Regarding Transit visa - travel to Inida via UK

A

abhijik

Registered Users (C)
Hi,
I am planning to go to Mumbai via the AirIndia flight Newark-Mumbai. It has a halt in London (I believe so-I guess I can get the details from my travel agent). Its a very small halt and I think they dont even allows us to leave the plane.
Anyway, I was on F1 status till december 2003 and had it changed to H1B after that..My F1 Visa stamp on the passport has validity until 07/2005. Techinically it doesn't matter coz I am no more on F1 status.
Hence my questions are:
1) Do I need a transit visa for UK?
2) Can I use my F1 stamp to get through this ( i.e. without getting a UK transit visa)?

Also i found these exemptions(below) for UK transit visa. If you look at the 7th category below, aren't we eligible for that i.e. official passport issued by the government of India??


Exemptions :

1. Holders of Valid U.S. or Canadian Visas who also hold a ticket to or from the US or Canada routed via the UK. This will include a period of 48 hours after the expiry of the US or Canadian visa for those leaving the US or Canada to allow for those who choose to leave at the very end of the validity of their visa.

2. Holders of USA I-551 permanent Resident Cards (Green Cards) issued on or after 21 April 1998

3. Holders of Canadian Permanent Resident Cards issued on or after 28 June 2002

4. Holders of Valid Category D visas issued by EU/EEA member states, which are valid for more than 3 months

5. Holders of Commonwealth format EU Residence permits issued under Council Regulation (EC) No 1030/2002

6. Holders of diplomatic or official passports issued by the Peoples Republic of China

7. Holders of diplomatic or official passports issued by the Government of India

The preceeding categories of traveler are not required to hold a Direct airside transit visa and may still benefit from the Transit Without Visa Concession.


Thanks in advance.
 
abhijik

Exemption listed in 7th section is for people who are holding diplomatic/official passport. Those passport are issued to Ministry of External Affairs (also known as Foreign Ministry) or Govt. of India employees and their dependents and they are in either RED or WHITE color.

If you have BLUE passport issued by Govt. of India, you are not eligible for that exemption.

BTW, as " labordude " mentioned, you don't need a Transit visa (Exemption # 1). Just don't mention while leaving that your F1 is not valid any more.
 
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uk transit visa

one of my friend has gone thru the scenario of urs, he has a valid f 1 visa but he shifted to H 1 but still he was informed of needing transit visa. transit visa takes just one week by mail and its better u have it lest u get held in UK.
 
transit visa

if ur H1 has been issued then ur f1 status is no longer valid, so u need a transit visa
 
I would suggest "BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY"..I think its around $50..You dont want to get caught in a mess in UK.
 
Hi guys,
My wife and daughter's H-4 visa expires on 5/14/04. They will travel on Air India flight via London on 5/12/04.

Do they need UK transit visa?

They will get new H-4 visa renewal at Chennai consulate before return journey.
 
They are fine.
Either they should have :
1) a valid US or Canadian visa
2) GC
3) or a US or Canadian visa that expired less than 48 hrs when you arrive in UK.
 
vshaal,
in one of ur earlier posts you said "one of you friend was informed of needing a transit visa even though his f1 visa was valid on the passport", could you clearify whom he was informed from cos I was in the same situation and I called up british embassy and they said I dont need a transit visa.
-labordude
 
You donot need a transit visa to fly though UK.
I have done that several times.
You would need a visa only if you are transfering between Gatwick and Heathrow ie one flight comes into one airport and other leaves from the other airport.

Years back I had a funny experience in Mumbai at Gulf Air.
I had flown into India and was on my retrun. I went to the Gulf Air Office to reconfirm my reservation. They would not reconfirm it unless I showed them a UK visa, quite stupid considering I had transited through UK on my way in.
I had to get the UK visa, The Consul told me that I did not need the visa to transit and that I was wasting my money and that I should probably consider not flying Gulf Air.

The Gulf Air rep hadd told me that it was a UK consulate requirement to have a Transit Visa. The UK consul told me that they have no such requirements.
 
I'm sure that many times is not after late 2003.

They have issued transit visa requirements (with some exceptions) for UK. Check the UK consulate website.
 
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