A well known travel website recently published its 20 most problematic countries with regards to visa applications. This list includes countries where it sometimes appears almost impossible to secure a visa.
In this list, India ranked highly, on the fourth place. According to the website, the electronic visa system of India has been implemented far too problematically, making it exceedingly difficult to successfully run through an Indian visa application. Other luminaries in the list include Russia, China, Nigeria and Iran. In this article, you will find crucial bits of information to make it through the Indian visa application and come out with a valid Indian visa.
’Indian visa application problematic’
The travel website that conducted the survey notes that technology, while often being a traveller's best friend, can quickly become their worst enemy. The updated electronic visa system of India is one such example, so says the website.
India itself states that the new system made the Indian visa application process a lot easier and faster, but travel website TheTravel.com notes that it is in fact the opposite. The system is experienced as extremely frustrating by many people. For instance, it doesn’t work on certain operating systems, and the visa application cannot be completed at all with certain browsers.
To successfully run through an Indian visa application, all fields in the form must be answered truthfully. TheTravel points out that certain questions on the form might not be answerable for travellers, depending on their personal situation.
What’s more, the payment system frequently malfunctions. The payments are processed by the Indian Bank, which frequently becomes unreachable. This in turn makes it so the Indian visa application system cannot be used.
’It’s impossible to apply for an Indian visa’
Many travellers complain that it is basically impossible to apply for an Indian visa. The Asian country sits on the fourth place on the list of twenty countries with cumbersome visa application systems. Only Nigeria, Turkmenistan and Brazil have worse systems in place. For instance, it is mandatory to have a salaried job to apply for a Nigerian visa, and getting a Turkmenistan visa is only possible if you have been invited by an inhabitant of the country. India does not have particularly strict visa requirements, but the infrastructure of the system is shabby, leading to frequent malfunctions.
An Indian visa application
Although the system frequently does not work, it is still mandatory to apply for a visa. Without a valid visa, you won’t be allowed to enter the country. Since 2015 it has become possible to apply for an e-visa online. This visa type is only valid if travellers which to stay in the country for less than 180 days (90 days for non-UK travellers).
There are three different types of electronic visa, each with their own specific travel purpose. For instance, the eTourist Indian visa, as the name suggest, is meant for tourism. There also exist medical and business type visas. All Indian e-visa are valid for one year.
To qualify for the visa, the passport of the traveller needs to be valid for at least six more months from the moment of arrival in India. Furthermore, a clear scan of the passport and a passport photo need to be provided during the Indian visa application.
Apply for Indian visa
Submitting an Indian visa application through this website is quite a bit easier compared to the website of the Indian government. With us it is possible to submit an application 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Applying for the eTourist visa, eMedical visa or e Business visa takes about 15 minutes.
The visa costs £59.95 per person and can be easily paid through Visa, MasterCard, American Express or PayPal. The Indian visa will then be sent by e-mail within 4 workdays. Print the document before going on your trip to India.
The benefit of applying for the visa through this website is that we use a different system compared to the government site. This way, the applicant won’t have to deal with the error-prone system in India. We take care of the entire application process.
Urgent Indian visa application
Are you leaving for India short term and forgot to apply for your visa? It is also possible to submit an urgent Indian visa application. To do this, all you need to do is check the ‘urgent’ box in the standard application. 90 percent of all urgent application are already approved the next day. Afterwards, the visa is sent by e-mail.
The government in India manually processes applications. That’s why we cannot offer absolute guarantees regarding timely deliveries of application. Sometimes, even an urgent application can still take three to four days.
Please note: this news article about the visa for India is more than one year old. It might contain outdated information and advice, and no rights can therefore be derived from this article. Are you going on a trip soon and do you wish to do know what rules currently apply? Read all about the up-to-date information about the visa for India.