Kathie

Mobile, because the Indian consulate has contracted with BLS, all visas have to go through BLS. Your travel company also has to use BLS. As you can see, the travel company charges you and BLS charges you. It will be less expensive to go through BLS directly as you won't also be paying your travel company. If you think there is a chance you will return to India, get the 10-year visa. It's not that much more expensive and you won't have to go through teh visa application process again for 10 years.

MmePerdu

I suspect that, while not a sure thing, the extra fees to the travel company may be worth the help at the moment. They have the incentive of keeping a client booked on a tour and may walk their applications through the process in a way a solitary tourist cannot. Always at consulates one sees travel agents with a pile of passports and applications and who seem to get to the head of the line in one way or another. If I were in the OP's shoes I'd be tempted to just pay the agent the extra fee and hope they do better than the average traveler seems to be doing with BLS at this point.

I, too, have a 10 year visa but for many people on their first and possibly only trip to India it hardly matters. My first Indian visa was of the 6 month variety and only afterward did I invest in the 10 year. And would it make any difference to the speed of processing? I don't know why it would.

MmePerdu

Methinks anonymousindia & crowylowy may be the same entity, both new, both with same 2 posts. In any case, I looked at the petition but you want too much information. Otherwise I'd sign.

hed_su

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1013462

Please add comments and spread the word.

KET2117

ATTENTION ALL BLS HOUSTON APPLICANTS

I contacted a private passport and visa service company. They visited the BLS Houston office in person this morning, 8/5. My passport has been in limbo at BLS Houston for three weeks. Apparently, a glitch in the computer system returned every visa application submitted in the past two weeks as "incomplete/incorrect." Those applications were reloaded this morning, including my own. I am supposed to leave for India on 8/15, but it isn't looking good. I am driving to the Houston office tomorrow from Dallas to see if there is anything I can do in person. The private passport and visa service did not have a working phone number for BLS Houston.

USVisitor

My family's passport got stolen in SFO and we are having a horrible time dealing with this company. They accepted the application after making us run around for 6 hours. We paid the expedited fees and Fedex mailing fees. They had promised that we will get them by Thursday(last week). We call them and sometime they say they shipped it and sometime they say they will ship it tomorrow. We have missed our flight to India multiple times and are paying re-booking fees multiple times and soon hav to pay additional difference in fare. Indian consulate is not contact able and looks like they lost our passports.

Any one knows what are options. We are running out of money and patience.

Kathie

Another happy BLS employees, Lisa?

jacketwatch

Another shill. Should we expect more? I bet is yes.

welltraveledbrit

LisaGens,
jacketwach and Kathie are LONGTIME (yes I mean to shout) contributors here on Fodors. They have great credibility here and I assure you neither of them are working for BLS competitors, lol! Your gushing reply is laughably suspicious because you signed up this month and have made only one contribution to this forum to thank the BLS team.
Please feel free to write a trip report or comment on other matters and build the credibility you're demanding.

jacketwatch

WTB. Thank you. And the comment LG made is indeed laughable. This is making BLS look even worse if thats possible.

jacketwatch

There is, especially if you want to be believed.

DaveVidaver

If their website is any indication, I wouldn't trust them with my passport. The necessary "postal order form" that they require as of 8/12/13 cannot be printed without filling in the tracking number for the delivery service you are planning to use. Attempts to reach them by phone bordered on futile, with a busy signal for an hour; when I finally got through you are put on hold for 15 minutes, then given over to someone who didn't know the answer to any of my questions. I can't help but wonder how they got their contract.

MmePerdu

"I can't help but wonder how they got their contract." DaveVidaver

I think you can assume previous performance & competence were not part of the process. And influence and money were.

jacketwatch

My lawyer, an Indian immigration speecialist and another Indian pal of mine both told me they got the contract thru political connections. Performance wise it seems like it.

trt45

Does anyone here know of a way to contact the BLS office in Washington DC via email or phone? I am a naturalized US citizen (Indian origin) and I submitted my tourist visa application more than 4 weeks ago, and the BLS website still says that my application is processing at the embassy. I am starting to get concerned that my passport is at the bottom of someone's pile or worse yet, lost.

emma_barrett22

I'm a recent college grad leaving this Thursday to travel for four months, first in Portugal then in India. I had done the research for my India visa last winter and, since it seemed to be a pretty stright forward process, neglected to begin the application process until late July once the system had already switched to BLS.

