What is a reference letter ? What should be in it ?

Curious how they will implement it. Right now for international departures you need airline issued boarding passes on airline stock which are stamped by security and immigration. If you use the automated gate to depart the immigratioon stamp no longer is applied to your passport and boarding pass. This will surely lead to confusion if some boarding passes are stamped and some not?

This was my question to the immigration officer as well. He said all airlines & security personnel have been briefed that there will be some boarding passes with no stamps so hopefully there should be no confusion.

I believe this whole thing is for entry into the country only. Not for exiting.

"They" don't want anyone leaving the country easily (unless you're an actual criminal, then you get an advance tip off so you can fell to London or Barbados or Dubai or wherever).

E-gates for departure are already operational in DEL.

Forgot to respond in a timely manner to the email requesting more documents and my application has now been denied. Will reapply.

For departure too? That's excellent!

But I can swear the notification from the Home Ministry said this was for entry only.

Of course it's entirely possible i hallucinated.... It's my speciality.

My understanding is that a reference letter is a written signed statement by a relative who lives in India. sehgalanuj has provided a sample template in this thread.

The way that the BOI email explained it to me, it could be a family member, friend or even business associate. It just needs to be someone in India, with an address proof of themselves, confirming that they know you. Here is the reference letter sample that I used.

I just got the approval email.. The reference letter is key along with clear copies of your documents. Thank you all for your guidance!

Quick question: I fly out of MAA on Saturday night. Is it possible to complete biometrics at Chennai international airport? Has anybody done this?

Great news! when did you submit your reference letter? Trying to understand timelines. Thanks

It took about a week to receive approval after submitting all documents including the reference letter.

I was also told the status on the portal will continue to show pending until a month after submitting biometrics upon departure.

There are 4 e-gates already operational at DEL. I couldn't use it on my way out since I had to get my biometrics done.

Used the e-gates in DEL on my return last night.

The gates are towards the end of the hall, just before the e-visa counters. There are 4 gates but they were completely empty. A number of personnel were at hand to help people using the empty e-gates.

When I stepped up I had 3 people rush over to me to ask if I needed any help. I told them I would like to try this on my own & would let them know if I had any problems. The first step was to scan my boarding pass which was followed by a passport scan. This opened the first door & allowed me to step in. Next was the fingerprint scan which opened the second door. The whole process was very smooth & took 15 seconds.

Pretty happy with the way it worked. I'm going to enroll the rest of my family now. Its strange that they are not allowing registrations for those under 12 & over 70. This means I can't enroll my kids yet or my father.

I thought the website said minors can't register on their own? so a parent can register their child from parents online account? so as long as Childs registration initiated and linked with the parents passport + online account, it might work?