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Published: February 20th 2012
Assistant Police Commissioner
Thirty years of foreigner's forms were piled everywhereLike most of the world these days India takes pains to protect itself from terrorists, especially after the terrorist bombings and shootings in Mumbai about two years ago. Airport scanning and security checks are much like they are in the US and pretty much all airports world-wide. But, when we made plans to visit Nepal little did we know that process of getting permission to enter Nepal and then to re-enter India would take almost as much time as we would spend in Nepal. To wit:
Before leaving India we had to go to the Ahmedabad Central Police Station in the Shaibagh District. It took about twenty-five minutes to get there by car. Fortunately, Ilaben is highly regarded in India so we were able to see the assistant commissioner without much delay. His office was piled floor to ceiling with piles of forms hand-completed over the past thirty years. We sat with him and filled out several forms, and chit chatted, as he looked over our passports carefully. Eventually he stamped our passports.
Several days later when we arrived in Katmandu we learned, contrary to what the travel agent had said, that we did indeed require a visa to enter Nepal. This process involved getting passport sized photos, filling out more forms, waiting more than an hour in line, and paying a hefty fee to enter Nepal.
We were told in Ahmedabad that we must visit the Indian embassy in Katmandu to get permission to re-enter India, even though our passports were stamped with a new semi visa from the police commissioner. So, then next day we took a taxi from Shiva’s to the embassy. We waited in a short line to get a form and instructions about what to do. In addition to filling out the forms we had to get photocopies of our passports, flight tickets, etc., and get funds from an ATM to pay a hefty sum for the privilege of doing all this. Then we went back to the embassy, took a ticket and waited about an hour to hand in our paperwork. We learned at that time we would have to come back between 4:30 and 5:00 PM to pick up our stamped passports.
Upon our return to India we had to fill out a full page form in quintuplicate by hand and then revisit the Central Police Commission to get permission to exit India. The form wasn’t always clear about the information required, but we did the best we could. When we got to the police compound we were able to see the assistant commissioner fairly quickly. He scrutinized the forms with exactitude. We had to make many corrections on all five copies of our forms for things like correcting “Birth” to “By Birth” on the line reading “Method of acquiring citizenship”. We were with the commissioner about 30 minutes making these corrections.
After reviewing the forms the assistant commissioner asked “where is the rest of the required materials?” We had no idea what other materials he needed, so Sara (from AWAG) explained to us the we needed color copies of all pages of our passports, plus copies of Ilaben’s passport, and proof of her place of residency. Oops, this little plum sent Marie over the edge and she started to see red. Sara and I quickly silenced her lest we get no more help from the commissioner.
Now we had a new mission. The only places to get color copies in Ahmedabad were in the new sections of the city all the way across the Sabarmati River and past where Ilaben lives. We got copies made but it was too late to return to the Police station. Sunday the station is closed. Monday is the Hindu holiday of Shivatri, and again the station is closed. We will go tomorrow, Tuesday and see if we can finish up the process. Gotta’ love terrorists. Thanks Mr. Bin Laden.
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Kalika
non-member comment
Traveling papers
I think Marie's impulse to scream was correct.Only when I raised my voice and acted out in India was I able accomplish something- get on a bus- have papers completed...although it was embaressing to my otherwise good manners-it always got results. Maybe they thought I was crazy, or maybe that was the way the British did it?