I was in a hurry to get my application in and it wasn't until after I had already sent it (priority mail) from Colorado to Houston that I saw this forum. Reading everyone elses stories set me into a fit of panic because I had exactly three weeks (or 15 business days) to get my passport back before my flight. Like everyone else I tried every phone number on the website and couldn't get through. I did however send at least 5 emails to the address provided on their website and another couple to [email protected] who has posted on this forum.

I sent these emails on a Friday, the next afternoon (Saturday!) I got an email from Rattan saying that he had gotten my plea for help and someone would be in contact with me soon. A few hours later I got a call from the manager of the Houston office, an incredibly nice woman, who told me that she had my passport in hand, would deliver it to the consulate Monday, and have it in the mail to me by Tuesday.

Up until this point I hadn't been able to "Track My Application" online caliming 'no records found.' Monday this was still the case, but by Tuesday evening my Application information appeared with the status set to "Dispached via Couier" or something similar. That Wednesday I was able to find my tracking number from the return envelope I sent on the USPS website. By Friday morning I had my passport back with my tourist visa!

In total it took about two weeks or exactally 10 business days, from the day they recieved my passport to the day I got it back. I can only speak from my experience with the Houston office, and obviously it is far from perfect, but I experienced very helpful people at BLS in the form of Ratan and the branch manager Rhonda.

I took the time to get an account on this site and write this review because I think it's much eaiser to write when you are angry and frusturated to release some of that emotion, but it's harder to sit down and take the time to talk about how you had a mostly pleasent, somewhat stressful, but all around good experience.

I wish everyone the best of luck.

umuhajir

I am unable to follow up with BLS because all email addresses listed for BLS on the company’s website are invalid (email sent to those addresses is returned); a different email for BLS listed on the Indian consulate’s website is similarly invalid. I tried calling BLS as well, but no one answers the phone either, even though I waited for over forty-five minutes. Could someone on this forum let me know if they have a working email address for BLS NYC? Thanks in advance!

kikiv

@umuhajir try posting this question on the other thread regarding BLS. There is more activity on there and hopefully someone can answer your question.

kevote84

Rattanw
My post was removed yesterday and so I am being very careful today. In my post I described a month long struggle with BLS San Francisco from July 23 - yesterday. Multiple phone calls unreturned, calls disconnected, calls unanswered, e-mails unanswered and faxes sent. One package sent to BLS was unconfirmed at BLS therefore maybe lost. No status change on BLS website for weeks etc. I also thanked everyone for posting these threads because they have been invaluable to understand how the system does not work but also because Rattanw's email was made available.
Sadly I found this Forum only yesterday morning after my husband and I started the long 800 mile drive to San Francisco to ask BLS what the problem is, in person. Reading the Forum was supposed to be entertainment in the car.
After seeing his e-mail address I wrote to Rattanw at lunchtime and he replied 2 or 3 hours later on a Saturday! By late afternoon, almost 400 miles into the drive to San Francisco I not only got an e-mail from Rattanw but also, on Rattan's request, a call from the manager of BLS San Francisco. Raj says our passports will go to the Consulate on Monday and that they will be ready Tuesday.
On the East Coast, my nephew has submitted India visa paperwork to BLS New York and of course we are anxious to see what happens. His BLS website update posts that his application has been received so we will watch daily as our family reunion leaves for India on September 9th.
We will keep you posted on the arrival of our passports with visas. Again, if this Thread has made all the difference, thankful, and we are extremely grateful for what Rattanw has accomplished so far.

jacketwatch

I think your post is still here, in the other thread about BLS.
Glad to see rattanw is making a big effort.