https://indianvisaonline.gov.in

Once upon a time……now you may not believe the following story, to put it into perspective we live in cape town about 25 mins drive from city centre on a good day and 2 hours in traffic….

Check out our timeline for one afternoon in May:

13:05 telephone call to consular service centre informed 15:00 closure that day

13:10 decided to pull our documentation together for indian visa

• booked hotels
• defined itinerary
• pre-booked flights
• 6 months bank statements
• online application
• passport copies
• national identification copies
• photo 1 set completed
• attested all copies
• 14:15 departed for consular service centre in cape town
• 14:35 parked on Long Street, city centre
• 14:43 signed in consular service
• 15:00 paid fees
• 15:05 photo 1 set completed
• 15:10 visa submission
• 15:15 departed city centre
• 15:45 arrived back home

2 days later

• 1 visa approved and passport available

The above never happens in real life and we know this kind of turnaround just does not really happen, paperwork, or drive into and out of city centre during an afternoon…..

and they lived happily ever after……or so it seems…

3 weeks later and several phone calls and non-feedback I found out that my visa was being held up because I don’t need it for several months….

The visa service people actually ended up arguing with themselves as did Indian Consulate because they realised they had approved my wife’s with no delay and so had no valid excuse for my visa delay….

Ho hum…..2 days later visa approved, guess I should calibrate myself to Indian service levels already..!:)