Procuring an India visa

My husband, Clyde, and I renewed our passports in June ’08. Then came the task of what to do about our 10-year India tourist visas in the expired passports.

Previously, I reported that the New York Consulate General of India website (www.indiacgny.org) indicated that one could travel to India with two U.S. passports: an expired one with a valid Indian visa and a current one (June ’07, pg. 14 & Sept. ’07, pg. 89). I even verified this on our trip through Indian Immigration in November ’07 (May ’08, pg. 12).

A visit to the websites of the Embassy of India and of the various U.S. Consulates of India in late May ’08 revealed that the rules of the game now have changed. The statement that one can travel with two U.S. passports is no longer to be found, and the visa application and processing service has been outsourced to Travisa Outsourcing, Inc. (http://indiavisa.travisaoutsourcing.com).

I made a phone call to Travisa’s Washington, D.C., office, the only one for which I could find a toll-free number (866/631-7296), and was told they “strongly recommend” that we transfer the old 10-year visas to our new passports. Previously, this entailed a consular fee of $25 each; now there is an additional service fee to Travisa to process the application and take it to the embassy.

I filled in the required online forms, essentially the same visa applications we filled in four years ago, and sent off our passports to have the visas transferred.

One week and $108 dollars later ($25 each consular fee + $13 each processing fee plus $12 to send the passports by UPS, insured for the replacement cost of the passports and visas, plus $20 to Travisa to return the passports), I have in hand our new India visas valid for six years in our new passports plus our expired passports with the old visas intact.

We had received two e-mails from Travisa telling us the progress of our applications. Travisa earns their $13!

I was displeased that although Travisa returned the passports by overnight FedEx, there was no signature required, and I do not know if Travisa put any insurance on the package. I called FedEx with my tracking number and was able to request “signature required” so the package would not be left at our doorstep should we not be home to receive it.

I still believe we could get into India carrying our old and our new passports, with the valid visa in each old passport. I plan to ask the question of Immigration again when we next enter.

JANE B. HOLT

Hinesburg, VT