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EWR > DEL UA82 Arrival on e-Tourist Visa

EWR > DEL UA82 Arrival on e-Tourist Visa

Old Jun 21, 2015, 5:30 pm
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EWR > DEL UA82 Arrival on e-Tourist Visa

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to ask if anyone has used e-Tourist Visa to enter India? I know UA sometimes offers some grief when people are travelling to China without a visa physically in their passport when they are using the 72-hour transit rule and wanted to ask if anyone has any negative experiences trying to board using e-Tourist Visa?

My business colleagues travels on a PIO card and the gate agent on both of his last trips in EWR indicated he could not fly. In both circumstances when the second agent arrived some-15 minutes later everything was sorted out.

My other question ... upon arrival into DEL do you have to go to a special counter to go to or just the regular immigration counters? Online it references biometric data must be collected upon arrival and not sure if that means limited number of counters that can be used. I can just envision a line that is very long if only specific counters can be used.

I did several searches online and in flytertalk and was not able to find any details of the specific process once arriving into DEL.

Many thanks and safe travels.

Cheers
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Old Jun 21, 2015, 5:40 pm
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If you're talking about India's Visa on Arrival, I've done it successfully while entering at Mumbai. You still have to fill out lots of questions on the online form, about as many as used to be on the standard Visa app, but you don't have to send everything to the Indian Embassy any longer, which is great.

The counter for "on arrival" was empty other than a couple of other people who were using it, and it took about 15 minutes or less if I recall. It was clearly marked on where to go. This was back in February.
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Old Jun 21, 2015, 10:00 pm
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I haven't done gone through the visa on arrival process since I was traveling on business (required me to get a visa in advance) but when I was in DEL earlier this year there is a separate counter/area for visa on arrival travelers. As you come down the escalators into the immigration area there are signs that point you where to go.
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Old Jun 21, 2015, 10:21 pm
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The gate agents generally do a Visa/Passport check prior to boarding. Be sure to have your Tourist Visa On Arrival (TVOA) documents all printed out. Especially the email you'll get from them saying it has been granted. I had no problems with this when I used it in March.

India: There will a special counter with signs directing you there. Again, be sure to have a printout of the "granted" visa email. Also, be sure to have a printed copy of your flight itinerary showing your return leg, as well as a printed copy of any hotel reservations. Life is also easier if you actually arrive in the port of entry you put in your application. I was initially scheduled to arrive in BOM, but had to change tickets last minute and ended up going to TRV. Luckily I had a printout of my email correspondence with the TVOA helpdesk explaining the situation.

When I went through, the process was a bit clumsy with half the computer systems/fingerprint scanners in TRV not working.
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Old Jun 21, 2015, 10:44 pm
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The only reason I still use my regular visa is its still valid but when I was in India 6 weeks ago I was told that within a year, the ONLY option for Americans will be the electronic visa (same as they have done for years with Australia) Personally, I have a problem with that as I trust Australian computers, immigration, etc a lot more then I do India to get it right.
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Old Jun 22, 2015, 3:03 am
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Originally Posted by chinatraderjmr
The only reason I still use my regular visa is its still valid but when I was in India 6 weeks ago I was told that within a year, the ONLY option for Americans will be the electronic visa (same as they have done for years with Australia) Personally, I have a problem with that as I trust Australian computers, immigration, etc a lot more then I do India to get it right.
The e-visa will not be the only option for all Americans visiting India -- at least not for many years. But not using an evisa won't protect you much better -- if at all any better -- than if seeking a non-evisa visa or visa substitute from the Indian government.
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Old Jul 4, 2015, 10:13 am
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Many thanks to everyone for your replies.

LordHamster, based on your reply I decided to get a tourist visa in advance of my flight for my wife and I. I did not want to go to separate area on arrival to have the immigration officials to issue the visa.

Add to this we are flying UA to DEL and so in case of IRROPS I may end up going through a different gateway than what my e-Tourist Visa would have indicated. It was carving out time in my business schedule to head to the Indian visa processing centre that I was trying to avoid.

I was hoping it was like it is in when entering EZE or CMB where one just provides the printout of the visa details submitted online.

Although the visa centre indicated seven days for processing, I received it in two days (no special processing requested).

Cheers
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Old Jul 4, 2015, 10:04 pm
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Used TVOA on EWR-DEL earlier this year. As noted, bring your emailed receipts verifying that India has granted you a TVOA to show to the check-in agent. Once at DEL, keep walking beyond the lines for the regular visa entry wickets to the special TVOA wickets. They will process you there. Quite efficient and painless. Note, that at this wicket, they only put a small stamp on your passport noting your TVOA. It is not the typical full-page entry for a regular visa. At hotels and domestic flight check-ins, personnel are not always familiar with TVOA and go searching through your passport for a full-page visa. You may need to point them to the small stamp.
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Old Jul 5, 2015, 7:36 am
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What has this to do with UA82???
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Old Jul 5, 2015, 7:48 am
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Please follow this in the India forum.

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Old Jul 6, 2015, 2:56 am
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