Finally got my India visa after one of the most cumbersome and expensive experiences in my travel experiences.

I've had about five or six India visas in the past several years but it has now become such a pain in the butt that I am thinking this is my last trip to India. Their online application links are mostly dead-links and when I finally found one, I found it was very disfunctional. The site gives one the impression that your application is being saved so you can make changes later but it is not, and consequently making a mistake requires you start over every single time, and their application is the longest I have ever had to complete.

After spending nearly two hours completing my applications the first time, I found a mistake...another two hours later, after restarting the entire application, I found another....and so on. This happened FOUR times! When I took the applications to the embassy, they did not like some of my responses and wanted me to change them - for example, they wanted me to make up (Yes MAKE UP!) a USA address so I could have a permanent address in my old country the USA rather than use my actual permanent address in my current country....They made me go back home and start over....7 hours down the tubes.....

I was fed up - I would have cancelled my trip right then and there had I not already paid for it! Disgusted I hired a VISA agency to take it on for me. They were hesitant as they were phasing out India visas due to so many problems with their consulate and with the online application. For an extra surcharge, they agreed to do it for us - it took them THREE attempts at the online application - and three days to complete it correctly, with small mistakes being the reason they has to start again and again and again....

After returning my passports with the visas in them, they said their company has made an official decision to stop procurring visas for India....

Now noticing all of the visa issues on other threads and my own experiences, which seem to be common, I am wondering if the India government gives a rats ass about their tourism industry? Why are they making it so difficult to get their visas? Are people flocking in to India as illegal aliens or what?

Ok there's my rant!

Oh, but the good news is, we are also going to Sri Lanka and their application process took a total of TEN minutes for ALL of us! Paid and done! I will choose Sri Lanka only next time....

I can only say we share your sorrow at all the wasted hours, as Bob went thru the same with the agency we used. But we also share your joy that it is DONE, so enjoy the rest of the planning and enjoy the trip.

Sri Lanka!!! Woo Hoo! Can't wait to hear about that trip!

There are two very long threads in this forum about BLS and the overwhelming majority echo your sentiments.

Thanks Femi! Jacketwatch - yes I have been following those as well. IS BLS only in the USA or is it their world service provider?

That I don't know. I do know that India will do away with their present visa system and begin a visa on arrival for many countries including the US. When this will happen I haven't heard.

I sure hope so. I know of at least half a dozen people who have cancelled their India plans due to visa issues...People who would have added to the local economies of the country. This kind of 4th world mediocrity is not becoming of a country trying so hard to seemed developed...

Cokesmith

Think it must be a US thing. We're in Australia, downloaded and completed application form, sent via Platinum post, passports photos and cheque for fee to Indian embassy in Canberra.
Passports with visas arrived back within two weeks. All good.
Hope they don't tender out the service here as they seem to have done in the US, definitely want to go again!
Enjoy your travels in Incredible India.

BLS is apparently in Canada as well, but reports from people there indicate that the system in Canada has been working efficiently.

I am in Thailand and am thinking that BLS is not the service here.

It was like that here too. In Chicago U could drop off the apps at the consulate in the morning and get them in the afternoon. Then it all changed after the Mumbai terror attacks when it was discovered that one of the conspirators got his visa from this same office using an alias.,

Does anyone know what the turn-around times for the New York office is on walk-ins? Same day? Both the numbers listed on their website are either out of service or go straight to voicemail!