US citizen travel restrictions ?

[ak205 1]

Hello everyone

My husband is a US citizen. He is planning to visit me(India) in Dec.

I have heard that if he goes anywhere from India he cannot come back to India again at that time and he has to only return back to US from there.Is this true?

We are planning to go somewhere near Thailand but just confused on this part whether he can go and then come back to India again or not.

Thanks for the help.

[bobby_kvisa 7]

If you enter India on a Tourist Visa you cannot re-enter India for a period of 60 days from your exit of India.

In other words, if you entered on a Tourist visa from the USA, then left to Thailand, you will not be able to come back to India from Thailand for 60 days.

There are two exceptions to this 60 day rule.

1) Get special permission to re-enter India from the Ministry of External Affairs

2) Get a PIO or OCI Card. Both these statuses have no 60-day restriction. Only Tourist Visas have 60-day restriction.

It will probably be much easier for your husband to get a PIO card, this can take less than 20 days to receive at the Indian Consulates in the USA.

Edited October 10, 2010 by bobby_kvisa

[Neal851 3]

If you enter India on a Tourist Visa you cannot re-enter India for a period of 60 days from your exit of India.

In other words, if you entered on a Tourist visa from the USA, then left to Thailand, you will not be able to come back to India from Thailand for 60 days.

There are two exceptions to this 60 day rule.

1) Get special permission to re-enter India from the Ministry of External Affairs

2) Get a PIO or OCI Card. Both these statuses have no 60-day restriction. Only Tourist Visas have 60-day restriction.

It will probably be much easier for your husband to get a PIO card, this can take less than 20 days to receive at the Indian Consulates in the USA.

Nice Job!!!

[ak205 1]

If you enter India on a Tourist Visa you cannot re-enter India for a period of 60 days from your exit of India.

In other words, if you entered on a Tourist visa from the USA, then left to Thailand, you will not be able to come back to India from Thailand for 60 days.

There are two exceptions to this 60 day rule.

1) Get special permission to re-enter India from the Ministry of External Affairs

2) Get a PIO or OCI Card. Both these statuses have no 60-day restriction. Only Tourist Visas have 60-day restriction.

It will probably be much easier for your husband to get a PIO card, this can take less than 20 days to receive at the Indian Consulates in the USA.

That was a really helpful information.

Thank you. Can you tell me how to get this PIO card ? As in what documents will be required ?

[ELW 5]

A PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card has to be renewed every 15 years; better to get OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) card, which is permanent for one's entire lifetime! Here's the comparison chart along with links how to get one from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India:

OCI vs PIO Card

Edited October 10, 2010 by ELW

[Neal851 3]

A PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card has to be renewed every 15 years; better to get OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) card, which is permanent for one's entire lifetime! Here's the comparison chart along with links how to get one from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India:

OCI vs PIO Card

[trinket 30]

Keep in mind a few things about PIO and OCI, if you are the only Indian connection for your USC husband then he will have to apply for PIO first before he can apply for OCI.

Also if you guys have been married for less than 1 year then PIO will have to wait, unless your husband is an Indian descent. If he is then he can directly applyl for OCI showing his ties to India.

Edited October 10, 2010 by trinket

[bobby_kvisa 7]

Applying for an OCI card can take 3-6 months to complete. I am not sure why it takes so long, but I can only guess that the consulate must send an inquiry to India or perform some type of background check / police check in India, which adds time.

A PIO card can be processed within a very short time - less than 20 days - and the all processing is done by the consulate itself. No need to send the file to India - if that is in fact what they do with the OCI.

Also in the OCI application process you have to give them your original USA passport in order to complete the processing requirement. They will keep the USA passport and give it to you only when the OCI card is ready. This means you will have to wait without a USA passport until the Consulate is ready.

For a PIO card, you do not submit any original passports or any original documents - only photocopies. Some of them have to be notarized, but that is no big deal.

I mention this comparison because you said you want to travel to Thailand in December. Your OCI card will not be ready by then, but your PIO would in fact be ready.

Of course the PIO is more expensive and you must renew it every 15 years - but (in your case) it is simply faster and easier and does not require the headache of submitting your original USA passport.

Of course as others mentioned you must qualify for the PIO - which can be done in a number of different ways (NRI, parents are Indian, married to Indian, etc).

[ELW 5]

Interesting info, thanks! Looks like they should do the PIO card for now. OCI card can be done later when one doesn't plan on traveling for awhile. Looks like the OCI card is cheaper if upgrading from an existing PIO card.

