything moved more quickly than we expected. The CGI also handles Indian passport applications and other enquiries - these don't work on the same number system so I guess a lot of people take a ticket in error. We waited about 40 minutes before being called to the visa application window where we handed over our papers, photos, passports and money. It was all very simple. We were told to come back between 3.00 and 4.30 pm.

If you were making a day of it, there are a few museums close by the CGI and places to get a cheap lunch. We had an appointment on the other side of Birmingham so we left but if we hadn't there were signs for a 'Sea Life Centre' so I know exactly where we would have been off to.

Returning at 3.45 pm we joined the collection queue and were served in about 30 minutes. The cashier informed us that the area we will be visiting (Ladakh) is classified as a restricted area and advised us that we would have to apply for permission at the police station at our entry point.

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UPDATE - JUNE 19TH - This morning we arrived in Ladakh at Leh airport. There seems to be no need to do police registration - the only formality required was to fill in a 'tourist info' card at the airport - and it was a bit hit and miss whether they were even collected. It appears that because Ladakh is technically part of Kashmir and Jammu (which are restricted areas) we were given advice that only applied to K&J).
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So, what did it cost us?
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Petrol - about £13.
Parking - £1.20
Compared to £56 for a visa agency I think we got a good deal.

Warning
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There are signs on the counter saying that the CGI is limited to no more than 700 visa applications per day. There was no way that was going to be an issue at this time of year. What sort of idiots want to go to India in India when it's 40C or more and the monsoon is on its way? (OK, aside from us, it's not exactly peak season). I can imagine that if you want to apply in October or November - in the run up to Diwali and the end of Ramadan, you could face a longer queue and a longer wait. The staff are so helpful I'm sure they could advise you of any problems if you give them a call.

Alternatives
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You could apply by post. You could - but you'd be mad to risk it. I don't know ANYONE who has ever risked a postal application for an Indian visa. There was a gentlemen enquiring about his mother's passport which had been posted in SEVEN weeks ago. Unless you are some kind of stress junkie, I really wouldn't put yourself through that sort of uncertainty.

Doing it yourself - the pros and cons
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Pros
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Easy to do - all the instructions and forms are on the website.
Fast - same day service. Much quicker than an agency
Peace of mind - you have total control of the process - your passport is only out of your sight for a few hours, it can't get lost in the post and you know exactly when you'll get it back
Saves Money - about £42 in our case. That'll pay for a few Kingfishers!
Various locations available - check out the Surgery list

Cons
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Takes a day to do it - not a problem for us at the moment as it was my husband's day off and I'm not working. However, I probably wouldn't take a day off work to save £42.

If you give it a go, please drop me a message in the guest book. I'd love to hear how you get on. Good luck and happy holidays.

Consulate General of India, Birmingham
20 Augusta Street
Jewellery Quarter, Hockley
Birmingham, B18 6JL
Please contact the Consulate for the current working hours for Visa Services
Tel: 0121 212 2782

ADDENDUM - just looking at some of the people who have commented so far I realise I forgot to state that all this advice definitely applies if you hold a BRITISH passport. Many ciaoists are not UK nationals and should check with the HCI website to be sure whether the same conditions apply for them. I suspect there's no problem for other European passport holders but there are definitely different requirements for Bangladeshi and Pakistani passport holders and some other countries may take longer if the visa issuing office has to contact your local embassy for clearance. 

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