artsnletters

Is it possible to fly on a ticket with a connection in India without a visa? This would be a flight between Kathmandu and Bangkok (through Kolkata or Delhi) and wouldn't involve leaving the airport.

Craig

As long as you are in transit and your bags are checked through, you should be fine. You don't want to go through immigration. Look for the signs for transit passengers or ask someone.

Jaya

I would not even leave the area behind security without a visa. To be safest, you should check with the Indian Consulate that covers the jurisdiction where you live.

elbegewa

Is that for the Scruffman?
It's a pity if he's thinking about missing India (a far richer cultural experience than Nepal - although I'd personally prefer Nepal's mountains I've imagined him more into people's cultures).
Is there not some way he could get a visa?

artsnletters

He has a visa for India and will be visiting there February and March. Then he plans to head to Nepal, then possibly Thailand before heading west again. My investigation of flights from Kathmandu to Bangkok and from Kathmandu or Bangkok to, say, Istanbul all involve a plane change somewhere in India - just trying to make sure he won't have problems, as his visa will have expired by then.

Oh my, yes, India is one of his priorities for this trip.

mrwunrfl

You should check with the Indian consulate. They may require a transit visa for some nationalities.

dogster

You can fly direct on Thai from KTM to BKK. Why give yourself hours and hours more fly/lay over/hassle time when you can be in BKK in three hours?

Here's a cool site to explore all options:
www.skyscanner.com

Craig may not necessarily be 100% correct in this instance. He certainly is in theory - but there are oddities. Assume nothing in India.

artsnletters

Thai Air looks to be really, really expensive. One of the combos I found cost $332 with a change in Delhi, compared to $920 on Thai Air. This is for a young hippie (the Scruffman) who is traveling around the world on less than a shoestring and whose trip lasts as long as his money, so a $900+ flight is out of the question. He's got way, way more time than money.

I will try to contact the consulate, although getting info out of those folks is pretty tough. According to what they told me the last time I asked them a question, he cannot get a visa unless he is in his home country, and he's been traveling for four months and won't be back here until long after his current visa expires (April).

What happens if he doesn't have a transit visa (and needs one)? Do they not let him board the plane in KTM?

dogster

Fair 'nuff arts. This old hippy understands. Yup, Thai has the monopoly and they take advantage of it. I just flew Thai return business class on Jan 2 2010 to KTM for around $900 - so there's a glitch here on that pricing. I don't get it either. Yup, I just checked the site, too.

He CAN get an Indian visa in Kathmandu. Remember tho', he has to be out of India [new regs - do a search] for two months, once he's left. I watched three people grab visas when I was in KTM two weeks ago, so I know it can be done. If he's on the backpack circuit, he'll find out how. He can even bride a cab-driver to bribe a guard to bribe an official to get him to the top of the queue.

artsnletters

I figured there was a way to do it, and that with two months to wander around India, he'll find the people to tell him how. I'd imagine he could spend his two months out in Nepal and Thailand. Can he request the visa before his two months are up? I think he'd probably spend a month in Nepal and a month in Thailand, so if he can't apply for two months, he'd presumably be in Thailand - is the same bribery chain possible there as well?

dogster

lol - arts - that I don't know. Thailand ain't Nepal. I'm in BKK
right now. Remember, the bribe chain doesn't get you the visa in KTM, it simply gets you to the front of the queue. Everything is up for grabs at that point.

This is all a bit academic tho', pal. Everything is changing so fast, what is current now may well be out of date in April.

Chapter and verse, Craig is absolutely correct. There really should be no need for a transit anything. However, I spent a few days in KTM with a lad who arrived into Delhi, transiting to Nepal - found himself going out thru immigration, then back in, blowing his one stay visa in the process. How? Dunno, but if it can happen to intrepid Romy, it can happen to scruff.

Just for fun, look here, then click around:
http://tuktukgoose.com/the-visa-saga-finale/

Philbill

We returned last month and had a hair-raising experience regarding our visa.
We flew Dubai to Delhi, stayed one night in a hotel in Delhi, flew to Nepal.
Three days later we flew from Kathmandu to Varanasi and were refused entrance by immigration as it was within the two month period.
We talked to various 'officials' for about an hour and signed statements that we were unaware that there was a law prohibiting return into India within a 2 month period. We were then allowed to enter providing that we filled out residency forms the following day, which we did. It was a long bureaucratic nightmare but thankfully our guide drove all the way to pick up the paperwork, got our passport-sized photoes taken, took our forms back to the office and then returned yet again to the hotel with the officially stamped residency forms. It would otherwise have been half a day out of our sightseeing program.

artsnletters

I hope my son won't run into any problems. He'll be flying from Kathmandu to Bangkok, and I can't find any cheap fares that don't involve a transfer in Delhi, but none involve an overnight.

