HELP with India eVisa to GOA port on Celebrity constellation PLEASE!!!

See an update from someone on Constellation now:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2574617

So you may be ok. No way would I go to India on a cruise without a full visa though. Rules change, personnel change, phase of the moon changes, but this looks hopeful for you. Good luck!

Phil

See an update from someone on Constellation now:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2574617

 

So you may be ok. No way would I go to India on a cruise without a full visa though. Rules change, personnel change, phase of the moon changes, but this looks hopeful for you. Good luck!

 

Phil

Thank you sooooooo much Phil... I've had 2 sleepless nights stressing about it.. And worse, is the disappointment on my kids faces when I said we might not be allowed to board the ship.. I will have my toes and fingers crossed for when we check in Abu Dhabi in Jan 2.. For now, I will try and look forward to London and Paris (pre-cruise)

Thank you sooooooo much Phil... I've had 2 sleepless nights stressing about it.. And worse, is the disappointment on my kids faces when I said we might not be allowed to board the ship.. I will have my toes and fingers crossed for when we check in Abu Dhabi in Jan 2.. For now, I will try and look forward to London and Paris (pre-cruise)

Have a great trip. I fly out to Abu Dhabi on Monday to join Constellation the following day, so will be getting off as you get on. Hope you have some good Christmas weather here!

Phil

Thank you sooooooo much Phil... I've had 2 sleepless nights stressing about it.. And worse, is the disappointment on my kids faces when I said we might not be allowed to board the ship.. I will have my toes and fingers crossed for when we check in Abu Dhabi in Jan 2.. For now, I will try and look forward to London and Paris (pre-cruise)

Doc Mom, I'm not sure if you'll look in here, but I've asked someone here who has direct involvement with documentation and you will have no issue boarding. If you want to get off on India it might be more laborious, but they won't stop you getting on.

I hope you have a lovely Christmas and wish you well on Constellation. I'm having a fab time.

Phil

Doc Mom, I'm not sure if you'll look in here, but I've asked someone here who has direct involvement with documentation and you will have no issue boarding. If you want to get off on India it might be more laborious, but they won't stop you getting on.

 

I hope you have a lovely Christmas and wish you well on Constellation. I'm having a fab time.

 

Phil

Thank you very much for the update Phil. That’s so wonderful that you even asked the documentation officer onboard. I still haven’t got a response from celebrity despite a few emails. But your message certainly brings huge relief and excitement about our upcoming cruise. It’sgreatly appreciated.

I’m glad you’re having a fab time onboard!! Wishing you and your family and friends a fantastic Christmas and wonderful New Year. Thanks again!!

Michelle (Doc Mom)

I have just done a land tour to India. In and out by plane so we used the Evisa with no issues at all. You still had to take the paper confirmation with you so they cross check it against your passport details ( they love a bit of bureaucracy!)

However when I applied on line it was very clear that evisa was only acceptable at airports.

However they have specifically updated the site within the past 6 weeks to say it is now valid for entry at 3 seaports; Cochin, Goa and Mangalore.

Mumbai is not mentioned yet

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I really hope this works out for yo and you all have a great cruise. Please will you come back post cruise and tell us what happened as it might be useful for someone else?

Hi... We're now back from the cruise, and it was FANTASTIC!!!

At check in, we had a super friendly person, and after we got all our ship cards, he just took us to the documentation officer, who said we had the wrong type of visa, took down our room number, told us we needed to clear immigration at GOA Port, then allowed us to board.

Main difference is that passengers on traditional/stamped Indian visa had their passports/immigration processed onboard (during sea day), 2 days before arriving in GOA, and apparently, it only took 5 minutes. But they needed another stamp when they got to the port (and maybe waited 20 minutes in line). This was the case for about 2,000 passengers.

Indian eVisa could NOT be processed on board, and we needed to get off the ship, where the Indian immigration were set up on the port. We were the 2nd group to get processed and took about 30-45 minutes. Their process on port could be done much quicker. Once we got processed in GOA, other ports of call in India (Mumbai, Cochin) are completely fine, as they are now considered domestic travel.

So it was definitely no hassle for us to get onboard, and tour India on eVisa. About 200 passengers have eVisa and 2,000 passengers have stamped Visa. I'm not sure if cruise ships will or will not allow Indian eVisa in the future, because if more than 10% of passengers have eVisas, I don't think port immigration officers in GOA can handle it. I can see long long long delays for processing of eVisa in the port if more passengers have EVisas. 200 passengers on EVisa took 30 minutes to 3 hours.. Imagine 2,200 passengers!!! It could take all day and more!!!!! This would surely lead to shore excursion delays or even cancellations!! And ships DON'T like that!!!

