10Pascal

I will be traveling to India (flying into DEL) in October and staying for a couple of weeks. I am then going from Delhi to Kathmandu and staying for another 2 weeks. I am planning to come back through Delhi. Because the India trip is for work and the Nepal trip for vacation, there needs to be two separate tickets. Will this cause a problem when coming back through india, since it is not all a single itinerary?

dogster

No.

Your problem will be with the new Indian visa restrictions. Are you aware of them?

thursdaysd

dogster - I think he's asking abut the visa restrictions. If you have a defined itinerary you're supposed to be able to get an exemption from the two month requirement, but he has two separate tickets.

10Pascal - you'd do much better to ask the embassy that will issue your visa.

dogster

O.K. I really don't think having two separate tickets is an issue at all. But, I guess the embassy will know [hollow laughter...]

10Pascal

I was asking about the visa restrictions and thank all of you for your reponses. I will contact the embassy.
Pascal

shortcake05479

Hi Pascal, I was just looking into this today since I'll be traveling to India with my DH for a work trip. I'm a little confused b/c the India visa website says the permit to re-enter only applies to tourist visas. There doesn't seem to be info on the site about restrictions on leaving and re-entering India for employment/entry visa holders (assuming you would not be on a tourist visa b/c of work). Anyway, here is what the India visa website says, hopefully this is helpful:

Question: When do I need a re-entry permit?
Answer: The Permit to Re-enter within two months only applies to current Tourist Visa holders who need a permit which will allow the applicant to re-enter India within 2 months after last leaving India. This permit is granted only if the need is urgent, and not for Business Activities/Employment or pursuing studies/research, etc. If the visa holder is traveling to multiple countries on the same itinerary, no permit is needed as long as trip follows the itinerary exactly. The visa holder must carry a copy of the itinerary to show the Immigration Officer. If you would like to apply for a Permit to Re-enter within two months, please proceed to the Get An India Visa page. Or, you can visit the Permit to Re-enter requirements page for more detail.

Question: I am traveling back and forth from India within the two-month period but during one single trip. Do I need a Permit to Re-enter?
Answer: If the visa holder is traveling to multiple countries on the same itinerary, no permit is needed as long as trip follows the itinerary exactly. The visa holder must carry a copy of the itinerary to show the Immigration Officer. However, we cannot guarantee that you will be granted re-entry by the immigration official.

thursdaysd

Seems to me the key phrase is:

<b>"However, we cannot guarantee that you will be granted re-entry by the immigration official."</b>

I planned my upcoming trip so that I wouldn't re-enter India and have to worry about it.

shortcake05479

Yeah that phrase makes me nervous. I would hate to not be allowed back in (not an option for us, considering DH has to work!) Will prob just tack on an extra week at the end of our trip so we can go to Thailand or Maldives or wherever we want to go, and fly home from there.

ovenbird

shortcake, your idea of setting up the itinerary to avoid a reentry is a good one because it's not just reentering that might be a problem. You could have trouble leaving India the second time.

We traveled to India and Sri Lanka in early Jan but had no official reentry permit (none existed at that time) as India had just put the rule in place and the Indian government and the visa agencies were still dealing with how to implement it.

We had a fixed itinerary to:

- arrive at DEL (no problems at entry immigration)
- overnight in Delhi
- fly to COL Sri Lanka for a 2 week tour (no problems with exit immigration at DEL, but the official stamped some of the passports in our group with the dreaded 60 day reentry notification stamp)
- fly back to DEL for a 3 week tour (had alot of trouble convincing Kingfisher Airlines in COL to allow us to fly back to DEL, but curiously no problems with reentry immigration at DEL)
- then fly home to the US from DEL (those of us with the 60 day reetry stamp had to waste a day to obtain the paperwork to allow them to LEAVE India, as our ground agent knew of tourists who had not been permitted by exit immigration at DEL to leave India until they did so.)

Fortunately, we did not have the 60 day reentry stamp in our passports and decided to not waste a day getting paperwork our ground agents said we probably didn't need. We did make it out of India without trouble, but I can tell you we were extremely nervous until we made it past that immigration official!

Given our experience with visas and reentry, I can appreciate dogster's snort and hollow laughter commnents. Good luck!