How can it be that frustrated customers have to turn to a travel forum in order to seek answers and ask for help instead of getting assistance and answers directly from the company whose job it is to provide a service they are paid for?

Is Rattanw the only BLS employee concerned with this?

Having a visa provider is pointless if people have to resort to driving 800 miles in order to find out the status of their visas and the whereabouts of their passports.

"Having a visa provider is pointless if people have to resort to driving 800 miles..."

But if it's the only provider, and it is apparently the only one, when all else fails and the trip is important then I guess you drive.

However, if your question is for the consulate, and the provider is useless and people are stopped from getting visas then one would think they'd correct the situation. One would think. Or is being "connected" more important in these circles than the viability of tourism from the US?

Correct. Being connected is more important. Hard to believe but it's true. I've been saying for decades after six trip to India that they way under utilize potential tourism dollars, pounds, euros, etc. do you realize that even if you are a naturalized US citizen from a country other than India that you need a copy of your original birth cert. and if its not in English you must have it translated? It was that way three yrs. ago when we were applying at least so if you are from say Poland you have to get your BC and get it translated to English.

Most of my Indian friends who have been there recently tell us that the corruption which was always there is worse than ever. My,Indian atty. told me BLS got the contract from connections and by performance it certainly seems that way.

Here is what happened to us at our hotel in Ajmer during our last stay in 2010. You can find this on trip advisor.

We had a very suspicious incident regarding some expensive jewelery "disappearing" from my wifes purse in our room while we were gone for 1 hr. for lunch. It happened on the day we were to depart to Delhi. Several staff members including the manager searched our luggage inc. my carry-on bag. This bag was searched about 6 times by 6 different people inc. myself and my wife and the satin sachel with the jewelery was not found here or anywhere. We left for the train shattered by this and certain that we were robbed. Then just about 10 minutes into the ride my wife looked in my bag and mysteriously the sachel was there and in an obvious spot. The hotel manager said with several employees in our room that he would search everyone. I can only conclude that whoever took it from the purse mamaged to slip it back into my bag due to fear of being caught red handed. As my wife was emotionally devistated and in tears and the scene was chaotic this could have easily happened. What is most disappointing is that repeated emails to the Mansingh group have gone unanswered for about two weeks now adding a further insult to our experience there."

But theres more. After two emails went unanswered I sent a third(all to the Mansingh corporate HQ) and stated that if this went w/o a reply I would post this experience on the www and as I got no reply again I posted this. Then I got a reply from the hotel manager through trip advisor who was one of the 6 or 7 who searched my bag and he accused me of making this whole thing up!

In India as stated by one of my Indian friends business is very different as once they have the money in their pocket all bets are off. His words, not mine but from the complete lack of any kind of response from corporate HQ for the Mansingh group it seems to have validity.

What we're getting here is a very particular introduction into (not exclusively) Indian affairs. For those of you off (we hope) on your first trip to the subcontinent it may all come as a shock but it's also a useful glimpse into a part of the world where almost everything is done differently from how one is accustomed. Every day will be a learning experience in the largest sense of the phrase. Relax and enjoy the ride. What's most amazing is how much is actually accomplished in the end.

Yep and hang on to your wallet. :S-

Here is my experience with BLS.

I do the visa processing for our non-profit organization and am having a hard time with BLS SF. I had to deal with them directly because during the transition (from Travisa Outsourcing to BLS) BLS had not given accreditation to other visa processing agencies.

The problem: one of our non-US born employee’s visa processing has taken over a month - we started at the beginning of July. I submitted all the requirements on their website. BLS requested additional paperwork to verify our sister organization in India. After submitting the additional paperwork there have been no updates on her visa. I’ve contacted them by email and phone daily and I am not receiving replies from them regarding my case #. I’ve been told when I call, and lucky enough to get through, that I will receive an update in 24 hrs. This has been going on for about a week.

As of now I have lost faith in BLS. We have lost money on this visa processing because we bought her flight tickets (we changed her flights twice thinking we would get the visa on time) and have paid an excessive amount of BLS fees to acquire an Indian visa. My only request now to them is to VERIFY that they still have her passport. At this time this is my only concern because she has a trip planned in the next few months. I have also emailed the Indian consulate in SF and have not received a reply.

If you need to contact BLS by phone I suggest calling in a sequence. I have them on speed dial. Sometimes the calls “ring out” and sometimes they go through. If you get through you will notice the call center is extremely busy. They will rush you off the phone. All I can suggest is to be persistent! It hasn’t helped me but maybe it will work for you.

I'll update my post when everything is finalized.

Rattan W. is amazing,instant help,same day.
Any problems with BLS just write to this email
[email protected]

Don't just complain on a listserv. Write your complaint to the Indian Embassy in DC: [email protected]. His telephone number is 202-939 7028

Anyone who has issues with Atlanta BLS write to [email protected] for faster response.

I used Travisa and the Houston BLS office... My app was submitted Aug 29th, had it back at my home on Sept 5th, not bad considering Labor Day weekend was in there!
Highly recommend paying the $60 dollars to get it done quickly and have no stress!

