[governance] visas for india?

[Roland Perry]

In message 
<D8B87832BDC13F45B7265357FCF323C3076E12 at E2K7-MS2.ds.strath.ac.uk>, at 
20:27:04 on Mon, 27 Oct 2008, Konstantinos Komaitis 
<k.komaitis at strath.ac.uk> writes
>I am also located in the UK and they do not accept the email confirming 
>registration at the IGF. They say that they want a letter of 
>invitation, my passport has been held by the Indian authorities for the 
>past 2 weeks. They say that we need a letter of invitation even if we 
>are to apply for business visa.

I went to the outsourced visa agency in Birmingham, UK, yesterday. They 
knew nothing about the scheme, even though I showed them the fax, but 
suggested I went direct to the Consulate (which is just a couple of 
blocks away).

At the consulate they still deal with a number of passport/visa issues, 
mainly for Indian citizens and those travelling at short notice because 
of a family emergency. After looking at the webpage mentioned on the FAX

http://info.intgovforum.org/PLP_3IGF.php

... they were kind enough to issue me with a gratis visa while I waited.

At both places they were patiently dealing with large numbers of people 
travelling not as an emergency, but who had left it "too late" (3 
working days, and today the 13th is a public holiday in India) to apply 
for a tourist visa.

I think it would be polite to apply as soon as possible (with a copy of 
the fax and your email confirming registration, I also had a printout of 
the generic 'Invitation' from the UN-IGF website), and not leave it to 
the last minute.

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/invite08
-- 
Roland Perry
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