[hindustani24 7]

If you enter India on a Tourist Visa you cannot re-enter India for a period of 60 days from your exit of India.

In other words, if you entered on a Tourist visa from the USA, then left to Thailand, you will not be able to come back to India from Thailand for 60 days.

There are two exceptions to this 60 day rule.

1) Get special permission to re-enter India from the Ministry of External Affairs

2) Get a PIO or OCI Card. Both these statuses have no 60-day restriction. Only Tourist Visas have 60-day restriction.

It will probably be much easier for your husband to get a PIO card, this can take less than 20 days to receive at the Indian Consulates in the USA.

Actually she has one more option. I am assuming that your husband is of Indian origin. If he does not want to get PIO or OCI card he can apply for entry visa. India has now stopped giving tourist visas to person of Indian origin.

See Following At: https://www.indian-visa.com/faqs

Question:I am of Indian Origin, what type of visa should I apply for?

Answer: If you are traveling to India to visit family or for tourist related reasons you must apply for an Entry visa, NOT a Tourist visa. Please visit the Entry Visa Requirements Page for more information.

The two month gap rule only applies to tourist visa and not to "entry visa". I have been through this problem myself didn't know any better and didn't have time to go through OCI route so decided to get the "special permission". At the end i got the "special permission" but it was such a pain to get this because they wanted confirmed tickets to Mauritius (that's where we went for our honeymoon) from India before considering our request. I wrote a letter and pointed them out that on your own web-site u guys have wrote to not book flight before obtaining visa then how can i buy tickets when i am not even sure if the permission will be granted. But they didn't want to hear anything finally i decided to buy tickets and send it to them. The whole process took 1 and half month i got my US passport back after probably making 20+ calls and at one point i even told them that next week i need to leave for India for my wedding and i don't want to get the special permission please return my US passport back but they finally decided to grant one just two days before my India trip. Also i had to register in India and i was asked about this at all the immigration counters and airline counters. Trust me it's pain. My advise would be to get "entry visa" or PIO card, because u don't have time for OCI now. The first thing i did before leaving for India was to apply for OCI and already have it so no more "two month" rule for me

[ak205 1]

Thank you so much everyone for your replies.

My husband will do the POI card as there are not requirements of sending the original US Passport.

He is coming in dec so i guess PIO will come easily before that.

After that there is no prob in going somewhere from India and then again coming back to India.

The OCI can be done later also when there is enough time.

[hobokenworkingman 4]

Thank you so much everyone for your replies.

My husband will do the POI card as there are not requirements of sending the original US Passport.

He is coming in dec so i guess PIO will come easily before that.

After that there is no prob in going somewhere from India and then again coming back to India.

The OCI can be done later also when there is enough time.

someone said that they need your US passport to do the OCI application - this is not entirely true. when i applied in march, the application process was thru mail. they then assign you a case # (you'll have to check on the website as to the status and all of that) a few days later. it took a month-6 weeks to have my OCI card and sticker ready. THEN you have to present your US passport for them to put the sticker and the card in. So you can apply, go to India, come back and just go to the consulate, give your passport in and they process within the same day (assuming you live somewhere close to a Indian embassy). if not, you can still do it, just give your passport to them via fedex after you get back from India. make sure you check their website for the latest info; during the whole surrender certificate fiasco over the summer, they kept changing details on their website at least once an hour! was the biggest scam that i've seen perpetuated and just utterly ridiculous...

[ak205 1]

someone said that they need your US passport to do the OCI application - this is not entirely true. when i applied in march, the application process was thru mail. they then assign you a case # (you'll have to check on the website as to the status and all of that) a few days later. it took a month-6 weeks to have my OCI card and sticker ready. THEN you have to present your US passport for them to put the sticker and the card in. So you can apply, go to India, come back and just go to the consulate, give your passport in and they process within the same day (assuming you live somewhere close to a Indian embassy). if not, you can still do it, just give your passport to them via fedex after you get back from India. make sure you check their website for the latest info; during the whole surrender certificate fiasco over the summer, they kept changing details on their website at least once an hour! was the biggest scam that i've seen perpetuated and just utterly ridiculous...

Yes,just because we have only 1.5months time in between, we dont want to take chance of applying for OCI.

POI is much quicker it seems and i guess we will get it within 20 days.

Regarding surrender certificate , we did apply for that too. My husband surrendered his old Indian passport and we got the passport with the cancelled stamp on it and the surrender certificate after 4 weeks of application.