CHICAGO: Indian governemnt has introduced a Tourist Visa-on-Arrival (TVoA) program of which citizens of USA and several other countries can take advantage.
The Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) is valid for entry only at any of the following nine designated international Airports: Bangalore,Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Trivandrum
Passengers traveling on TvoA enabled ETA to any other cities like Amritsar or Ahmedabad will require to complete their Immigration and Customs formalities at the above nine cities only. If they would like to complete their Immigration and Customs formalities at destination cities other than the nine ETA/TvoA enabled, they need to be in possession of a normal Tourist Visa before embarking travel on Air India.
International passengers traveling EWR-AMD on AI144, or those connecting from AI102/AI126 at Delhi to Amritsar/Ahmedabad via flight numbers AI 0001 through AI 0199, will clear Immigration and Customs formalities at Amristar and Ahmedabad, respectively, and NOT at Mumbai or Delhi. Whilst making reservations on Air India for through destinations as in the example cited, passengers must possess a normal Tourist Visa in case they are clearing Customs and Immigration at destination airports that do not have ETA/TVoA clearance facility.
Those travelling on ETA/TVoA will book upto the above listed nine cities for Immigration and Customs clearance, and thereafter continue their journey on any flight as a domestic passenger.
Any changes to reservations/tickets at the embarking airport Newark (EWR), NewYork (JFK) and Chicago (ORD) resulting due to incorrect documentation, will attract all the fare penalties applicable at the time of departure.
According to a press release by Air India, it will not accept any responsibility towards the correctness of travel documents. Passengers are solely responsible to ensure that they possess the proper documents for travel, to prevent any avoidable last-minute inconvenience and/or penalties arising due to this lapse, accordign to Rishikant Singh, Regional Manager Air India.
Complete details and the application process for the same can be found on the website http://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visavoa
Surendra Ullal
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