Old+New passport for 5yr visa
 

1. US citizen, I obtained a 5yr multi-entry e-visa in Jan 2023 which was stamped into my passport upon arrival in BOM in Feb 2023.

2. I renewed my passport in Aug 2023.

3. Upon arrival into BOM in Oct 2023, had to present both passports.

4. Next trip, arrived into BOM in Nov 2023 with both passports, asked Immigration Officer if he could transfer the stamped visa to the new passport so that I need not carry the old passport every time. He did so, stamping the visa into the new passport and keeping both the visa number and expiration date the same as the visa stamped on the old passport.

5. Arrived into BOM in Oct 2024 and Immig demanded old passport. After some polite discussion (I speak Marathi), he agreed to admit me this time, but warned me to carry my old passport in future. I asked what was the point of transfering the visa to the new passport if old passport needs to be presented. He had no answer.


Their logic eludes me, but as I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer would appreciate your insight as to the reasoning of stamping the visa into the new passport.

Unfortunately you are at the mercy of the immigration officer's discretion when it comes to things like this. Some will be old school or difficult & ask for the original visa in the old passport, while others will be easy going or simply not care & accept the one in the new passport. In situations like these I prefer to not take a chance. My advice would be to carry the old passport.

The visa is usually tied to the passport number, so you have to bring along the expired passport. The TIMATIC rules are also very clear on that:

https://www.emirates.com/de/english/...destination=in

Also noteworthy is that the US has a similar requirement... you have to carry the expired passport that has the valid visa with you ;)

I'm in much the same boat, except for the Marathi! Though in my case the officer transferred the visa without any prompting, saying it would save me carrying two passports. I appreciated his effort, but I still present both old and new documents on arrival.

I think the logic is that deep in the system your visa is indelibly tied to your old passport, so swiping your new passport doesn't bring your visa to the screen. Entering the visa number shown in the new travel document should work, but some officers might not be happy with that work-around - especially if it is one not expressly supported by their regulations.

At the end of the day, excluding on a technicality, a visitor who clearly has an entry visa might be unlikely - but I'd prefer to avoid anxious, unpleasant and time consuming interactions on arrival.

However, I've ignored the insistence (at Amritsar) that I should also carry the original acknowledgement of my successful e-visa application beyond the first visit, when the visa was stamped into my passport..

While you are absolutely right on this point, the question then arises what, if anything, the first immigration officer did when "transferring" the visa to the new passport. It seems that he essentially he just hand copied the same details on to the new passport, but in the system, it means nothing, and the valid visa is still only the old one in the old passport. So why on earth did he even bother to do this...?

In the US case for instance, yes, you have to carry the old passport along, but that is also because there is no valid visa in the new passport. If there was one, you wouldn't need the old passport.

Although admittedly a dull knife, I was sharp enough to grasp that I need to carry both passports in future, but thanks for reminding me :)

Perhaps my wordiness obscured the intent of my post: what was the logic of stamping the new passport?

I was hoping to discover from y'all some new reasoning beyond the possibilities I had already deduced: A) the visa should not have been moved to the new passport because the IT system has irrevocably married the visa to the (old) passport number; or, B) the IT system allows the visa to be re-assigned to the new passport number but the Immig officer neglected to make the change; or, C) the Immig officer made the change but the IT system is/was buggy.

Thanks again for the replies.

The logic of having the visa stamped in your new passport is that immigration officers can still look up your visa if you travel with only the current passport, even though scanning the passport alone may not bring the visa to the screen. That was pretty clearly the intention of the helpful (DEL) officer who transferred the visa to my new passport with the words "now you only need to carry this passport".

However, some of his colleagues may not be immediately willing to look up the visa information unsupported by the passport number because they are are uneasy about non-standard procedures or because regulations require the visa and passport to match unalterable data held in the system, or data that is "read only" for front-line officers.

Fortunately check-in agents at origin airports simply see the visa and send you to the gate, untroubled by any system links to passport numbers. Once landed in India with a valid visa stamped in a passport I'd hope common sense would eventually take over, even if that involved the immigration officer escalating the case to the shift's duty manager. But to avoid any chance of that happening, I'm happy to suffer the inconvenience of carrying the old document - as an insurance against delay and confrontation :D