xobile

As some of you know, much of the traffic between North America/Europe and South Asia runs through Doha, Dubai, or Abu Dhabi (Qatar Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways). There are also large local Indian populations in those nations who often travel back to their home country. Both of these factors might suggest that these locations may make good options for an Indian preclearance facility, where passengers would clear Indian customs while physically inside Qatar/UAE, and when landing in India would be treated as domestic passengers and can just hop off the plane and go.

The only airport preclearance operations in the world that I am aware of are the US facilities in Canada/Caribbean/Ireland/Abu Dhabi. Even with the US's concerns of agriculture, drugs, smuggling, etc (India would have a heavy focus on gold smuggling), they manage to mostly make it work. This would help relieve pressure at immigration at Indian airports, some of which get slammed with flights and 1000 passengers from all three places at the same time. Obviously there are legal, operational, and financial considerations at play in all this, and Qatar/Emirates/Etihad (as well as the Indian carriers servicing those airports) might not be thrilled by the lengthier layovers/arrival times at the airport that would now be required. But if a non-US preclearance facility made sense anywhere in the world, I believe it would be Indian facilities at the hubs of the ME3

aidy

There is also preclearance for UK/France on the channel tunnel and ferry crossings too