TRANSIT VISA: A transit visa is granted for the sole purpose of enabling the holder to travel through India to reach his/her ultimate destination. Change of purpose is not allowed. The visa will ordinarily be valid for a single/double journey and for entry within three months of date of issue. The Transit visa is valid for direct transit only for a maximum period of 3 days. Confirmed airline ticket for onward journey and valid visa for final destination are required. For a stay in India beyond 3 days, an appropriate visa should be obtained.
A transit visa cannot be given without proving the real intent of TRANSIT.
May be the kids were not qualified for transit visa and the frenchman was!!!! Who knows.
Read a couple of comments and also read the statements made by the parents. I do consider this as Inhuman i also understand the plea and state of the parents.
What i cannot understand is the time that they were allowed. they could have stayed at the airport for longer time not clearing the immigration. this is allowed all the time, even when we ahve a connecting flight and we do not clear the Immigration, we do stay at the airport for a day or so before clearing the Immigration.
and i cannot digest some of the statements like 'immigration officials gave only 45 mins to stay and asked them to take the immediate next flight.
i believe ppl can stay at the airport and not clear immigration for a good amount of time but they should have next flight from the airport, the immigration cannot force them for the flight, so the wise thing would have been to book a flight that was late and that would have given them enuf time to get the FAX. Isn't this again a bit too much to eat for Immigration when the guy is just doing his duty. I am sorry Parents, but in view of the ongoing threats to the airlines and vacation time, I appreciate the'No EXCEPTIONS' attitude of them.
First of all, I would like to congratulate the immigration officials who have performed their duty. It is the duty of the traveller to check proper documents before travelling abroad. This would have been not such an issue if the similar case would have occured in US.
But I would like the officials to take up the issue of giving transit permit to the french national. Law should be the same for all the persons be it Indian or Foreigner.
I had a similar experience, but I and my kids were sent back to US from Paris. But I did fight back with Air France officials after reaching US since it was their problem that they did not check all the docuents in US before boarding the flight. So, they re-issued the tickets for me and kids. Hope this is a consulation....
I agree that the Indian officials should have given some more time. But that doesn't mean that a Green Card holder can be very casual and just walkin to the country.When people travel with their family they ought to be more responsible and careful. In 24 hours of travel, the dad or mom doesn't realize that the visa was missing.This is the typical "India mein sabkuch chaltha hai" attitude that has set in our minds.
When the elder son was questioning did the parents tell him that it was their mistake in the first place? If not then it is their second mistake. Will US or any other country allow people to enter w/o proper documents?Don't we see racism across the world? Mr.Vijay I understand the state of mind in which you have expressed your feelings. But you should take sometime to think through once again and write back to us.
NRIs-Pl. don't show any $ note to the officials in India. You may get into trouble for bribing. India is also showing up its way to the top!! So please have patience and do your best if you can.The Indian officials have set an example saying that they don't care for their own country men when it comes to rules. So be proud and not ashamed.
If you want to know better about immigration laws, you should have asked your children to drop their US Passports in Mumbai and try to enter US. I am sure, they would have failed to enter.
IMHO, the officials honestly deserve every rupee of their salary for that day BECAUSE for a change, they did their job sincerely. Forgetting visa documents is an unpardonable mistake and the officials are supposed to follow rules whatever it may be, they can not be letting their hearts dictate what they should be doing in their jobs. If officials start going by their heart, there would be no law and order. If teachers start going by their heart, you would see 100% literacy floating everywhere with people not knowing basic alphabets. Learn to appreciate officers who do their job sincerely, because it is a rare scene especially in the developing countries. I am with you on the pain of going through such a great inconvenience BUT at the same time can't agree with your point that the officers were inhumane. I am sure, you yourself would have lost even more pride of being an Indian had your children, who are not Indians, been allowed to enter India without Visa.
I am and Indian citizin residing in the US for the last7 years. Although I could have become a US citizen two years ago, I did not take any action on it as I am proud to be an Indian and wanted to wait till the dual citizenship process was streamlined. That way, I would not have to give up my Indian citizenship. I went to India a few months ago to attend a wedding in my family with my younger brother. While we were in US, or passports had expired and so we had to get new ones from the counelate\'s office here. When we reached New Delhi, my passport had an entry stamp from my visit last year but my brother did not. We were detained at the immigration desk for over 3 hours without any explaination. After numerous requests to talk to someone and explain the situation fell of deaf ears, we were forced to sit like some outcasts in a corner. This was being done to 2 Indian citizens. After about 3 hours and numerous requests, they finally decided to let us explain the sitution to them. After that, it took the officer merely a couple of minutes on the computer to verify out story. Due to this complete lack of professionalism and ethics, we were held up at the airport for over 4 hours.
