How it was to enter India without having all required documents
OK that was definitely not my best ‘idea’ to go from Sri Lanka to India without having all the required documents in my bag. I’m not really sure why especially for this I just didn’t give a sh*t. maybe latent provocation maybe being bored and needed a challenge maybe plain stupidity. also it was not really on purpose. one time I thought about what I need to enter and then I forgot. well, whatever…….
I had my eta-visa on arrival from ‘Indian visa online’ after I filled the online application form about 2h sent my picture and my passport which was approved. that’s new since January 2015. it’s pretty much the same application form if when get a normal visa for e.x. 3 or 6 month. you fill it online and need a digital passport picture and a copy of the first page (with the picture) of your passport as a pef-document in size less than 300kb. good thing is that you still can save the form and continue later with your temporary ID-No. after finishing they say you get an answer within 48h. in my case it was one day.
first failure: read every line in the approval-email! you MUST carry a copy of the mail with you!
well, I did, didn’t care and found myself at the airport in Colombo at the Check-In counter where the women from Sri Lankan Airlines was so kind and nice to print it out for me. great service!
but at the small airport in Trivandrum (Thiruvanantaphuram) my turn at the immigration walking after a guy because for ‘on-arrival’ was nobody around they asked for my return-ticket. problem – I had none! I was already checking prices with alerts for more than a week but didn’t want to buy a ticket because every time I decided to book something in advance I had to change (or miss it like in Sri Lanka) – plans changing all the time.
well, I never needed a return ticket what the guy didn’t believe and didn’t care about. I was standing at the immigration and needed one. after 5 minutes 12 people standing around me telling me that they will put me in the same plane back to Sri Lanka. another thing the, btw really nice and helpful guy, asked was for money if I’m carrying any cash and why I do not carry any. I told him I never need cash at the immigration…for what?! and his question was not about paying him or somebody else to let me in…
end of the game was that after I while I was able to make clear that I only need a connection and would book a flight online. that was ok for them. he took me through all the security checks out to an Internet terminal where I booked the flight (I wanted to take before anyway) what I told him when he said ‘you can cancel that later’. and next problem: NOW I needed money to pay for Internet access. I promised to come back after the procedure. the rest of the procedure was almost ok. a few questions about the place I wrote down what I want to do giving them 10 fingerprints and stuff like that. after I got the permission to enter the country I walked outside to the next atm (still with the same guy I was walking around before) because the atm was outside and you’re normally not allowed to go back in I had to find out that the atm was ‘on service’. great!!! but fortunately another one inside near the Internet point was working and I could get money, pay my fee and leave the airport.
welcome back to India. :D