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Visa pour le Monde
Entry 2 of 42 | show all | print this entry |
2. Visa
The second hurdle on my way to India was getting the necessary documents. First I had to get a new passport. In Belgium passports are valid for 5 years, and in the past you could extend them for a year or two. This procedure has been changed to speed things up. I remember about 7 years ago I had to wait almost 2 weeks before I received it. Now the delivery time is 'only' 5 working days.
One thing that hasn't improved is the price you have to pay : 77€ !
And then you need to get special photographs to put on them (2 for the passport, 2 for the visa).
Once I had my passport I downloaded the necessary documents for the visa application from the Belgian website of the Indian Embassy.
The visa application was 2 pages long, and asked the strangest questions, like what was the profession of my father :). I also had to write down the telephone number and address of at least two Indians. Luckily Claudia contacted some friends from Chennai who helped us out with their address. Going there was a bit like being in India. An Indian man greeted me from behind a little desk in the corner of a hallway, gave me a ticket and told me to wait in the waiting room. I guess there were 20 other people, Indians and Belgians, waiting their time. The number on the wall said 725, my ticket read 769. Strange, there were only 20 people there...where did the 24 others go?
I waited for almost 15 minutes before the sign changed to 726. At that tempo I could be there till the end of the day. But suddenly the numbers changed without anybody getting up. 730, 745, a couple of people got up...750, again two Indians got up, and so it went on for another half an hour. Finally it was my turn, I gave my papers and passport, paid 50€ and was told to come back 3 days later between 5pm and 5.30pm.
Unfortunately I had to work in the evening, but Claudia volunteered to pick the passport up. It shouldn't take long, right?
Well...first she had to wait 20 minutes before the door opened, then another 20 minutes before they realized the ticketing display was not working, and then 10 minutes to get the passport...which contained a spelling mistake in my name :)
Welcome to India :)
Latest Comments (1)
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Bon voyage! (reply)
Jul 7, 2006 05:01 EST by tenetsi
Hi Frank! It's really cool to follow your blog about your trip to India while I will struggle to write something sensible about our trip to Brazil. We leave after two nights and you a bit later but I guess we both have a great adventure very soon! I must say I am impressed how much you prepare for the trip. I feel a bit 'orphan' because we haven't planned that much, just got idea of itinerary, got... show all
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