India Visa - Traveling to Nepal
Replies: 13 - Last Post: Feb 20, 2013 8:28 PM Last Post By: edwardseco
jump to
India Visa - Traveling to Nepal
Hello my fellow travellers.I'm aware of the rule that if you enter India, then you cannot enter again in 2 months. My question is this, if I fly into Delhi and leave 2 hours later on a flight to Nepal, do I have to pass immigration, and in that case will it count as an entry into India? The reason why I'm asking is that from my experience, every country is a little bit different. Hopefully, I can just "transfer" in India, i.e., not leave the airport or go through customs. Has anyone done this before? I will have two different tickets: The first from NY-Delhi, and the second from Delhi-Kathmandu. They might not let me check my luggage the whole way (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't). After about two weeks I will "return" to India for about a month.
I'm planning to apply for an Indian tourist visa prior to travelling. And since I know someone will ask, I'm carrying a Swedish passport, and my husband a US. Although I don't think it makes any difference in this case.
Thanks for your help!
1
Has anyone done this before?Never ...
Just kidding. Use the "search" field and you'll find that this comes up every week.
You'll still probably be confused - but this is true:
If you have a multi-entry Visa - you can enter back into India without waiting two months - from 'neighboring' countries - Nepal is in this group. The key is a multi entry Visa. Get that.
Your luggage may or may not be transferred - you don't say which airlines you are using - but again, the search will give you some more insight into this issue.
2
Thanks Joe.I also just read on the Travisa web site that the restriction for 2 months has been lifted. See blue box:
https://indiavisa.travisaoutsourcing.com/get-a-visa
I have done searches before, but not seen anything specifically about the transfer situation. But I'll look again. I was also under the impression that a multiple entry visa was a lot more expensive and still didn't get past the "gap of two months" issue, but now I think I may have been mistaken.
3
Me again. After a quick search, seems like I would have to go through immigration and if the 2-month gap rule had not been eliminated I would not have been able to enter India again. Apparently all tourist visas are multiple entry according to the Travisa website, which is the only way to apply for an Indian visa in the US.I'm flying in with Turkish Airlines, and flying to Nepal with Air India, Spicejet or Jet Airways. i didn't want to buy the ticket until I knew how to handle the visa situation.
4
" I also just read on the Travisa web site that the restriction for 2 months has been lifted. See blue box:https://indiavisa.travisaoutsourcing.com/get-a-visa "
HOORAY !!!!! Now it's just a Huge Operation to let their Embassys know, Probably take a year or two.Haa
Edited by: paulputt
5
if the 2-month gap rule had not been eliminated I would not have been able to enter India again.If you hold a multiple entry Visa - this is NOT true.
7
Thanks Scoodly, that's good news. I could skip Nepal, if need be. But I definitely need to be able to go back to India (for the Kumbh Mela). So if I can have the airline staff collect and check my baggage, that solves the problem.Paulputt, you must mean border controls. And yes, you are probably right, the border officials often play by their own rules. And maybe the consulates and their visa company play by different rules, too. I know this much from traveling , that nothing is certain when it comes to visas and border crossings.
Joegooey, it makes a lot of sense what you say, but a document on the Indian Consulate web site says that ALL tourist visa holders (see 3:Q1: http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/FAQ-TVisa311209.pdf) need a two month gap between visits. That's what I was referring to. Might be different rules for different countries?
So much conflicting information on the official web sites. So I'm glad you guys are here to help. Thanks everyone.
8
HiThe threads on this search result will give more detail.
The 2 month between visits rule was relaxed some time ago for 'visits to neighbouring countries for the purposes of tourism' (and Thailand seems to be included now).
That it seems to have gone now is good news for travellers to India.
scoodly
10
I'll ditto #6 Scoodly, lots of reports for Delhi even where the luggage was not automatically checked through. Must be tense but done..11
So this is what happened. We could not check in to our next flight without collecting our baggage, because we did not have a boarding card. We went through immigration, collected our bags as per the normal procedure, walked to the departure lounge and checked in. The immigration official confirmed we could enter India again I two weeks without any issue.After two weeks in Nepal, we entered India in Sunauli without problems. No questions asked.
However, just to add to the story: we met a German girl who had a 12 month visa. She had just spent 6 months traveling in I CIA and had to leave, because her visa explicitly mentioned she needed to have a two month break after having spent 180 days in India. She had contacted the immigration dept in Delhi, and they had told her that jf she goes to Nepal for a week or two, she will be able to enter India again. I don't know if she made it, but.an Englishman we met in Nepal told us a similar story.
Thanks again for all your great advice!
Please check out my blog at:
Http://amongbuddhasandbabas.wordpress.com
12
Sorry, bad iPad word correction. The German girl had just spent 6 months traveling in India, not CIA.