All in all, our Indian eVisa was no problems for us and we had an AMAZING cruise!!!!! It's our 8th cruise, and my kids said it was the BEST cruise ever (but I think it's because they made great friends at the kids club, rather than the ports of call)!!! They would have been happy to stay on the ship with their new friends rather than tour India!!!!

 

Main difference is that passengers on traditional/stamped Indian visa had their passports/immigration processed onboard (during sea day), 2 days before arriving in GOA, and apparently, it only took 5 minutes. But they needed another stamp when they got to the port (and maybe waited 20 minutes in line). This was the case for about 2,000 passengers.

 

Indian eVisa could NOT be processed on board, and we needed to get off the ship, where the Indian immigration were set up on the port. We were the 2nd group to get processed and took about 30-45 minutes. Their process on port could be done much quicker. Once we got processed in GOA, other ports of call in India (Mumbai, Cochin) are completely fine, as they are now considered domestic travel.

 

So it was definitely no hassle for us to get onboard, and tour India on eVisa. About 200 passengers have eVisa and 2,000 passengers have stamped Visa. I'm not sure if cruise ships will or will not allow Indian eVisa in the future, because if more than 10% of passengers have eVisas, I don't think port immigration officers in GOA can handle it. I can see long long long delays for processing of eVisa in the port if more passengers have EVisas. 200 passengers on EVisa took 30 minutes to 3 hours.. Imagine 2,200 passengers!!! It could take all day and more!!!!! This would surely lead to shore excursion delays or even cancellations!! And ships DON'T like that!!!

 

Sounds like you had a great time and that bodes well for us and my party in April. Although we’re going in the opposite direction and guess you knew that the eVisa situation changed on Jan 2nd i.e biometric scanning was suspended and it also became accepted at more sea ports.

We’ve been looking at the eVisa option and have yet to decide, but time is fast approaching when we have to bite bullet and get one or other.

You mention that you were in the second group assume that means you were doing a ship tour and it was taking up to 45 minutes to get through immigration. If you don’t mind me asking, how many were in your group and was that 45 mins per tour group and controlled by Celebrity or was this a normal disembakation where you were just wanting to get off the ship and they placed you in groups to go through immigration? Either way I assume preference was given to ships tours if their were hold ups at immigration, so do you know if it was a problem for people with eVisa’s getting off for private tours?

We’re doing the reverse to you, with our first port of entry being Cochin and what with there still being no clear cut advice being given by Celebrity we don’t want to miss our first tour because of immigration delays.

Ray

Hi Ray.

There’s about 20 passengers per group. First group started Port immigration procedures at 7:30am, last group was about 10:30am.. but with each subsequent group arriving at port immigration, the lines and the wait times seems to be getting longer and longer. Celebrity gives you a letter the day before arriving into Goa, indicating your group number for disembarkation. You will need to wait in level 4 lounge and then taken off the ship depending on your allotted number/time. Once on the port there are a few immigrantion counters set up.

There was a celebrity official on the port hurrying the Indian immigration along.

It would be great if Indian immigration can process eVisa on the ship, like all other passengers with stamped visa.

And, there were no biometric scans. The only thing that happened at GOA port for immigration is that we had a face to face meeting, they stamped our passports and they took our photos.

I would presume GOA/Mumbai/Cochin is considered single entry, since we didn't need to do anymore immigration stuff in other ports. We only needed to show our shore passes and a COPY of our passports. Once we were cleared by immigration in GOA, all other India ports are smooth sailing

Thanks for the responding Doc Mum and for the information. I guessed disembarking the ship would be a Celebrity decision and as we have private tours booked at all the ports, the first, Cochin is the only one that might give us a problem if our allocated group going through immigration gets delayed for too long or even find ourselves in different groups. Anyway something to discuss with my travel companions as to what the consensus view is as we’ve already been told that people with the tourist visa will be fast tracked off the ship, although it still sounds as though there is a queue, although smaller for this.

Hot of the press though as from Thursday just gone, I’m told that Celebrity have issued a communication to agents for onward transmission to passengers on the eVisa and are now making the eVisa ‘official’. Apparently dealing with my agent, he told me that they are being sent out automatically, am waiting to receive ours, so don’t know more than that at this moment, but it ends the debate around ‘will I be stopped from boarding the ship with an eVisa’.

Ray

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From last week the visa situation has changed you can now use an evisa for the Indian ports a friend has just had an email from Celebrity stating this Good luck

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From last week the visa situation has changed you can now use an evisa for the Indian ports a friend has just had an email from Celebrity stating this Good luck

 

 

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Yes saw it today, with the email from Celebrity being published on the Constellation roll call for 7th April 2018

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