Nepal is a popular place for travellers who have not made arrangements in their home country, but are attempting to get a Visa to enter India. Unlike many countries, India requires all foreign visitors to get a visa, and does not offer visa on arrival to any nationals of any country.

In Nepal, the Indian Embassy is located in Kathmandu, at 336 Kapurdhara Marg. This is in the suburb of Lazimpat, known as the Embassy district, and is located off the southern end of the popular travellers area of Thamel, only a kilometer of so from the Royal Palace. Not difficult to walk to, or any taxi driver will get you there for next to no cost.

Getting to the Indian Embassy is the easy bit, actually getting an Indian visa is the more challenging part! As the embassy is busy and they only issue a limited amount of visa’s per day, it is important to get there early, so as to not miss out and have to go through the process again the following day.

In point form the process is as follows ;

• Arrive to queue outside Embassy early - suggest around 7 -7.30 am
• wait in ever growing queue until embassy gates open at 8.30am
• wait in queue still, as officials allow about 20 people at a time through to security
• wait in small queue to go through security
• take electronic ticket from machine, with number
• proceed to customer service windows, and wait till they open at 9am
• get visa application form (about 50 available, for 200 applicants)
• wait for officials to get more forms
• wait for number to be called to foreigners window (in our case this was 1.30pm, only 6 hours after we arrived!!!!)
• hand in form, money and passport.
• comeback at later time (depending what type of visa you are applying for) to collect and repeat above process!!!

The process varies depending on if you require a tourist visa (valid for 6 months), or a transit visa (valid for 15 days), and I will detail the requirements and differences in another blog shortly. However, in either case you need to allow a full, frustrating day of waiting in queues! General opinion is that this is a fair introduction to Indian officialdom, and all prospective travellers to India should get used to it!!