bobob

I have a valid tourist visa for India in my expired passport. The website for the Indian Consulate indicates I can travel with my new and old passport, and use the visa from the expired passport for entry into India. Has anyone done this and encountered any problems, or would I be better off getting the visa transferred to my new passport?

Although both the visa and passport are valid for 10 years, I will always be five years apart on the dates between the two. If I can get away with traveling with both passports, I would not have to transfer the visa to a new passport every five years.

Yaatri

Yes, it is entirely doable. I just did that in July 2007. Both, the expired passport with the visa and the new passport have to be from the same country and both have to be presented to the immigration officer.

The only two advantages of having your visa transferred to a new passport are, (i) You don;t have to carry two passports, (ii) If you lose your old passport, your visa is gone too.

You come across a third problem only when you run into a heavy handed screener when you walk through the security in a U.S. airport with two passports in your shirt pocket. Apparently, the assumption is that you have two passports so you must be up to no good. This is not a hearsay,it is based on my personal experience

bobob

Thanks for your response. I will travel with both passports. I think I can hold my own with overanxious TSA'ers.

SkyTeam777

Im in the exact same boat! How do you go about transferring the visa to the new passport? (just cut it out and paste it in the new one?!)

GUWonder

To transfer a visa from the old passport to the new passport, both passports must be submitted to the Indian consulate/embassy, preferably (but not necessarily) at the same place where it was issued if you still reside in the same area. Do not cut out and paste the visa, it is likely to cause problems.

Inside India, it's much more difficult to get the transfer done, but the Ministry of External Affairs can do it as well -- I would recommend avoiding this.

When the visa is transferred by employees or retained parties of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, they actually issue a new visa into the new passport. The new visa placed into the new passport retains your original visa's expiration date. That's how the transfer of visas works.

SkyTeam777

Thanks! If I dont want to go through all of that, I can just take both passports with me, right? Im assuming you cannot get a new entry at the port of entry.

ROW2Aisle

Yes you can travel with the old passport having the valid Indian visa along with your new passport and have to present both. My last three trips to India were done this way however I'm thinking of transfering the visa to my new passport because my old passport is the 48 page variety with additional sets of extension pages (24 pages each extension) added and it is bulky. Some of the immigration offices spend additional time scrutinizing the various entry stamps on the old fat passport.

To transfer a visa you use the same form as the one used to get a new visa however the transfer fee is small. You don't indicate where you live but here is the application from the SFO area consulate office. I think you'll need to use the form from the office that has the jurisdiction for the area you reside in or send the application to.

You'll note in the application form that it tells you that you can travel with the valid visa on the old form along with your new passport.

GUWonder

As said above, yes -- as long as the cancellation of your previous passport and/or your previous passport's still valid visa has not been defaced, that should pose no problem. If there is any issue, it would be with the airline agent, not with the Indian government, and then I would just tell the agent to look up on TIMATIC or something like that which notes that a valid visa in an old passport for the same person is allowed as long as that visa is not yet expired or otherwise cancelled.

jahason

ONLY if you have a multiple entry Indian visa. Single entry visas on an expired passport will not work. I am telling you this from experience but check with Indian Embassy for latest information. If yuo have a single entry visa tell them so otherwise they will give yuo false advice (as they gave me).

oliver2002

On a serious note, Indian Immigration has no problem sending you back when your visa is not valid. No amount of discussion with the supervisor will do. I had a german colleague sent back to BKK from DEL because he had an expired 5-yr multiple entry visa in his passport. No pleading or discussing helped. He and TG had not noticed that the visa had expired.

GUWonder

I've seen a few rejections happen at DEL. Some tears of a family being sent back is what I saw last week again. I don't want to think about how much money they lost on hotel rooms that were likely to be too late for cancellation.

To avoid being turned back on arrival would generally require some serious political intervention -- not likely.

SkyTeam777

Am sending my passport away for a tourist visa, let's hope it arrives in time! I do have a couple of weeks to wait...

BulletHead

if you dont want to lose the old passport, staple the two together. ive done this previously for the same reason and it works perfect.

Jamoldo

Or paperclip the back cover of the new passport to the front cover of the old one.

Honestly, why go through all of this hassle. Go to your local consulate/embassy, fill out the transfer visa to a new passport form, pay 25 bucks and you'll get the visa in new your passport by the end of the day. End of story. Or if you don't have time/energy, just get an agency to do it.

It's just not worth the hassle/problems if you ask me, so I went to the embassy in DC on a free day (being based in Baltimore helps) and did the above in 2004.

SkyTeam777

Not here yet! It has taken 3 weeks and it seems to be lost in the mail. Does the embassy take more than the 5-10 business days they say on their web site? or should I be really concerned why it's missing? Looks like I'll have to cancel my trip and take a big $$$ hit thanks to this. Couldnt send passport sooner to them because I was traveling