YOUR India visa application experience with CKGS @USA
 

Updates tourist visa on arrival for India
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140820/nation-current-affairs/article/visa-arrival-applications-go-online

Applied Tuesday picked up passport today. Passport was actually ready Friday but was busy so got it today. Pretty impressed with CKGS in Houston.

I tried to use the Cox and Kings website for a visa as a US citizen. My CKGS regional office is San Francisco but I live in Los Angeles. The process was quite confusing when it came to how to pay, as their "order form" stipulates money order or cashier's check - however you seemingly can pay by credit card online. So, I paid by credit card for both the Visa fees and the Courier fees. Lo and behold, the site did not produce the courier receipt . Unfortunately, there's no way to retrieve it if you didn't get the original receipt - the re-print requires the airway bill number that was on the receipt which I didn't have. Of course, they also don't email the receipt like any e-commerce transaction from 1997 onward does.

So, I paid them about $210 and there's no way to send the stuff to them. I've emailed and called to no avail. Now, my only course of action is to chargeback on my credit card and cancel my tickets and lose $400 for the cancellation / change fee for 2 tickets.
After reading this whole thread, it seems to be more hassle than reward in trying to get this to work. I'll go perhaps next year or so when they roll out the visa on arrival program for US citizens. Many of my Indian friends whom I work with have told me that when it comes to bureaucracy India is a real hell hole, and now I can see why they say that.

For this year I'll go to a more organized country that doesn't hassle tourists with these bureaucratic processes, thinking of going to Thailand instead now since they give 30 day visas on entry.

This level of ineptitude by a company representing the Indian government is shameful and should be considered fraud.

Currently applying for an employment VISA through my company which handles everything.

Any steps I should take to avoid the risk of loosing my passport with this company?

I believe I can't use the 100$ expedited VISA stamp process since I had a third party do my paperwork (in part to avoid the huge hassle).

I agree that the process is insanely bureaucratic and is a barrier to business/tourism.

Conference visa now stalled
 

My experience with CKGS in San Francisco - trying to obtain a conference visa for a trip in mid Oct.
The visa application was delivered by FedEx on Friday 9/5/14. Receipt of the application was acknowledged on Monday 9/8/14. On Monday 9/15/14, a message was received that the application was held up due to lack of authorizations from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
I was told by CKGS online that it would take only 2-3 business days for CKGS to process the paperwork before turning it over to the Embassy for another 3-5 days of processing. It appears to have taken 5 business days for the CKGS review.
The conference organizers say that this is the first time they have heard of the requirement and are working on it.
Sigh...

Went today to drop off applications for a friend in houston for tourist visa. Three people jumped in line in front of me so had to wait an hour. It honestly feels like India people are so disrespectful and have no respect for organization.

If you or your parents were born in what is now or what once was pakistan, you won't get a visa.

India issues visas to Pakistanis.

slickvik, did someone at CKGS tell you that? It sounds very wrong to me.

I overheard someone else that was born in Bangladesh being rejected. He was told anyone born in what was then or what is now pakistan will not get a visa.

Well, that is weird. I know some Bangadeshis in NY and London who got Indian visas with issue dates either last month or this month.

Also one Indian lady was born in lahore before 1947 she was rejected and a Pakistani they was born in Ludhiana was rejected also.

That people get rejected for visas doesn't mean that everyone of the same nationality and/or birthplace gets denied for the visa. Many get denied but some still get visas.

It is not so, I have many buyers from Pakistan and Bangladesh who visit India very often. But yes, Pakistan citizen will get VISA city wise and they need to report to the local authority every day. So is for Indians traveling to Pakistan.

So out of my three visits to houston the first two were ridiculous and the second was okay. In general you show up for drop off or pick up and wait for 30-60 minutes while people crack jokes high five and walk around aimlessly. Finally they call you up and then things are taken care of pretty quickly. But the inefficiency is so frustrating. The turnaround time is 3 days for tourist visas I'll give them that. I would avoid applying for OCI and pio that seems like a total mess and not worth it especially with visa on arrival coming soon.