I have to go to India asap, but I mailed my passport and renuanciation to get stamped for India visa. Is there any way I can expedite this process thru BLS or consulate in NY? My india visa application diplays as under process status on BLS website. Please respond if any one has experience this and have a clue. Thanks.

Hello all,

Well, it seems that I am not alone. BLS NY has had my passport now for over seven weeks. I gave myself plenty of time and did exactly as I was supposed to. After more then 20 calls and COUNTLESS hours on the phone with them (including four supervisors who swore on everything holy they would have my passport out in (shocker) "24 hours" and get back to me. No passport and I have never once received a phone call back. I have also email/called all of the above numbers. I am on to nearly hourly phone calls to them, but must explain the ENTIRE situation repeatedly to every worker as they do not want to connect you to supervisors.

I cannot go in person, and have come to the point of having someone go pick it up for me, but I cannot contact the NY office directly, and am certain they will not give my passport to someone else.

If anyone has any advise, by all means I would love to hear it!

Thank you!!

I have a 10 year visa for India which is now in my old passport. I have read online both that you must, and that you need not, have it moved by the current contractor to one's new passport. So if I decide to go back to India in the time left on the visa, and things have not improved, I'll take the chance and just bring both passports rather than risk the turmoil this change to BLS has presented travelers to India from the US.

Like others, I signed up for this website just so I could leave a reply. My experience with BLS has been just as horrible as this forum would lead me to expect.

The BLS Atlanta office has had my passport for nearly three months now, and I still don't have a visa. They initially "lost" my renunciation application (which I discovered after having camped out in the office for over 3 hours), so they told me to bring in another renunication application. I did so the next business day and was told that they now couldn't find my visa application (you know, the one with my US passport with it). After camping out for ANOTHER 3 hours, they finally found my visa application and, lo and behold, found my original renunication application. (Apparently, it was in their mailroom. Why no one thought to look there initially, I'll never know.)

At that point, my visa application was FINALLY processed, and I was told that it would take no more than 10 business days to get my visa. Given this timeline, I should have had my visa no later than September 30, 2013.

Since then, I have emailed BLS several times but cannot get in touch with anyone! I've already emailed Ekta Soni and Rattan Whig and have heard absolutely nothing. Maybe Rattan is so busy monitoring this forum that he's too busy to respond to the actual emails he gets. Maybe posting in this forum is the way to get his attention.

There's no point calling them, since the number just rolls over the voicemail, and the voicemail box is always full. Anyone have any other bright ideas about how to get this moving?

The worst part is -- I realize that there are people that BLS is screwing over worse than me. On my first visit to the BLS office, I met a flight attendant who was just begging to get her passport back, with or without a visa, because she needed a passport for work. She had to wait several hours -- just to get her own property back.

On my second visit, I met a man who had driven up from Tampa with his small children the day before and had visited the BLS office the day before, without success. He needed BLS to reissue a visa to he could stay in the country legally. His visa was about to expire, and he was about to be an illegal immigrant if BLS didn't do what it was supposed to do. The agent he was talking with seemed more offended that he was upset than interested in doing her job (I heard all this go down just a couple of desks away from where I was).

I can't imagine how much tourist revenue India is losing thansk to the utter incompetence of BLS. The only reason I'm pursuing a visa at all is because my family has already planned vacation to India this December (and I'm glad I gave myself 6 months to get this visa situation sorted out). I'll never go back, just so I will never had to deal with BLS again. I am almost impressed with the creativity it takes for BLS to be so incompetent in so many ways.

On this thread, posted yesterday, may be the answer to many of our difficulties. Look in particular to the second link several replies down that Richard has posted giving hope for the visa-on-arrival possibility:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-38-others.cfm

The paper here said the measure has just to be implemented. Apparently it has passed.

Yep. BLS International is the company you have to use. You don't have a choice. The only choice you have is if you dare go direct through them or use one of the larger Visa Services to do the dirty work for you.
I went direct and had to call them 6-7 times a day for 5-days to get someone to answer the phone. I was 5-minutes from booking a flight to SFO to pick up my passport in person when someone finally answered the phone. Bottom line, they were not ready for this. Not sure why they got the contract, but it is the only option you have. Send it in with plenty of time in advance and check the status daily.
And as a side note, I do know people who have showed up in person at BLS and it was much smoother. They were able to get their visas in 48-hours. I didn't have that luxury as I live where BLS doesn't but if you live close to a BLS office that might be the best option.

Has anyone heard of the Indian consulate (specifically the one in Atlanta) charging enormous fees ($250-$1500) for those having to renounce their Indian citizenship in order to get a tourist visa but who have lost their Indian passport?

I talked to someone at A Briggs yesterday and she said that India wasn't allowing them to expedite any visas. I have to be in India on November 1st, so I have to leave on the 29th at the latest. I need to get my visa ASAP. A Canadian friend of mine told me to go directly to BLS in person and get there fifteen minutes before they open. He said he did that and got his in 5 days, and it had to go to another province.

I am planning to go in person Tuesday. Any recent experience with going there in person? Success? I will have the whole day to sit and wait for the damn thing...thoughts?