I bought the Indian Tourist Visa when I was in Dublin, working in Ireland.
The Indian tourist visa is somewhat of a hassle because on the two full pages that you have to fill out for information. The form will ask you for details on the form of someone that you know in India who can vouch for you (they want a name, address and phone number of a resident). It is doubtful that they ever check into this information but I was lucky as I had a friend’s father who lives there so I was able to fill in the blanks. After Russia, India is the most difficult tourist visa that I have ever tried to acquire.
The application for the Indian Tourist Visa asked to ‘State Your Religion.’ I stated ‘Atheist.’ I knew that question was not really aimed at me, but I would rather be rejected for the visa rather than ever claiming any kind of affiliation brain-washing.
As a Canadian, I also had to show proof of a Irish address in the form of a bank statement to be able to confirm that I was an Irish resident. This national residency proof was the only way that I would be able to apply for the Indian visa from out of my native country. * It took approximately a week for the process of the visa. They kept the passport during that time, which I would then have to collect again once the visa was completed and put inside of the passport.
There were a couple of issues with getting the Indian Tourist Visa:
- It is a six-month visa but they would only offer a ‘single entry’ visa. I asked for a multiple entry, claiming that I was interested in visiting other countries around India and then returning to India again thereafter. They asked me for a flight itinerary to show my upcoming visits to other countries to prove that I would require a multiple-entry visa. When I did not have such an itinerary, they would only offer the single-entry.
- The other issue was that I had been dating an American at the time who was flying into Ireland. She had intentions of applying for the Indian visa as well. However, since she was not a resident of Ireland, she was not allowed to apply for the Indian visa from Dublin. They said that she would have to apply for it from her own country. I tried to get her name on joint bank account in Ireland to get around this problem, but that was also impossible without a residence permit. So, she was denied access to a visa for India from Dublin.**
*** However, there must be clauses in this situation in certain cities, as I have met travelers in Bangkok who have acquired the Indian tourist visa on the road.
