This post is being written from gate A28 at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in Texas. And while it is true that only two days ago I traveled from Bucharest to Florida, a state which is a significant distance away from Texas, I had no choice but to head back to the airport again today.
The reason?
I had to travel to Houston in order to get an Indian visa for my upcoming trip to India, a trip which happens to start in only eight days from now.
Why did I have to travel all the way to Houston for my Indian visa?
Here’s the story…
Foolishly, over the past few months, I had assumed that the Indian Embassy in Bucharest, Romania would gladly issue me the standard 6-month multiple entry tourist visa that US citizens are able to obtain. However, when I finally went to the Embassy in Bucharest a mere three weeks ago, I was informed that I could only obtain a 3-month single entry visa. And because the validity of Indian visas begin the day your visa is issued (not the day you arrive in India), a 3-month visa would not have been sufficient for my trip.
Okay, no problem. After some quick research, I figured out that all I needed to do was apply for my Indian visa via overnight mail once I arrived back in the US. Too easy…except for the fact that, last week, after I randomly decided to call the visa outsourcing company that handles Indian visas in the US, I discovered that the visa processing time for applications sent via mail is 7-9 business days. And I was only going to be in Florida for 6 business days.
There just wasn’t enough time for me to get a visa…UNLESS…I dropped off my application in person. By dropping off the application in person, the processing time is reduced to only 1-3 business days.
While that also seems easy enough to do, the problem was that the only place I could apply in person was Houston, Texas because the Indian Consulate in Houston has jurisdiction over Florida, which is the state where I maintain an address.
And there you go. Two days after flying back from Europe, I woke up at 3:30am, took a 6:00am flight from Florida to Houston, arrived at 7:50am, jumped into a Super Shuttle van for the one hour ride to the visa office, waited an hour for my appointment, walked inside the office, handed over my paperwork, paid the fee and less than one minute after arriving, walked back out of the office, having officially applied for my visa. One more hour of waiting later and I was once again in a Super Shuttle van on my way back to Houston’s Bush International Airport where I boarded my flight to Dallas.
Now I’m in Dallas with a two four hour layover (my flight has been delayed) before catching a flight back to Florida where I shall arrive at 10:45pm.
So, let me break down the consequences of waiting until the last minute to apply for my Indian visa. The visa fee itself was $153 USD (in the end I opted for a 5-year visa instead of the 6-month visa) plus a $13 processing fee and a $24 charge to send my passport back to me using overnight mail. Add on my return flight from Florida to Houston and I paid a total of $553 USD. Tack on the $54 I paid for the round-trip Super Shuttle van service and I ended up paying $607 USD to get an Indian visa that should have cost me $153 bucks.
And interestingly enough, this visa screw up of mine occurred almost two exact years after I screwed up my Syrian visa. That was when I had assumed there was a Syrian Consulate in New York City when such a Consulate didn’t actually exist!
The lessons learned from these visa screw ups of mine?
- Research – It’s a very simple concept, I know, but if you don’t take the time to find out the visa rules, find out where you can apply, make phone calls, send emails and learn all of the details so that you are aware of your options, you could be in trouble (this applies to any country you may be visiting!).
- Don’t wait until the last minute – Absurdly simple once again, but it’s worth mentioning as you certainly don’t want to end up running around (or flying around like me) one week before your trip, especially when you already have your flights booked and can’t change your plans.
Sounds silly that I’m even mentioning these two lessons, right? However, keep in mind that even after thirteen years of travel and applying for dozens and dozens of visas, I apparently still have some things to learn myself. So hopefully this post will help us all avoid committing any visa screw ups in the future.
And here’s some resources to help you find out the visa requirements for every country in the world:
US citizens: www.travel.state.gov
UK citizens: www.fco.gov.uk
Canadian citizens: Wikipedia Visa page
Australian citizens: www.smartraveller.gov.au
New Zealand citizens: Wikipedia Visa page
All others nationalities: www.visahq.com
Any visa screw up stories to share? Or do you have any questions about obtaining visas?
Back in 1999, I left home for a 3 month trip to Asia that has still yet to end.
Visas have to be the biggest pain in the #@% ever. They can be too confusing and too convoluted. Glad you got what you needed though even if it did cost almost 4x what it should have.
A 5 year visa for India? That’s awesome! Wish I could snag a 5 year visa for Thailand.
You can stay in Thailand as long as you want. Simply enroll in a certified school and they’ll get you a student visa. The schools are about $800 a year, and usually have two 2-hour long classes each week. You have to show up for at least 70% of classes and check in with immigration every 3 months. You can study any subject for up to 5 years (eg. Thai language I), then, if you want to stay longer, just change subjects!
Wow .. I never thought this kind of way of getting the Student Visa. Just one question I would like to ask You Earl… Is the Thai language certification course would be helpful for us? Have you tried such way…thanks..
