Indian Transit Visa

Curls2208 · 13 October 2018 at 3:50AM

Hi There,

Has anyone travelled via India before?

I have a transit flight in Delhi on my way to kathmandu and cannot for the life of me figure out if I need a Visa.

The UK gov website says I do, but the Indian site it links to doesn't seem to have any specific applications for transit Visas.

I'm flying with the same airline (air india) all the way there, but I have a lenghty layover in Delhi.

2 things I want to avoid are...being sent back OR being stuck in a tiny area of Delhi airport for 9 hours.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm almost tempted to get an e-visa for rpeace of mind, but I know that's one step too far in the other direction!

Voyager2002 · 13 October 2018 at 11:39AM

The standard advice is, ask your airline, but you are taking Air India.

Anyway, most airline web sites link to the international database on visa requirements, and that should tell you.

pogofish · 13 October 2018 at 11:59AM

Curls2208 wrote: »

Has anyone travelled via India before?

Did the 200+ threads on travel to/via India here already not give you a hint..?

Voyager2002 · 13 October 2018 at 12:04PM

pogofish wrote: »

Did the 200+ threads on travel to/via India here already not give you a hint..?

I don't think any of them address this particular question.

In most cases one can follow clues such as these and then use common sense to work out the answer, but Indian bureaucracy works in ways that defy any kind of reason. And of course the rules change...

For instance, I am fairly confident that three years ago no visa was required if you remained in the international transit area of your Indian airport. I do not know if that is still the case today.

What I can confidently assert is that you can obtain a transit visa from VFS global: it is valid for a stay of up to three days (so is what you would need to leave the airport) and appears to cost about 70 pounds. (One website says that it costs US$881, but that is probably a mistake -- although with India you never know.)

Curls2208 · 13 October 2018 at 7:23PM

I find the forum very difficult to navigate if I'm honest, I don't see the harm in posting a thread if I'll get a good honest reply, I just have to ignore the sarcastic ones. I really appreciate the responses guys. So I'll contact the airline then, that's all I needed to know.

Anyway, for regular travellers it may seem like a stupid question. But I am definitely not one and I've never done an airport transfer before so thank you for the advice.

budgetflyer · 13 October 2018 at 9:05PM

Voyager2002 wrote: »

y.

What I can confidently assert is that you can obtain a transit visa from VFS global: it is valid for a stay of up to three days (so is what you would need to leave the airport) and appears to cost about 70 pounds. (One website says that it costs US$881, but that is probably a mistake -- although with India you never know.)

e visa costs about £55 via official site. Im not sure this would be suitable though.
Ive always found dealing with VFS Global a pain.

Voyager2002 · 14 October 2018 at 1:23AM

budgetflyer wrote: »

e visa costs about £55 via official site. Im not sure this would be suitable though.
Ive always found dealing with VFS Global a pain.

I fear that the price has gone up -- surely not even India could charge more for a three-day transit visa than for a 30-day visa!

heatherw_01 · 14 October 2018 at 4:34PM

Transit visa
https://boi.gov.in/content/transit-visa

Visa fees for Transit visa is different for all the Missions, it ranges from $13 to $ 53.

eDicky · 14 October 2018 at 7:27PM

Curls2208 wrote: »

Anyway, for regular travellers it may seem like a stupid question.

It's not a stupid question, especially where Indian official procedure is concerned. I travel regularly to Nepal but not via India so I can't give a definitive reply, but you should normally be able to assume that if you stay airside (in transit area without entering the country through immigration) no visa will be necessary.

Air India will check your bags through to KTM and if they don't actually issue your onward boarding pass at UK departure you should be able to get it from the transit desk at Delhi. Perhaps they have a phone app these days..?

Nine hours is a long wait but I believe there's a hotel available airside, you can Google it.

Voyager2002 · 14 October 2018 at 9:21PM

eDicky wrote: »

... you should normally be able to assume that if you stay airside (in transit area without entering the country through immigration) no visa will be necessary.

While that sounds like common sense, it is a dangerous assumption.

I discovered this in spectacular fashion when I arranged to attend a seminar given by a distinguished scientist who would have arrived in the country earlier that day. He did not arrive: his journey involved a change of 'planes in Paris, and the airline would not allow him to board the first flight of his journey since he did not have a transit visa valid for France. And yes: he had no plans to leave the transit area and would only have been in the airport there for a couple of hours. Oh: he held an Indian passport, so trust the Indians to do something equally stupid and inconvenient to transit passengers from Europe.

eDicky · 15 October 2018 at 10:28AM

I eventually found the following on the Air India website:

Transiting through India
When you arrive into Gateway Point in India and have an onward connection to another international destination by any international carrier

You may remain in direct transit at the terminal or proceed directly to departure area, depending upon onward flight timings and as per the specific airport procedure.
You are not allowed to proceed or pass through immigration and Customs unless you fulfil other requisite criteria.
Should you require any assistance you may contact the Air India "International Transfer Desk” Terminal.

http://www.airindia.in/Transit-Information.htm

However, in the case of India it's still worth double checking this with the airline, perhaps OP will update us with the result of doing so, which would be useful to know.

Indian Transit Visa

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