Hello,
We are leaving for India on January 12 and I'm starting to research information on obtaining a Visa. We live in So. California and I've read really scary posts about people actually flying to San Francisco to obstain a Visa because they were afraid they wouldn't receive it in time. Cox and Kings was mentioned several times very negatively.
All the posts that I've been able to find are a year old so I'm not sure if things have changed at this point and theres an easier way to obtain it?
any feedback or support that you can provide woudl be very helpful.
Thanks!
Toni

If you R a U.S. Citizen and plan to stay less than 30 days you can get a visa on arrival in India. I think there is some sort of form to get online before you go or you can get it once in the airport but I'm not sure about that.

There was a horrible company called BLS who made the three stooges look like pure geniuses but they are long gone after being in business < a yr. I have heard no big problems with C and K.

Good luck, Larry.

https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html

We are also heading to India - in late January 2016. Since we live within an hour and a half drive of San Francisco, I was just planning to make an appointment there in December and try to take care of it all in one day.

I will be very interested in hearing about anyone who has gone the on-line route for their visa to India. Were there any glitches? It just seems that you can't apply on-line much in advance of your travel date, so if there's a problem ... ???

At least you will still have your actual passport in hand; that's what always freaks me out.

According to the link above you don't surrender your passport. You get an eTV print out which you carry with you.

Yes, jacketwatch - that's exactly what I was pointing out.

Sorry. I thought you meant you would drive to SF to avoid that.

Hey, Larry, have you done the e-visa for India?

Thanks so much for all of your replies.
I'd love to know if anyone has actually used this online visa purchase and what there experiece was....

If I lived closer to SF I'd drive there too....

No Kathie we have not. We got a 10 yr. visa in 2013.

Thanks, Larry. We likewise have 10 year visas.

I'm awaiting the first report on using the new visa on arrival for India.

Friends of ours who went to India last fall told us that they saw people getting in line for the visa on arrival at the airport

I've just posted a question about this on Indiamike, to hopefully get some feedback from Americans who've actually gone through the entry process with their new online visas. Based on reactions from immigration officers at assorted entry points over the years, I'd feel more relaxed/confident about the new process after hearing some "it was a breeze" anecdotes!

That's good to hear as that was the idea, to make it easy for tourists to simply enter the country.

From what my contact in India tells me you go to the online website, submit your details, make the payment, print out the ETV and present it when we arrive for the Visa. He said it takes about 72 hrs for the online process.

Yes, that is the way it should work. After you've done it, please come back and let us know how it went... any surprises?

If you don't want to drive to SF and are willing to pay a reasonable fee, I highly recommend Ambassador Visa service in Santa Monica. They are trustworthy miracle workers. We did not use them for our Indian visas because we got ours online pre-BLS in 2013, but I have used them recently for 24-hour extra passport pages, as well as a Chinese visa with remarkably fast turnaround.

Our friends just received their Indian visas from Ambassador without a hitch. We are lucky to be right in the neighborhood, but my son's company in Portland used them as well for a rush Brazilian visa. http://ambassadorpassportandvisa.com/

I just tried to fill out the online request and it says that you can only apply for the eTV within 34 days of your arrival. That's cutting it a bit close for my comfort as if there is a problem there is no time to go another route.

You mean 3-4 days?

This article from - what I consider to be - a trustworthy source adds legitimacy to the online visa program.

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2...about-program/