Hey Adrian – I’ve never used that method for staying long-term in Thailand but it does seem like a good option. Others manage to stay long-term by crossing borders, applying for 3-month visas and working the system a bit but taking classes would make life a lot easier!
@I’m Also Earl – Thanks for sharing that info and I’m sure some people will find it quite useful!
Great info! I’ll be tucking that one away for use later. Thanks again!
Hey Adam – Yeah, the 5 year visa is a good option…won’t have to worry about this visa stuff for a while now!
Got a visa scare too once. Flying from Bali to Australia and assumed (as it is in Bali with visa on arrival) and having a passport from a country which often means getting a visa without applying. Realized the night before that an online application should have been days earlier because the visa could take some days in worst case. Therefore very relieved when the acceptance of the application came quite fast to my inbox the same night xD
Wow, I hope your trip to India goes smoother than the prep for it.
VISA ISSUES ARRRRGGHHHHHHHH!!! I feel your pain. It is never simple, is it? Took me almost a year to get a year visa for France! However, the key is persistence (and well yes, research and not procrastinating help, too!). Good luck on our travels and I hope you can avoid visa issues in the future
Just pinning these lessons to obtaining a visa is somewhat short sighted. These two lessons are “LIFE LESSONS”, and can be applied to everything we do.
This is a perfect example of: Murphy’s Law; Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Also, your assuming and waiting till the last minute and having it cost more is what happens to those in the fast lane. You know as well as I do that slow travel is the best and cheapest. If something takes a little longer, no problem. Life was much simpler back when you were just traveling. Now you’ve got a blog and you are doing tours and who knows what all. Your life is becoming more complicated. But, that’s OK. Go for it! If you sit back and try never to make mistakes, you never accomplish anything. At least in this case, you found a work-around that didn’t completely hold you up or empty your bank account.
Earl, you know that I’m not trying to be a jerk and a know-it-all as I’ve got plenty of these stories from my own life on the road! And sometimes I think I’ll never learn. lol
Hey Steve – Don’t worry, there’s a few lessons out there that I have trouble learning as well no matter how many mistakes I make!
Good advice! I had a few run-ins myself (almost missing a flight because my watch was on the wrong time zone, taking a bus into the wrong city, etc.) because I’d get lazy the longer I traveled. It’s much easier to coast into comfort “I move around a lot & have to get many visas” mode, and then you lose track of the basics.
Hope that 5 year visa comes through with a cookie after a whopping $153. And that visa is one I hope to acquire myself one day.
Happy America-ing, Earl.
Hey Bessie – A few run-ins, huh? At least you have Kyle as backup to make sure you don’t get too lazy
See you in India one day!
Man, wish I had seen this post earlier. With your delayed flight and all I would have driven to the airport, bought you some coffee and racked your brain for a little while. I just stumbled on your site on Monday and have spend every free minute reading your previous blogs. I’m quite interested in this sort of lifestyle myself and am looking at starting out next year. Maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to be able to ask you questions in the future. Safe travels back to Fl!
Hey Brian – It would have been great to meet up! I’m sure it won’t be the last time I mess up a visa and randomly find myself at a Texas airport as a result
And welcome to the site, it’s great to have you as a reader!
You posted this at just the right moment for me to stop feeling so annoyed at my last minute Maine to Iowa trip for horse racing:) I hope you have a blast in India!
Haha, yes, I know how this is. It’s almost too easy to get nonchalant about these things after traveling for a long time. I’ve been there.
Hey Wade – Yes it is too easy to get a little too relaxed and stop paying attention to such important items as visa rules. Oh well, it usually works out in the end and I did get my (expensive) visa a couple of days later. Hope you’re well!
Bummer Earl! Least you got it done! I think visa stuff-ups are unavoidable since the rules change wherever you go! I stressed about getting my Chinese visa, but after climbing a volcano in Lombok, almost not making my flight to KL then going straight to the visa center, it was pretty simple. Then I slept for 5 days
Have fun in India!
Hey Sarah – The sleeping for 5 days part sounds quite appealing to me right now. My relaxing trip home has been much more hectic than planned!
I’m going to have fun getting a visa for India since we won’t be back in the States. And I can’t believe you left my book out your list of places for visa information. So offended!
Hey Talon – Wait, I thought you were going to tell me when the book was available! I had no idea it was ready!
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Don’t be too hard on yourself Earl. This isn’t entirely your fault and there is some silver lining to it all. It’s not your fault that the Indian visa system is so convoluted, making you travel just to apply for the visa let alone get it. As for the silver lining, I think you did yourself a big favor by applying and getting the 5 year visa. You saved yourself countless hours of trips to the visa office to apply for 3 month visas. If you wanted to you could even base yourself out of India for quite a while. The monetary savings over the course of five years would far out way the inconvenience you’ve had to injure in order to get the visa in the first place.
