india transit visa

peter-pantslez

hi,

i am flying out to bangkok in novmeber and have a brief stop over in delhi ( thinks its an hour and a half), iv been told by one place i need a transit visa and somehwere else that i dont because its a short stop over.

can anyone shed some more light on this for me please...

iv tried to contact both the indian embassy and the department of foreign affairs about this and noone can give me a straight answer.

thanks in advance for any advice!

Stinicker

I thought about doing this last February as I too was going to Bangkok like yourself and was thinking of flying with Kingfisher and they told me that I didn't need a transit visa as I would be in the country less than 24hours and would be connecting with them onwards to Bangkok.

You would need a transit visa if you were flying to India say for example on a Thursday and flying out say on a Friday or Saturday making a brief stopover and clearing immigration and customs and entering the country as part of the transit.

When you are transiting just through the airport for an hour and a half in your case you won't be clearing immigration or customs and will remain in the transit area so won't technically have entered India nor will you have an Indian stamp on your passport.

One caveat though this only works if you are flying the same airline all the way from London (presumably) to Bangkok or two airlines that have a baggage interline agreement whom will transfer your bags for you. Eg. Flying to India with British Airways and onwards with a low cost carrier would not work visa free as you'd have to clear immigration and customs after claiming your bags for to check-in for the onwards Bangkok leg of the journey with a low cost carrier and if this is how you plan to do it then you would definitely need the transit visa which costs circa $50 which probably offsets any saving made by flying via India in the first place.

In the end I got a cheaper flight with Etihad via Abu Dhabi and that was an easy transfer and most people rate the Indian transfer like you are doing as hellish as apparently the airports are old and outdated with poor staffing but as you only have 1.5 hours that won't bother you too much.

Which airline you flying with and how much was the flight if you don't mind me being so nosey?

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1693940

http://www.pattaya-addicts.com/forum/topic/44371-jet-airways/ <- Possibly not safe for work!

peter-pantslez

thanks for all the help guys!

stinicker i am flying from london with jet airways and then on from delhi with the same airline. iv been told my bags will be check right through so i should be ok them. the flight cost me €340 one way....i wont be back for a good while