Zan07

Hi

I am Indian,recently got married to British woman of Pakistani origin.Although my wife never been to Pakistan but her parents are from Pakistani origin.

My wife wants to visit India so she can meet my family. We applied for tourist visa for India thinking it will be dead easy but authorities in London High commission have ask us to provide lot of information so I have to arrange notarized Invitation from India for wife and all other documents about stay and places she will visit.Instead of granting tourist visa I think they have put our case for entry visa.

After we provided all documents they returned my wife passport with small tag saying we have forward you case to High commission in India and will inform you once it get processed
We had plan almost everything and it messing all our plans now as we could not get visa on time.Does anyone else been to same situation? anyone have idea how long it can take? we tried all different phone no. and email but no reply at all

I would really appreciate your help

bakedbean

Hi there. Just to say Welcome to the forum. I'm nowhere near India so cannot help you but hopefully someone will be along to offer some advice. Hope everything works out for you

Bipat

You will find more information on the Indiamike Forum --'Visa & Passport Help' section.

I know from chatting to people in a similar situation when I have been in the Birmingham Visa centre that it can take more time to process a visa for a person of Pakistani origin.

Farzoozoo

I am British by birth but my parents were born in Pakistan, although they have been living in UK for over 40 years and are now British. My sister and I applied for Indian tourist visas on 19th December 2013 and got our visas on 11th February 2014 by post.




Because of our Pakistani background, we had to provide an employer's letter, three month's bank statements, and filled out an additional form with details of my grandparents (which is ridiculous but required). Luckily, i provided two invitations/sponsors from India, which had to be notarized by a lawyer in India for verification. As if that wasn't enough, my sponsors/friends were actually visited by the police just to verify that they are really who they say are and that i am genuine. They also wanted to see my friend's wedding invitation to verify it was a real wedding.




We were told it would take a minimum of 8 weeks because our parents were born in Pakistan, and it took exactly 8 weeks. The sad part is i applied for the visa to attend my friend's wedding in India, but the wedding took place two days after i got my visa and was simply not enough notice to get time off work. This is annoying since they knew the purpose of my visit and knew the dates of the wedding, it's like they did it deliberately!




I think the main reason we got the visa and that too within the 8 weeks was because we had two sponsors/invites from India - this makes a huge difference. My other friends who have applied without sponsors were always rejected. It also helps if you have a wedding or justified purpose to visit, it seems that just to visit as a tourist isnt enough! Also, you have to call the high commission consistently - it's difficult to get hold of a number that actually picks up, but my sponsor called in india and I called the High Commission in London who eventually got the ball rolling after my persistence. The VFS office don't do alot, and their fees are sooo expensive but you have no choice but to use them to process the whole application.




Judging by other people's experiences, i do feel like we were some of the lucky ones to have got the visa. We had no issues once were in India. And after visiting India and having the time of my life, it is such a shame Pakistani's are singled out in this way as it really is somewhere worth visiting and would be a popular destination for Pakistani's - just like it would be for anyone else!




Nevertheless, we still went for a month and just returned. We were only granted a three month single entry visa, which was luckily sufficient.




Don't get put off by the visa process and outright discrimination - it is so worth the wait if youre lucky enough to get your visa.




Make sure you don't book your flights/accomodation until you get your visa and leave plenty of time before applying, although the visa, once granted is only valid for one/three/six months from the date it is granted.




Good luck and I do hope this discrimination is abolished sooner rather than later.




If anyone from the Indian High Commission reads this - I'm British Pakistani, came to your country, was welcomed like anyone else and had the time of my life. Please allow more Pakistani's to experience the same, and maybe Indo-Pak relations would improve and develop!

bakedbean

Hi....just to say to the forum. Great that you had a good holiday.