Hey Matthew – That was my line of thinking as well…with the 5-year visa, all of the time/money spent becomes well worth it in the end. I’ll be sure to make the most out of this visa after this ordeal!
Unless 100% certain it is always best to give yourself plenty of time. I’ve also found myself with unwanted layovers whilst waiting for paperwork to clear. When in the US, you can get a lot of help with the Indian visa from Travisa.
Hey Addison – Not only can you get help from Travisa, you pretty much need to use them in order to get a visa now!
Those Indian visas are tricky! What’s posted online isn’t always all that accurate…sigh. I messed mine up and had to redo the whole thing over mere weeks before flying out, yikes!
Well Earl, you had some of us on the edge of our seats .It was a lot simpler 30 or forty years ago. Lately I have been refused by foreighn counter “help” at the check’in.They said “thats not you in the foto on you passport.” in the airport. How ever upon showing my passport to the supervisor, a quick glance and smile and I was admitted. I enjoy ever second of your travels. I could hardly recognize the beaches at Pataya, thailand..Earl, great job. next?? gotta check out Cuba again,,yeah, I know, but I gotta get some of that ‘cuban’ spanish under my belt.
What a crazy story! Visas have to be the supreme representation of bureaucracy!
Hey Earl, any chance you or anybody else reading this, has any experience with the ‘previous visa information’ section of the application? I lived in India for a year back in 06/07 but the passport that had the student visa in it has been lost for years now. The application is asking me for the visa number and date of issue, neither of which I remember. Any clues as to what I should do? Thanks!
Hey Daniela – I had that same situation once and I just left that section blank. But you can always call Travisa Outsourcing and ask them directly just to be certain!
Had a very similar experience with obtaining an Indian visa, since I didn’t do my research in time and before actually going to India I was gonna spend 1 week skiing, then 1 week in Bolivia and then straight afterwards 2 weeks in Nepal before finally stopping New Delhi on the way back to Sweden (where I live). So the number of days left before I was leaving Sweden was not sufficient for the processing time. I had to go to Stockholm twice to hand in the application in person and later obtain the visa, after endless calling and e-mailing to the company that was supposed to provide the “service” but was impossible to get hold of. The other thing is that they are very strict about the application, lots of info has to be provided and if anything was filled out wrong, the application was to be rejected, and a new application had to be made. Til the last day I wasn’t sure I would get my visa, but then all of a sudden it was done, I went back to my hometown and flew out the morning after. Pheeew. So yeah, research and planning is very good advice =)
Hello Earl,
I just applied for a 6 month multi-entry visa to China. I was given the option of a 3 months single-entry, 6 month double-entry, or 6 months multi-entry. I chose the later so my options are open for traveling to other asian countries, but I wonder what criteria the consulate uses to award a visa of different lengths. My dad works in Beijing and is married to a chinese woman – and they required an invitation letter from a chinese individual, so I was covered. In your experience, have you ever been denied a multi-entry visa and instead received a single/double-entry visa? What was the reason given for the downgrade? Thanks and I enjoy your blog.
Russ (Morrissey) Mease
PCT Thru-Hiker 2012
Hey Russ – I’ve never had that happen and have always received multiple entry whenever I’ve applied for one. But I have heard of it happening to others and when it does, there usually is not an explanation with it. The Embassy always reserves the right to issue whatever visa they want to issue regardless of what you request. Hope the Chinese visa works out for you!
I did basically the same thing 3 years. I’m Indian but raised in the US & a US citizen. Which obviously means I need a visa to go to India. Three years ago my cousin was getting married & my parents were supposed to go to India. Something came up with the business so randomly I got told to go. Thing is, it was 11 days before my flight was scheduled to leave & I didn’t have a Indian passport. Ended up driving to San Francisco from Portland (Or) dropping my paperwork off & then waiting in San Fran the rest of the day to get my visa and driving back home. 3 days after I got my visa, I was at SeaTac heading to India. It was a crazy experience though thank God I have a 10 year visa so don’t have to do it again till 2019.
I’m going to be in India in December this year & can’t wait. You’ll have the most amazing time there. There is really no place like India (though I might be a little biased)
Preeti, I think you can get a PIO or OCI card
What are those?
Sorry the traveling bug is just starting to hit me, so there is a ton I still don’t know.
If you’re Indian by descent (ie, your Grand parents were Indian), then you can either get a Person of Indian Origin card or an Overseas Citizen of India card (depending on whether you were born American or changed citizenship later).
Hey Preeti – Believe me, I know how amazing India can be…this will be my 9th visit!
Funny Story. Basically the biggest reason I opted out of going on the India trip with you was because I thought that applying for a visa about a month before the trip would be too late. (or too close of a call). But apparently thats not the case at all.
