Temporary landing facility( TLF) in emergent situations

There have been instances of foreign nationals turning up at the Indian ports of entry without the valid visas or travel documents. Mostly, they are the people of Indian origin with expired residential permits, or foreign born (and foreign passport holders) children of Indian parents. In certain emergent situations like death in family or illness, they can be granted Temporary landing facility( TLF) for 15 days at the Airport. Any further extension of stay in such cases are granted on a case to case basis by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Foreigners Division, Jaisalmer House, 26, Man Singh Road, New Delhi. In the absence of emergent situations, the foreigner without the visa or proper travel documents, will not be granted TLF and will be asked to exit India. In this regard, please note that the eligible nationals of Finland, Japan, Luxemburg, New Zealand or Singapore can get visa on arrival for 30 days.

For Visa on arrival, please refer to: http://indianimmigration-law.blogspot.com/2010/01/tourist-visa-on-arrival.html

The spouses and Children of the Indian nationals, and persons of Indian origin: Obtain X ( Entry) visa for India

The spouses and Children of the Indian nationals, and persons of Indian origin should preferably enter India on X ( Entry) visa. In many instances, they enter India on a Tourist(T) Visa which is not a long term visa to stay in India. A tourist visa can not be extended except for emergencies. However, an X visa can be extended and the foreign national can stay for a long term in India after obtaining a residential permit form the FRO/FRRO. For the categories of foreign nationals mentioned above, a T visa can be converted to X visa by Ministry of Home Affairs at New Delhi. However, the process can be long and cumbersome. Presently, the Ministry of Home Affairs at New Delhi is not allowing conversion from T to X visa except for very limited circumstances.

It’s always better that the spouses and Children of the Indian nationals, and persons of Indian origin should obtain a PIO/OCI card as per their eligibility. Otherwise, they should seek X visas to enter India and not a T visa unless they want to visit India for a short pleasure trip.

Airlines asked not to check-in Indian passengers traveling to China on Stapled Visas

DGCA circular to Airlines:

Official Text:

CIRCULAR

Ministry of Civil Aviation vide their letter No.AV.12012/5/2001-A(Vol.III) dated 29th December, 2009 has informed that Indian citizens travelling to Hongkong and China are being issued visa by concerned authorities on separate piece of paper stapled to the passport. Such stapled paper visas are not valid for travel out of India. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has directed that such passengers holding stapled paper visa shall not be checked-in for travel out of India. All airlines checking-in passengers out of Indian airports to China and Hongkong, are to ensure that they do not check-in any passenger who has stapled Chinese visa on his/her passport.

2. The responsibility of the checking-in such passengers who are travelling to any Chinese city on a stapled paper visas either directly or via Hongkong rests solely with airlines concerned and they shall ensure that they do not check-in any passenger who has stapled Chinese visa on his/her passport.

3. This is for strict compliance of all airlines.

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