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Passports and Visas

Make sure you have a full passport (a temporary or visitor’s passport won’t do for India), and that it has enough spare pages to take a visa stamp, an immigration stamp, and any liquor permit stamps, issued in ‘dry’ or non-alcoholic Indian states, which you may collect in the course of your journey. Also, check that your passport is up-to-date. If it isn’t, you’ll need to send it off for renewal a good two months before your holiday.

At the time of writing, all foreign nationals require a visa to enter India. There are several kinds of visa: the standard tourist visa is valid for 180 days and entitles the holder to multiple entries into India within that period. An extension can be obtained from various Foreigners’ Registration offices in India. Visas can be applied for from any Indian consular office or High Commission. In the UK, a six-month multiple entry visa costs £16.00. A single entry visa, valid for 30 days from the date of issue, costs £3.00. In the US and other countries, it has been standardised to US$5.00.

In the UK, apply for visas to the High Commission of India, Consular Dept, India House, Aldwych, London WC2B 4NA (tel 071-836 8484/0990, 9.30 am to 1.00 pm; 071-240 2084, 2.00 pm to 5.30 pm). Application forms are available either from the High Commission or from the Government of India Tourist Office, 7 Cork St, London W1 (tel 071-437 3677/8; fax 071-494 1048). You can apply either by post, which can take up to four weeks to process (send passport, three passport photos and crossed postal order to ‘High Commission of India’); or in person, which takes just 24 hours (arrive with passport, three passport-size photos and an application form at the High Commission building, 9 am latest, to avoid queues. It’s open 9.30 am to 1.00 pm weekdays, and you’ll have to return the next working day to collect passport and visa between 4.30 and 5.30 pm). Trailfinders, Thomas Cook and American Express have quick, efficient visa services for travellers, and for a small charge, will do all the waiting and queuing for you.

US visitors can use the Embassy of India, 2107 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 (tel 202 939 7000/7069) or the Consulate-General of India, 3 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10021 (tel 212 879 7888). There are also consular offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Houston. Canadians should apply to 10 Springfield Road, Ottawa, KIM 109 (tel 744 3751). French visitors can apply to the Ainbassade de l’Inde, 15 Rue Alfred Dehodencq, 75016 Paris (tel 4520 3930). Germans to Adenaverallee 262, 5300 Bonn (tel 540 50). Australians go to the consular office at 3-5 Moonah Place, Yarralumla, ACT 2600 (tel 062 733 999).

The Foreigners’ Regional Registration Offices are based in Bombay (Annexe-2, Police Headquarters, Near Crawford Market, tel 261I169); Calcutta (237 Acharya Jagdish Bose Road, tel 44330I, 440549); Madras (9 Village Road, Nungambakkam, tel 477036); and New Delhi (Hans Bhavan, Tilak Bridge, tel 33I9489). Elsewhere all superintendents of police in all district headquarters also function as Foreigners’ Registration Officers.

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