On Indian Visas and Ultimate Bureaucracy
Background: My husband is from India. His parents still live there. I have been in India four times. I have traveled a lot when I had my Russian passport, I still travel a lot with my Canadian passport.
Out of my prior experience getting Indian visa is one of the most unpleasant and difficult things to do, regardless of the passport one is traveling with. They do give you a visa, but they will make you suffer. It is most surprising considering all the effort of Indian government aimed at increasing inflow of tourists in India.
The major reason for a miserable way the Indian embassies treat people is the policy that if a person wants to get visa in a country that is not a country of his citizenship, the Indian embassy in the country of his/her citizenship should issue a permission to issue visa to this individual. I spend last 6 or 7 years not living in a country of my citizenship, whatever it was or is at a particular point in time. Therefore, every time I apply for Indian visa I have to go through the ordeal of one Indian embassy trying to get in touch with another Indian embassy to get the permission to issue a visa.
A side note: Indian embassy in London is a pleasant exception. It is one of the most organized and efficient embassies, even considering the huge line up one has to go through to get in.
My husband used to take care of this inter-embassy communications or, to be precise, miscommunications between Indian consulate in Toronto and Indian embassy in Moscow. As a general rule, Indian consulate in Toronto did not have a right fax number, or it would not check if Moscow receives the request; Indian embassy in Moscow had fax in a different building than the person who was needed to reply for that fax, the fax would get lost somewhere on the way, etc … Both times I applied for visa in Toronto, it ended with my husband sitting for two or three nights (don’t forget the time difference between Moscow and Toronto) on the phone figuring out the person responsible and coordinating the process of getting the clearance for my visa. By the way, I am talking about normal 6 months tourist visa out here. My husband actually made a friend in Indian embassy in Moscow this way. The second time I applied for visa in Canada, this fact made our lives much easier.
Coming back to why this theme came up in “My Adventures in Ukraine” series. I can’t handle this freezing winter any longer, so at the end of my internship I decided to go to India. Couple of weeks ago two of my friends and I went to the Indian embassy in Ukraine to apply for visas.
On a negative note: the embassy is located in the middle of nowhere very far from the center.
On a positive note: taxis in Ukraine are comparatively cheap.
On a positive note: the line up was very short.
On a negative note: they send us to find a Xerox to make a copy of our passports. How difficult would it be to actually write that you need a copy of a passport on a website of the embassy? Apparently, Indian embassy can’t possible find a web specialist to add one line of plain text to its website.
On a positive note: the bookshop nearby decided to make some money and bought a Xerox. A woman making our copies told us that the embassy got “very arrogant and mean” and they will “drink our blood” before issuing our visa. Direct translation from Russian often produces very interesting phrases …
Considering that it is my fourth visa I wanted to get a long term (like two or three years) visa, so I can travel to India whenever I feel like without going through the hassle of getting another visa. First off all, the nice man (the lack of women in Indian embassies is very visible) at the counter told me that my Canadian marriage certificate is not valid. Apparently for it to be valid it has to be certified by the Indian Embassy in Canada! I wonder if Canadian government knows … The High Commission of India in London did not have a problem with my marriage certificate. Since my marriage certificate is 'not valid', they can give me only the 6 months visa. Deciding that something is better than nothing, I agree.
Guess what? The Indian Embassy in Ukraine needs a clearance from the Indian embassy in Canada to issues a visa to a Canadian citizen applying for a visa in Ukraine. So, we are told to return in two weeks for visas.
On a positive note: they don’t keep your passport if you don’t want too. In Ukraine the police has a right to detain any person for up to 72 hours (3 days) if he/she fails to produce an identity document of the spot. The only recognizable identity document here is passport. So, having a passport can be essential.
The coming Friday I am going to the embassy for my visa. I hope I don’t
have to write a Part II to this story.
©Lidia Bhaskar, 2003