Passport validity while travelling to India?
 

i have a 10 year multiple entry visa. i plan to travel to india next month and return in july. my passport expires at th end of august - six weeks after i return from india. will there be any problems when i get to india?

i know that the rule is that the passport has to be valid at least for 6 months while applying for a visa - does that rule apply to every visit to india?

thanks

If you are leaving from the US, don't even think they will let you on the plane unless you have 6+ months left on your passport. I have seen TA deny people for less than the usuall 6 months.

India requires a valid visa and valid passport for the duration of the stay:

http://www.delta.com/planning_reserv...t_information/

You may or may not have issues -- more so with check-in agents when departing for India than with immigration on arrival into India.

I've had no issue with immigration at DEL on arrival in such situations. I've entered the country with a passport that was expiring one day after my arrival into DEL and two days after my scheduled departure.

Looks like it's the luck of the draw when it comes to entering India with a passport that's soon to expire. If I were you, just to be safe, I'd send away for a new passport and pay the fee to expedite processing.

More info here: http://travel.state.gov/passport/get...renew_833.html

But remember, the visa can stay in the invalidated passport. Just apply for a new passport and carry both passports.

I travel to India 8-10 times a year. While the comments about a visa in an expired passport and your passport having less than six months left are correct, it can still be a problem. Having dealt with both issues myself, and with associates that were traveling with me, there can be problems. As a general rule when dealing with any Indian government official, I don't want them to have any reason to check my information more than once. I have spent too much time at immigration as the official checks with multiple supervisors. My recommendation would be to not let your passport get within the six month period and to get a new visa for a new passport.

You will probably want to get the visa transferred from your old passport if do you get a new passport (there are stories of people not being boarded with a valid visa in an expired passport along side a new passport). You dont need to get a new visa, but it is advisable to get your existing one transferred into you new passport. By the way, to do this, you have to apply to the same Indian consulate as where you got the visa in the first place (I learned this the hard way and my passport had to be carried back to the US from Singapore for the transfer to happen).

Thanks for this advice! I just relayed it to a colleage who has this issue with a 5-year visa in her expired passport. The India Consulate still requires a Letter of Invitation, more passport-sized photos and similar forms to fill out (gotta love bureaucrats everywhere) but she says it will be more cost-effective to get the old one transferred than to get a new one in the new passport.

A 10 year multiple entry visa can be in an expired passport. I have entered India many times with my visa on an expired passport. But I think only a 10 year visa in an expired passport can be used for entry. I am not sure, but I think your passport must be valid for six months beyond the date of entry. Some interpret that as six months beyond your stay (meaning the last day of your stay, i.e., the date of departure from India). When you enter India, you might not have any problem on account of your passport nearing expiry as long as your passport is valid for six months plus a few weeks beyond the date of entry.

Your visa can be in the old passport as long as it is valid for your stay. Its your passport's validity that gets enforced.

hserus is right - the pp needs to be valid, visa can stay in the old pp. however, please be prepared for some random questions and quizzical looks at your pp at the immigration counter, though they'll probably figure it out themselves in the end (they usually do).

Out of a dozen entry attempts with my visa in an expired passport, not once did the immigration officer gave any "quizzical" looks.

I believe it is possible with any multiple entry visas. I don't plan on paying the fee to transfer my OCI visa when my current passport expires (or every time my passport expires).

Passport validity issues
 

I plan to visit India in May, and return in June. My passport expires in November, so it will have more than 6 months validity when I enter India, and less than six months validity when I leave. Will this be an issue?

Also, I have an OCI card, and I was under the impression that the associated U-visa does not get transferred from an old passport to the new one. Am I incorrect in this?