Kathie

Phil, thanks for your report. There has been some conversation on the forum about the new policy of not allowing re-entry within 60 days. Yours is the first report I've read of an encounter with the new policy.

I understand you can re-enter if you make arrangements in advance, before leaving India.

arts, Thai Air has non-stops between Kathmandu and Bangkok. It might be worth the splurge of a Thai Air ticket.

artsnletters

Kathie, my son is traveling on less than a shoestring. He cannot afford the Thai Air ticket, which is 2.5 times the price of Jet Airways.

Philbill

I have been trying to find an appropriate post for mentioning our experience. Because we went through immigration and entered India (albeit for about 14 hours total) our passport was stamped for entry on the page next to the visa and again for exiting the country on the same page. It was these two stamps which alerted the personnel in Varanasi.
When we left Delhi later to return to the USA, our passport was stamped for exit but also stamped with the notification that we could not return within a 2 month period. I assume they had instituted the additional passport stamp during the period of our two week trip. The official did not take our copies of our residency papers (he waved them away when I offered them to him) when we left so we have them as a memory of that experience!
By the way they wanted 6 passport sized photoes of each of us for the paperwork to be completed in Varanasi!
If you are only transferring between flights I do not believe that would be a problem.
Our hand baggage was completely searched (and by that I mean everything out) twice before boarding the plane in Kathmandu, and that was in addition to the regular security screening of hand baggage.

ovenbird

Philbill, we returned home Mar 2 and had a similar experience. I think the new tourist visa rule was instituted in December...just in time to cause chaos with our preset 5 week long birding tours to Sri Lanka and India.

Like you, we overnighted in Delhi on our way to Sri Lanka. On the way out of IGI, we told the immigration officer we would be coming back to India in 10 days. When he said this was not possible, we showed him our itinerary and told him how much money we would lose. After 15 minutes of discussion, he called his supervisor over, they talked, and he stamped our passports...fortunately not with that dreaded 2 month notification stamp. But others in our group were not so lucky.

We had a great time in Sri Lanka, a very beautiful country with very friendly people. But at the end of that leg, the Kingfisher Airline agent in Colombo told us we could not fly to India because they would just deport us back to Sri Lanka. They literally would not let us board the plane!

After about an hour of pleading, schmoozing and telling the agents (now there were 5) the Indian immigration offical said they would welcome us back "most happily", the head agent finally called his office in India. They said to send us back to India and let Indian immigration worry about it.

Much to our surprise and relief, we breezed through immigration at IGI and reentered India...no questions asked. But our ground agent said those with the dreaded notification stamp had to register with the FRRO (Foreign Regional Registration Officer) in Delhi. He knew of instances where the government had not allowed legitimate tourists to board planes at IGI if their passports had the dreaded stamp. They needed to apply for temporary residency and register at the FRRO.

The only spare time we had in Delhi was 2 weeks later, so that was when most of the group registered. Since Dave and I didn't have the dreaded stamp, we decided to take our chances and didn't go to the FRRO. It took our folks all day to get the required paperwork for and from the FRRO. Plus they had to pay a late fee of 1400IR/person because more than 14 days had elapsed from first entry.

Unlike Philbill in Varanasi, our ground agent was not permitted to make the application for the group so all had to do it personally, including one who was quite ill. They got into line 2 hours before the office opened, and only just made it out when it closed at 3pm.

Fortunately, in the end we all made it out of India without any hassle. But immigration did put the dreaded stamp right on our visas when we left. Guess we won't be returning to India for 2 months!

So, there is still chaos about this new rule. But I agree with Philbill that if your son is only transferring between flights and not leaving the aiport, he will likely have no problems.

I'm loving his/your trip reports and wish him safe travels.

Kathie

There have been a couple of previous posts about this new rule, see
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-travelers.cfm

It appears the rule is being applied unevenly from your experiences.

Philbill

Hi again! The first time we left India (January 25th I believe), our passports were not stamped with the written warning about not being able to return within the two month period, but we still had the issue at Varanasi as obviously we had an entry stamp and an exit stamp from India.
When we departed in February we did get the written notification stamp.
There was no charge by the way from the FRRO. 12 photoes cost $4 so that was okay.
We did have the 10 year visas. That might have made a difference.

One other suggestion (if you are not on a shoestring):
Hotels were quite amenable to discussing upgrades to suites and bargaining on the supplement charged.

We did this at one hotel, got comped an upgrade without asking at the Imperial in Delhi and when we were not happy with a room were upgraded at yet another hotel.

BTW We loved India and did not enjoy Nepal nearly as much as we were expecting. There were piles of trash everywhere throughout Kathmandu and the air quality was awful.