Hey Lyuda – It actually only takes one day if you can apply in person
There’s always next year!
As an Indian citizen, this is pretty much what I have to go through every time I want to travel. It makes it very hard for me to visit more than one country at a time because they each want me to apply for a visa in my home country, and they each take between 1 and 3 weeks to issue a visa.
There are a few countries where I can get a visa on entry, but for the majority of them, this is what I have to do.
I’ve written about some of it here: http://blueswalk.bluesmoon.info/2010/04/indian-traveller.html but there’s more.
Ah, Indian visas – always fun. My work colleague based with me in Madrid applied for an Indian visa at the Madrid embassy. An alarming amount of time passed with no contact and eventually he turned up and demanded action. The clerk eventually agreed that clearly something had gone badly wrong and went off to investigate. He returned saying “it’s OK, it got lost, but now everything’s fine – here it is”. He then handed to my 50 year-old male British colleague a passport with a photo-visa for him in it. Only trouble was that the passport was that of an elderly Dutch woman. (Love the blog Earl. Great advice on dealing with taxi drivers a while back – that was what made me subscribe.)
Hey Kieran – That’s quite a funny visa story and it makes me wonder what other amusing visa stories are out there! And thanks so much for subscribing to the site and following along
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It is amazing how many of us long-timers still make mistakes like this. It always seems to have something to do with ASSUMING….We recently assumed that information we were told about El Salvador’s adherence to CA-4 visa requirements was correct. It was not. Not even close. This mistake didn’t cost us $500 though (ouch). Just a night spent in our truck in no-man’s-land and a few alarming spikes in blood pressure. By the way, if you’re planning on entering El Salvador overland, learn from our mistakes trans-americas.com/blog/2011/07/access-denied-el-salvador-border/ and don’t assume anything about the tricky CA-4 visa regulations.
I’m currently going through the same ordeal. I think I’m just going to fly to Nepal instead of Huston.
Hey Daniel – That works as well, although you should contact the Indian Embassy in Nepal first as sometimes you will get a shorter visa if you don’t apply from your home country.
Houston*
Hi Earl,
a quick question;
I am British (British passport) staying in LA, USA for about 4 months now, looking to fly out to India Goa from LAX via Bangkok, to visit my sister who lives there with her Indian husband, Savio. I am looking to fly towards the end of March and go for about 1 month but how does one go about getting a visa for India if one is British staying in LA?
Can i get the visa from the USA without the hassle of getting/going to the UK?
Best Regards
Ricky
Hey Ricky – You should be able to get the visa but you would have to check the individual websites of the Indian Embassy & Consulates in the USA. The closest Indian Consulate to LA is in San Francisco I believe. So I would look for their website and it should tell you whether or not they issue visas to non-US citizens.
Hi Earl,
thanks for the quick response.
Here is what it says on this url…
https://indiavisa.travisaoutsourcing.com/requirements/display
Short Term Visa Holders: Applicants who are not citizens/residents of the USA and hold a tourist or other short-term visa for the USA should apply for Indian visas in the country of their permanent residence. In case of emergency or special circumstance, an application could be made at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC or Consulates General of India in the USA. In addition to the relevant visa fee there is a reference fee of $20.00 for reference to be made to the country of their original residence. Such cases have a minimum processing time of one to two weeks, and some cases may take longer. (Non US Citizens – Short Term Visa Holders Only)
But what determines, “In case of emergency or special circumstance”?
I mean, i find it hard to believe one cannot get an Indian visa here in the US, if you are British?
Your Thoughts?
Best Regards
Ricky
Dealing with visas is, hands down, THE WORST part of traveling!
Portuguese here, married to an Indian citizen. We’re currently traveling in the USA and I just tried applying for my tourist visa. Although I had 5 tourist visas for India before, as a tourist, now that I am actually married to an Indian, they’re refusing my visa saying that I need to apply in my country of origin or residence. My country of origin would be Portugal (which happens to be a very expensive and long distance away from the US) but as we travel full-time, I have residence nowhere! As a tourist, I can visit India. As a married woman to an Indian guy, I can’t!! This visa services are sh*t!
So after US we will have to go to Thailand to apply for my visa as the consulate there confirmed they can do it – and this is more or less nearby India and cheaper than traveling to Europe. But still doesn’t make much sense!..
Did I mention I hate visas and people who normally work dealing with visas? Oh yeah, I do!
Hey Zara – I don’t think you were refused a visa because you’re married to an India. The Indian government changed their visa rules recently and as a result, in certain countries, including the USA, they are now only allowed to give Indian visas to citizens of their own country. Even for me, as a US citizen, I have to get my Indian visa in the US from the consulate in Houston because that consulate has jurisdiction over where my home address is. I would not be able to get an Indian visa in NYC for example. But luckily, some countries don’t have these rules, such as Thailand, so at least you still have some options