Flying to India next week... don't have a visa yet
Passport is at the consulate. I may or may not receive the visa in time for my flight next week. Looking for advice or creative ideas on what to do. Or just hearing your stories if you've been through a similar situation. I'm flying with ANA. The change fee is $300 *each time* I change the ticket, plus fare difference. I need to travel ASAP. Ideally, I'd like to wait for my passport to arrive and then travel the next day, but that seems impossible without changing the ticket twice (minimum $600). Arrgh!
When did you take it to the consulate, and which consulate? You should be able to pay an expedite fee to have it asap. If you ordered it through travisa, I believe you can log in and select a rush to get it returned more quickly.
India also has a visa on arrival for some nationalities. You may want to check on that if you qualify
Doesn't work for most foreigners visiting India -- certainly not an option for most persons flying from the US to India even connecting via NRT on ANA.
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Flying to India next week... don't have a visa yet
If not mistaken Japanese citizens have voa in India. Thought if even a slight chance that op is Japanese given ANA flight, then it would be an option for urgent travel. Obviously passport would still need to be picked up.
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Would offering to grease an embassy official abroad, via telephone, really be all that effective?
Without knowing the OP's nationality and where exactly he and his passport are currently located, it's hard to say whether this is a crisis yet. It sounds like some sort of emergency travel...if you're Japanese and in Tokyo, have you physically spoken to anyone at the consulate? Can you?
In the U.S., I thought the Indian tourist visa process through Travisa worked quite well. According to the online status (which was updated frequently), my passport was only in the Indian consulate in Houston for one day. Travisa had it turned around quickly both coming and going as well...I think the passport was out of my possession for a week, max, and I paid for "normal" processing. They handily beat their posted SLA's on the web, although clearly you can't count on that in an emergency situation.
Yes, even for business and entry visas, travisa usually has a turnaround of about a week. You could also go to the consulate and retrieve it if they already have it (usually they only have it for 2-3 days).
Thank you for your advice, I really appreciate it!
It's the San Francisco Travisa/consulate. For American passports, yes, you can get it same day at the Travisa office, and the consulate has a quick turnaround if you send by mail. For European passports (like mine), they claim to have a minimum 1-2 week processing time (which I'm hoping is not true).
Also, they seem to be really backed up for Christmas. It took Travisa EIGHT DAYS from the time the visa application arrived in the mail to when they opened up the envelope (I can see the timestamps). And for two entire days, their phone lines were down, only on the third day could I reach them after close to 1 hour waiting on the phone.
I have another valid passport (also European) in case that matters. No VOA is possible though, as far as I know.
I would be happy to pay several hundred dollars at this point just to ensure I can get the visa in time, but there is NO WAY to expedite the process I've been told.
Might try to contact the consulate today and see if there's anything that can be done.
