Originally Posted by
troyb
Finally someone who is in the same situation. You are right, no one knows what is going on and it is incredibly difficult to get any reliable information on this.
Yes - I had been meaning to post a question here (which is why I had glanced at the India forum) and saw yours!
Originally Posted by
troyb
From the research our team has done, it seems that the requirements for an Employment Visa are a bit more stringent than a Business Visa (which caused this whole problem). At a minimum, it looks like they need a copy of your employment contract, salary details, etc. What's confusing is who this needs to come from. For example, I am employed by a US firm directly who is doing consulting work on behalf of a US client, at their Indian subsidiary, in conjunction with our India firm.
The way I read the requirements, the question is what is considered "doing work for an Indian company" - directly or indirectly?
We're still trying to work through this. I'm employed (if all things are equal) by an Australian firm, but live and work in Singapore, andI'm supporting a project in India for the next 12 months on a part time basis (2 weeks on/2 weeks off type thing). I have no relationship with our Indian operations except that there's an internal moneyshuffle to pay for my time. This is the same for every person in my team...
Our HR in India is unsure but are still talking to our advisors (PWC) to try and find out more - if I hear anything I'll post it here. It seems that it will be a letter from the Indian company which explains the project, how you're being funded, why you need to be there, etc.... rather than local employment.
Originally Posted by
troyb
I was initially information about this by the ITC in Vizag, however I have asked at the ITC Maratha (Mumbai), ITC Maurya (Delhi), and Park Hyatt Goa and none of them knew about this. I would think at least the ITC's in Mumbai and Delhi would be aware of this issue.
Very interesting. The staff at the Leela were unaware of the change, but they are asking around.
Originally Posted by jpatokal
At the risk of stating the obvious... why not use a tourist visa? They're easily obtained, allow multiple entries and are valid 6 months, and you can get them issued back to back without anybody blinking an eye. Yes, you're not allowed to "work" on a tourist visa... but if you're getting paid at home by the home office, not by an Indian company in India, then you aren't really working in India now are you?
As a data point, I spent over a year (off and on) working... err... attending a project in India on an unholy mix of tourist and business visas, traveling back and forth every month or so, and Immigration never even batted an eyelid.
While I doubt immigration cares (several arrivals over the weekend had no comments made on their Business Visas by immigration - although one official commented that the person came to India regularly), it's not something that I'm willing to risk, nor my major MNC employer is willing to risk. The bad publicity and potential backlash to the company and me personally is not something that either want. We want to do the right thing - we just need to know what it is.
The other issue is that I'd be going through pages and pages in my passport very quickly
.