I'm planning to visit Delhi for the first time in years to see a friend - arriving in and leaving on Emirates.

It will be less than 72 hours.

I'm averse to spending such a ridiculous amount of money (Ł100) for a tourist visa. Could I utilise the Transit Visa (max 72 hours) to minimise this cost?

I am transitting in Delhi from Dubai to London.... Just in and out on Emirates. I cannot see anything written to prevent it. But I appreciate this is against the stated point (but hell, how many people need 72 hours to transit unless they are looking for a stopover in India?).

Bad idea people? Or allowable?

so you're going from UAE to India back to UAE which is not a transit.

you need to be going to a third country.

Technically yes

Since you are technically going DXB-DEL-DXB, it might be hard for you to convince immigration officers that you are just transiting through DEL. If I were you, I'd play safe and get the tourist visa.

i agree....while some officers might let it slide, its not a risk i would take....

Yep agreed and thank you all. It's not worth testing Indian bureaucrats - they hold all the aces!

Such a shame that such a short stay will cost such an extortionate amount of money.

Just as bad as Indian citizens who have to pay Ł52 for a DATV simply to change planes airside at Heathrow.

Slightly inevitable response, chalk and cheese and incomparable. Indian Passport Holders get fleeced coming to / via the UK, but no-one gets more fleeced that UK passport holders (report today that no-one pays higher airport taxes in the world apart from the good citizens of Chad).

It is an extortionate amount of money to visit anywhere for the weekend especially combined with the costs of getting the visa. Just to be clear what I missed is that in January the price rose from Ł33 to Ł92 - which is what blew me away. For a weekend it adds too much - I won't be going. Multiply it across a family, and I can see a big segment of India's tourism market being affected.

I don't agree with UK Visa rules, but neither do I agree with petty reciprocity, especially when it can impact your own citizens to such a degree this visa ruling may have.

Must be a large family.

Don't get me wrong, I think most visas are made more expensive and complex than they need to be, but Brits hardly have the moral high ground to complain about it.

Ha!

But think about the mass market tourism that is not flyertalk - everything from Backpackers to Ł700 holidays to Goa - ok, probably not our mutual cup of tea, but a big chunk of India's tourism industry will be affected by this. There is only so much Luxury Tourism... I've seen in Indonesia how short sightedness visa rules can massively impact local communities. Just need to visit Lake Toba which was once the 3rd most visited tourist destination in the country - destroyed by introducing a 30 day US$25 visa rule for most of the world (when it was previously a free 90 day visa). Gone went the 'banana pancake circuit' of backpackers who travelled from Bangkok - Australia overland to Bali. And on the back of backpackers came the richer tourists. There is some horrendous poverty in parts of Sumatra now as the tourism industry as dried up.

Anyway - as a 'Brit' I think I can take the moral high ground on this - as long as i'm not hypocritical in applying it. As they say 'Travel is the only thing you spend money on that makes you richer' - I want more Brits to visit India for months on end like I did when I was 18, similarly, I want Indians to come and spend their new found wealth in the shops of London without our immigration officers making them feel like potential refugees...