Indian Visa for minor: No VFS appointments

[gre.bm691]

Hi all
I intend to travel with my family to India on 21st of December. I am a British passport holder with OCI and wife is an Indian passport holder.
My two-year old daughter is a British passport holder with no visa. I naively did not realise that UK was dropped off the e-visa list recently and only realised that was the case when I tried to apply for one today!
I now have one month to travel to apply for entry/tourist visa. However, there are no VFS slots available except in Belfast.
I had the following questions, if someone can assist:
- Will I be able to apply for Tourist/Entry visa via Beflast VFS center eventhough I am an England resident?
- If the above is possible, will I be able to submit the application myself on behalf of my daughter by filling in the authorization letter? Traveling to Belfast with the entire family will be a pain.
- Any alternatives anyone can suggest to help me in this situation?

Thanks in advance.

[dontringthebell]

Hi all
I intend to travel with my family to India on 21st of December. I am a British passport holder with OCI and wife is an Indian passport holder.
My two-year old daughter is a British passport holder with no visa. I naively did not realise that UK was dropped off the e-visa list recently and only realised that was the case when I tried to apply for one today!
I now have one month to travel to apply for entry/tourist visa. However, there are no VFS slots available except in Belfast.
I had the following questions, if someone can assist:
- Will I be able to apply for Tourist/Entry visa via Beflast VFS center eventhough I am an England resident? Yes
- If the above is possible, will I be able to submit the application myself on behalf of my daughter by filling in the authorization letter? Yes Travelling to Belfast with the entire family will be a pain.
- Any alternatives anyone can suggest to help me in this situation? If its an emergency and you can support the reason with documentation, you might be considered by Indian consulate.

If it is so, write to info.london@mea.gov.in

Thanks in advance.

[gre.bm691]

Thanks, I have got an appointment at Belfast for 10th December and my outbound flight is on 21st December. Is there a difference in the timeline for Entry visa and Tourist Visa?

If in case of an Entry Visa, can someone please specify what documents are needed apart from the ones required for Tourist visa? The HCI web page and the VFS page show different purposes for the Entry visa. As my wife is indian passport holder, my daughter would qualify for it as per the HCI web page.

[gre.bm691]

I emailed the HCI (visa.london@mea.gov.in) with all the supporting documents on 23-11-2021 and today, have forwarded the same to info.london@mea.gov.in.
Anyone who has had emergency visa issued recently? How long do they take to respond?

I have been chasing VFS too. They arent picking calls up and do not reply to emails.

Really worried now. I have booked the appointment at Belfast anyway for 10th December but that will only give 7 working days for the tourist visa to be issued. Any advice will be appreciated.

[Preetz]

Hi,
There are new appointments available now!!!

I am in a similar situation but travelling in january and had only got an appointment for 2 days prior to our departure date.

We were about to book a belfast appointment, like you did, so my husband could attend while I stayed home looking after my 2 month old baby.

On checking the hci website now there are new appointments in hounslow and other vfs centres. There is only 1 appointment every hour so please be quick!!!

Hope you get one!

[gre.bm691]

Thanks and apologies for the late reply.
I had contacted the second secretary via email for this. Was given an emergency appointment on a Saturday at the Barbican VFS centre and the entry visa arrived within 2 working days.

[Preeti2022]

Hi,
I am in a similar situation as yourself.
I urgently need to travel to India and need visa for my son.
Do you mind sharing second secretary’s email address?

Many thanks for your help! Will highly appreciate this information.

Preeti

[gre.bm691]

Hi, the email addresses I emailed to:
Ssvisa.london@mea.gov.in

Other email address I had also contacted was info.london@mea.gov.in

If you have a relative you are traveling with someone having an Indian passport, I suggest they do the email. It helped in my case.

[Preeti2022]

Thank you so much for replying. Highly appreciate this. We all have British passports with OCI’s so I can include those with the application (unfortunately no one has Indian passport)

did you hear fairly quickly from second secretary for your appointment?

We are hoping to travel by next weekend due to family emergency.
Thanks so much again.
Best wishes to you!

[gre.bm691]

Yes, I think I got the reply next day asking me to send all the docs via email to an address. The email also had the date of appointment. You will need to take that email printout with you. We got the appointment for the following Saturday (the emergency appointments only happen over the weekend).
You will be fine hopefully. I got it during Covid times. So they should be less busy nowadays.

[gre.bm691]

Just checked and I got the reply the same day, albeit quite late (near midnight).
If it helps, this is what I got:


From: R.K. Duggal <ssvisa.london@mea.gov.in>
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2021, 23:07
Subject: Re: Urgent: Emergency Visa for Daughter (Minor)
To: xxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Info goswell <Info.goswell@vfshelpline.com>


Dear applicant,

As a special case of visa appointment, please visit at Indian Visa and Consular Application Center-Goswell 142-148 Goswell Road, London, EC1V 7DU to submit your visa applications along with all supporting documents at 8.50 AM on 04.12.21 (SATURDAY). This appointment should not be taken as guarantee for issuing a visa as the same would be decided by the Visa Officer at HCI after examination of documents/ interview of the applicant. The validity of visa will start from the day it is issued.

Please carry hard copy of this mail to the Centre as an appointment acknowledgement.



Best Regards

SS Visa

[Preeti2022]

Thank you so much for sharing this.
Hopefully fingers crossed will hear from them soon.

Will let you know how it goes
Thanks once again

[Preeti2022]

Hey!
Just to let you know we got an appointment for next week. Thanks so much again.

Did you had go collect the visa from VFS centre or was it posted to you?

Best wishes!

[gre.bm691]

It was posted. Paid at the VFS for the shipping. All the best.