Travelling to India on Entry Visa?

A

alokep

Registered Users (C)
I am a US citizen, naturalized in 2000.

Turns out that India is issuing "Entry Visa" (and not Tourist Visa for former Indian citizens.

Q1. What is the difference between "Entry Visa" and "Tourist Visa"? To me, it seems to be a way to screw former Indians as the Entry visa is good for only 5 years.

Q2. Will I need anything besides my US passport with a valid Entry visa to travel to India (for 1 month visit)?

Q3. Should I carry my cancelled Indian passports?

Q4. What about "Renunciation Certificate"? Do I need to get that? I got my Indian passports cancelled way back in 2000. There was no RC or surrender certificate back then.

Aloke
 
If you have your canceled Indian passport, you won't need a renunciation certificate. Include a copy of canceled indian passport with your entry visa application. Check travisa website for more info. The canceled stamp should say "canceled upon acquisition of US nationality" or something to this effect.

Yes, US citizens who once held Indian citizenship are being screwed by charging more for Entry visa.

You should have applied for OCI many years ago.
 
If you have time why don't you apply for PIO. PIO is issued within one week/10days. Later you can upgrade PIO to OCI
 
I still had lots of years on my (now expired) tourist visa when this whole PIO/OCI thing was introduced. I figured I'll utilize all that and apply for these (probably PIO).

Unfortunately, the travel plans were made in a hurry and I wanted to play it safe this time and apply for Entry visa as that is the least complicated and probably the fastest.

I'm sure the story will repeat itself in 5 years :)
 
What is the practical difference between Tourist visa and Entry visa (besides the maximum duration)?
 
I am sure there are more differences, but thanks to Mumbai terrorist attacks last year (or was it 2 years back)
- entry visa people can leave india and re-enter asap
- tourist visa people need to wait 2 months or get a special permission to re-enter (for a fee of course)
 
Are you sure entry-visa holders can leave and enter the country without a re-entry permit or a wait of at least 2 months? I was told they could not by the Indian consulate in SF.
 
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