Tom If you’re a Singaporean who is about to visit India, you would have asked whether India is safe for tourists. In particular, if you’re visiting Kerala, you would have asked whether it is now safe to visit after the floods. Having considered the above and decided to visit India, you would now need to see if there is any visa requirements for Singaporeans to visit India. In fact, there is…
Visa Requirement for Singaporeans Visiting India
If you visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) website on visa requirements to India, you’ll find the following statements:
“Singaporeans are required to obtain a visa before travelling to India. As visa requirements often change at short notice, we advise you to contact your travel agency, or the High Commission of India in Singapore for up-to-date information.
e-Visa Facility for Entry into India – The Indian e-Visa is valid for entry through 24 designated airports (i.e. Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Chandigarh, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum & Varanasi) and 3 designated seaports (i.e. Cochin, Goa, Mangalore). However, Indian e-Visa holders can exit from any of the authorised Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) in India. This Indian e-Visa is an addition to the existing Visa services. Singaporeans need to apply for the electronic Visa (e-Visa) prior to arrival, i.e. submit your Indian visa forms online and secure the necessary approval before departing for India. Upon arrival in India, travellers on the e-Visa would need to proceed to a “Visa on Arrival” counter at the airport to get their visa stamped on their passport. Please refer to the Indian Visa Online website for more information, and beware of fake websites that claim to offer visa services.
There are several types of visas issued for travel to India, such as Tourist, Business, and Medical visas. The validity of all visas commences from the date of issue of the visa and not the date of arrival in India. You should ensure that you obtain the right visa for your travel purposes.”
This means that as a Singaporean, you will have to apply for a travel visa to India…
How do Singaporeans Apply for Travel Visa to India
The MFA website provides a link to apply for Indian Visa Online. The instructions on that website seems simply enough…
All you have to do is just go unto the website, submit the form and collect your visa at one of these BLS International (Indian Passport, Visa Application Center, Singapore) locations in Singapore…
Central Business District (CBD)
BLS International Services S Pte Ltd
Unit 30 – 08
International Plaza
10 Anson Road
Singapore 079903
Nearest MRT – Tanjong Pagar
Call Centre Number +6531635611, +65 31632615
Submission Timing :
Monday to Friday
Submission of Documents
9:00 AM – 03:45 PM only
Delivery of documents
03:00 PM – 04:45 PM only
Little India
BLS International Services S Pte Ltd
Unit 14 – 02/04/05
Sim Lim Tower
10 Jalan Basar
Singapore 208787
Nearest MRT – Rochor MRT
Call Centre Number +6531635611, +65 31632615
Submission Timing :
Monday to Friday
Submission of Documents
9:00 AM – 03:45 PM only
Delivery of documents
03:00 PM – 04:45 PM only
Sunday : (Little India Only)
Exclusively for Consular & Passport services of Indian nationals holding work permits in Singapore only.
Submission of Documents
08:00 AM – 01:00 PM only
On the onset, it seems like it would be easy to print out the form online, submit at one of these BLS locations and then collect when the visa is ready. However, we met with the following problems…
Problems We Faced While Applying for Travel Visa to India
Problem #1: Submission can only be done during Weekdays from 9am to 3:45pm?!
One of the first problems we’ve met with after printing out the form was that you can only submit the form during weekdays, during working hours. No issues if you’re travel blogging full time but if you’re working and would like to visit India, that’s a different story altogether…
Problem #2: Long Waiting Times – For Both Submission and Collection
Although it was a week day, we realised that the waiting time was long. 2 hours long. 2 hours just allowed us to get to the counter – which does not include the time needed to resolve Problem #3 (see below). All in all, we took 4 hours just to submit the forms. Even for collection, we waited for about an hour – during a week day once again…
Problem #3: Many Applicants Encountered Problems Filling In The Require Fields
We actually faced an issue after we waited 2 hours and reached the counter at BLS International. Two of the fields were incompletely filled up – we actually did not completely fill up the hotel’s address. In fact, during our visit, we heard the service staff telling at least 4 other people that their forms were not completely filled up. At this point, there are only 2 options.
Option 1: If you’re carrying a laptop (somehow adjustments using mobile is not feasible), you can amend it yourself and send it to the admin section within BLS to get it printed out. However, you will have to get another queue number for printing (which you’ll have to pay a couple of dollars to do so) and another queue number for submission. Moreover, you’ll run the risk of having another incompletely filled submission. But since we did not have our laptop, we went for option 2.
Option 2: We got another queue number and waited for our turn to go to the counter again. This time, another service staff helped us to fill up the form. It costs $6 per person to have your form filled up again. Hence, we paid $12 to fill and print our forms. This took us another 2 hours to wait and fill up. The cool thing is that you don’t have to queue another time to re-submit your form after it is filled by the service staff. This is because, you would have paid up for the visa application and the re-filling of the form before you chose option 2. However, a last problem remained for us…
Problem #4: You Can Only Pay For Visa Application In Cash
The last minor problem that we encountered was that BLS International only accepted cash. This meant that we paid the $130 (for 2 applications and 2 forms re-filled) in cash. Thankfully, we had sufficient and didn’t have to go hunt for an ATM nearby.
Once you’ve cleared the form submission, you’ll head to another office to take your photo and have your finger prints scanned. You’ll then hand over your passports for the visa application and be informed when you can start to collect your passport.
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Conclusion
The collection process was a breeze and the visa was actually quite professionally done. Moreover, the sights and sounds of India were unique and did leave a deep impression upon us. However, your first obstacle would be to complete the visa application. Hopefully this post has identified all the problems and pitfalls as you apply for your travel visa to India!
