Using a Tourist Visa for a Quick trip into India that is a dual purpose trip
 

Ok, I have tried to search and I am not too sure of the answer to this question, but am hoping you all can help out with this quandry/question.

Just found out that i will need to be going to India in a little over two weeks. I have a valid 10 year multi-entry Tourist visa (with close to 9.5 years left on it) in my recently cancelled passport (was comming close to the 6 month date). It has been over 3 months since i was there last. So i shouldn't have an issue with the return in 60 days thing. Now I know i can use the two passports to enter india, but here is where things get a little questionable.

The reason i am going to India is to meet with some of my clients (internal to my company, US based but with an office in India). We are going to do some meet and greets as well as some other company related stuff. Basically this is going to be for about a day and a half. Then we will have about a day or two for tourist things. Thus a mixed purpose trip.

From what it appears I "should" get a business visa for this trip. However, given the dates that i need to be there, getting the proper visa is not going to happen. First of all, i do not have my birth certificate, and getting a copy from california is not exactly quick (1 to 2 weeks if i am lucky). So there is no way that i can see to have the proper visa in hand in time.

Therefore, I am thinking of just going on the trip and using the tourist visa to enter. However, I am wondering if going to India for all of about 4 days will cause a problem at immigration either inbound or outbound. I figure that is the only place where the "purpose" of the trip would be questioned. Has anyone done a quick in and out trip to india on a tourist visa before?

I am currious to see what you all have to say.

Thanks

I have done hundreds of visits to India of the 1-day to 3-days duration on tourist visas for DEL alone. Even excluding the factor of which addresses I've been putting down on the forms (which hasn't resulted in any questioning except by the curious who may have remembered me and/or more probably recognize the non-hotel addresses I was using), they likely wouldn't have questioned me for anything since passport control usually doesn't question the likes of US citizens coming in on visas unless the form was not completed properly or a proper visa wasn't in the passport presented.

Departure passport control is almost certainly not going to make a fuss over your stay since they are far busier hassling Indian citizens and don't spend much or any time doing anything but trying to figure out where you entry stamp is so they can place the departure stamp next to it. They usually don't even say anything, presuming they don't have an issue finding your latest entry stamp. Much like arrival passport control, departure passport control rarely says much of anything either to foreign nationals.

HYD and BLR may be a bit more on the ball in terms of looking for people attempting to use a tourist visa to attend to work, but DEL and BOM passport control are not anywhere near as likely to do much of anything other than key in what needs to be keyed in and stamp what needs to be stamped.

"Socializing", like other touristy activities, is fine on a tourist visa.

Thanks for the reply. I am going to try this through HYD, hoping they aren't too on the ball there.

Well as long as you have some touristy things in mind to do there and say you are there for socializing (if even asked), the odds of having a problem at HYD with passport control are pretty darn slim to non-existent.

I'm sure there's still plenty to see there that was left by this late person:

http://helloji.wordpress.com/2008/04...me-wealthiest/

As long as you're not earning money / being paid in india you should be fine

Generally, dates won't cause any problems. People have even done MRs to various Indian airports. See A_Lee's contributions in this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...rtpost334.html

Would not worry about it.

If asked, say "visiting friends" or tourism. The latter is most certainly not a lie. Relax.

If you are going to have a paper trail of your work in India then get a business visa just to be on the safe side of Indian bureaucracy otherwise just tell them that you are visiting Hyderabad to learn about the Nizam, blah blah blah!

I asked a similar question a few months ago and got similar replies. Technically, you may be required to get a business visa, but the chances of Indian officials catching you are practically zero, unless by a stroke of some bad luck you happen to be in the vicinity of some suspects, there is a terrorist incident during the time of your stay in India in the cities you plan to visit, and there is a paper trail of your activities,. or you yourself use your meetings with your business colleagues as an alibi.

you should be fine....i have a number of clients who come here for a little bit of work combined with vacation plans....they use the tourist visa....

If this were an issue there would have been about 30 times I'd have been denied entry or something like that. Just do not say "I'm here to work on a job I'm being paid for, but I may take in the sights of Hyderabad if I have time". That would not be cool. One of my stupider travelling companions did just about that a couple of years ago when we were going to BOM together to see a client and then visit temples. The agent looked at him oddly, but asked no question and stamped him in anyway.

Tourist vs Business
 

My experience with several countries (Incluuding China and India) is that they perfectily understand what the visitors do. Unless you have long term business, they are not going to "enforce" the business visa criterian and a visitor/tourist visa is OK. This means that you won't engage in a multi-million dollar deal that would be all over the news paper the next day!
I recently was in China on a visitor visa although my purpose was business. The visa mediator and the busines host encouraged me to get a visitor visa.

i agree....as long as you are not here making headlines, you should be ok....