Transit Visa for India and Africa

[Rocky2103]

Hi All,

 

Does anyone know if you can get a transit visa if you are cruising and staying only 1 or 2 days in port (India, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique)?

 

I have contacted Azamara (no help), my travel agent (can only help USA citizens, we are from Australia), have contacted a few consulates (they are saying we don't need them but their websites say you do!). The issue we have is that the visa's are very $$$ but the cost comes down if you only do transit, at the moment, the cost of normal visa's is more expensive than the cruise :-) !

 

Any info would be appreciated!

 

Cheers

Raquel

[Jayayeff]

51 minutes ago, Rocky2103 said:

Hi All,

 

Does anyone know if you can get a transit visa if you are cruising and staying only 1 or 2 days in port (India, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique)?

 

I have contacted Azamara (no help), my travel agent (can only help USA citizens, we are from Australia), have contacted a few consulates (they are saying we don't need them but their websites say you do!). The issue we have is that the visa's are very $$$ but the cost comes down if you only do transit, at the moment, the cost of normal visa's is more expensive than the cruise 🙂 !

 

Any info would be appreciated!

 

Cheers

Raquel

 

You will definitely need a visa for India.  I did a cruise that included Indian ports last year and even though the cruise line said we needed a costly 'paper' visa that was not the case and the much less costly online evisa worked perfectly fine...https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/    I travel on a UK passport but I'm pretty sure the same facility is available to Australian passport holders. The application process is a bit of a pain but once you've completed the form, added the attachments and made online payment the evisa is in your Inbox within 24 hours.  I haven't been to any of those African ports via cruise ship but I would be surprised if you needed visas in advance especially if you only have one day port calls.   Does Azamara not use a visa agent that they can at least refer you to even if they only process for US passengers???

 

Anne...

Edited November 25, 2019 by Jayayeff

[frantic36]

I agree with Anne. We are visiting India soon and as fellow Australians, we definitely needed to apply for for an Indian Visa. 

 

Most people use the Indian e-visa system though we used the Consulate for us as it is nearby. Just be prepared for multiple questions and check with Azamara or your TA what address they suggest you use for when the ship is in India. If you use a Visa service that will certainly bump up the price of the Visa but Indian visas are not cheap.

[tring]

15 hours ago, frantic36 said:

I agree with Anne. We are visiting India soon and as fellow Australians, we definitely needed to apply for for an Indian Visa. 

 

Most people use the Indian e-visa system though we used the Consulate for us as it is nearby. Just be prepared for multiple questions and check with Azamara or your TA what address they suggest you use for when the ship is in India. If you use a Visa service that will certainly bump up the price of the Visa but Indian visas are not cheap.

 

The prices and length of time the evisas are valid for, has changed in the last few months.  We have just got ones for 5 years for US$80 and a one year one is considerably less.  We are British, but I think it is the same for some other nationalities - check with your government website, ours has tend to have a link through to the official sites to apply for visas for each country which is a good way to check you have not picked up a scammer website which pretends to be the official one.  Check your first port of call is OK to use an evisa though as some are not set up for them (e.g. Porbandar and The Andaman Islands) - it is the first port of call that is important for entry and if it is not set up for evisas, you will need a full visa, which is more of a pain and expense.

Edited November 26, 2019 by tring

[dbsb3233]

On 11/24/2019 at 11:36 PM, Jayayeff said:

 

You will definitely need a visa for India.  I did a cruise that included Indian ports last year and even though the cruise line said we needed a costly 'paper' visa that was not the case and the much less costly online evisa worked perfectly fine...https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/    I travel on a UK passport but I'm pretty sure the same facility is available to Australian passport holders. The application process is a bit of a pain but once you've completed the form, added the attachments and made online payment the evisa is in your Inbox within 24 hours.  I haven't been to any of those African ports via cruise ship but I would be surprised if you needed visas in advance especially if you only have one day port calls.   Does Azamara not use a visa agent that they can at least refer you to even if they only process for US passengers???

 

Anne...

Does anyone know whether for a cruise with 3 consecutive India ports (Mumbai, Goa, Cochin) we need the 30-day eTourist visa ($25 USD) or the 1-year ($40 USD)?  From what I've read, the 30-day is supposed to be a double-entry visa, while the 1-year is multiple-entry (not 100% sure if that's correct though, I just read it on TripSavvy).  Some people say 3 consecutive India ports means it only requires a single entry, but I can't find that listed officially anywhere.  In fact, I can't find anything about # of entries anywhere on the official website, only external travel sites. 

 

Obviously I'd prefer to just get the 30-day and save a little money but if there's a real question I'll just get the 1-year to be safe.  Does anyone know for sure which is needed for such a cruise?  (We're not going anywhere else in India other than the 3 cruise cities.)

[Jayayeff]

46 minutes ago, dbsb3233 said:

Does anyone know whether for a cruise with 3 consecutive India ports (Mumbai, Goa, Cochin) we need the 30-day eTourist visa ($25 USD) or the 1-year ($40 USD)?  From what I've read, the 30-day is supposed to be a double-entry visa, while the 1-year is multiple-entry (not 100% sure if that's correct though, I just read it on TripSavvy).  Some people say 3 consecutive India ports means it only requires a single entry, but I can't find that listed officially anywhere.  In fact, I can't find anything about # of entries anywhere on the official website, only external travel sites. 

 

Obviously I'd prefer to just get the 30-day and save a little money but if there's a real question I'll just get the 1-year to be safe.  Does anyone know for sure which is needed for such a cruise?  (We're not going anywhere else in India other than the 3 cruise cities.)

the 30 day tourist visa is fine, I used one for 3 consecutive India ports on a cruise last year as that counts as a single entry.  You only need multi-entry if you leave India and visit other countries between each of your India ports... I was told by the Consulate here that the 30 day double entry can be used for up to 4 consecutive cruise ports or entry into an India port then visiting a different country followed by re-entry to India for remaining ports.  The example I was given for double entry was on some cruise routes East to West (or vice versa) you could visit a port on the east coast of India then maybe visit Sri Lanka or the Maldives before visiting further India ports on the west coast... 

 

Anne...

[dbsb3233]

58 minutes ago, Jayayeff said:

the 30 day tourist visa is fine, I used one for 3 consecutive India ports on a cruise last year as that counts as a single entry.  You only need multi-entry if you leave India and visit other countries between each of your India ports... I was told by the Consulate here that the 30 day double entry can be used for up to 4 consecutive cruise ports or entry into an India port then visiting a different country followed by re-entry to India for remaining ports.  The example I was given for double entry was on some cruise routes East to West (or vice versa) you could visit a port on the east coast of India then maybe visit Sri Lanka or the Maldives before visiting further India ports on the west coast... 

 

Anne...

Thank you so much!  It's great to hear it confirmed from someone who's actually done it.  The official India website is seriously lacking in such information.