Visa Duration
 

Sorry, I originally posted this in another topic by mistake.

I'm planning a trip to India for the first half of next year. I will be in NYC on Dec. 20, 2007 at which point I plan to get my tourist Visa. The problem is that I would like to stay in India until the last week in June or first week in July. I will buy my flight tickets soon and am wondering if staying a couple of weeks past my 6 month visa is a bad idea or not. Does anyone here have an opinion on this or a work around? Thanks.

do not stay one hour past your visa expiration....imo

Yes, it seems overstaying my visa would be a bad idea. I'll be in France for 3 weeks before I arrive in India. Does anyone here know anything about getting an Indian visa in Paris as a US citizen?

I can't understand how you can be overstaying your visa if you will be in Paris 3 weeks before...if you have a 6 month visa you will have 5 months at least left before you are over.

are you confused about the start date of your visa....the 6 months does not start until you arrive there...

Not true, it starts on the date of issue.

Then get a visa that is valid for 1 year rather than 6 months. Or get it in Paris.

You need to go to travel.state.gov and read the consular info sheet for India:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1139.html

Also read here:
http://www.immigrationindia.nic.in/

Looks like any kind of visa can be extended for 15 days.

I take it that OP is going to France after picking up the India visa and spending three weeks there. Then in mid-January heading to India for 6 months.

You can get your India visa in Paris.

Thanks Mrwunrfl for those links. I have read a little and will read more later.

Sorry, I should give more details about my plans:

I will be in NYC for a few days around Dec 20. I was planning on getting my visa at this time. Afterwards, I will be with family in the US for the holidays, then to France for 3 weeks, and arriving in India around Feb. 1. If I leave two weeks extra at the end of my visa that gives me 4 months in India. I was hoping for closer to 5 months but if it has to be 4 I can live with that. In fact, 4 months might even work out better for me considering how much culture shock I've read about.

I was hesitant to wait until Paris to get my visa because I thought there might be complications as I am a US citizen. Does anyone here know if this would still be a one day deal? Would I need any further documentation? I have a fair amount of travel experience in the West but none in the East or with visas.

Thanks again everyone for all of your help.

you are correct...i just looked at my visa for november and it was issued in august in nyc and expries in feb....btw...tehy were quite insistent that i get the visa in the district that is responsible for my home state....so you might even have trouble getting it in nyc if that is not your district office...crazy i know but that is what they told me...remember this is a country full of bureauracy....personally i would not leave it until i got to paris...and in nyc i might allow two days for the processing