Visa Issues
Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 9:55 pm
Hi ISR Community,
So my wife and I recently accepted a dream job in India. We're super excited about it! A few issues we're having, though, that I'm hoping everyone here can help with.
We're currently employed by a school in China and are coming to the end of our 2-year contract. In order to get an Indian visa, we thought we could simply go through the Indian Embassy in Beijing, but we were told very explicitly that is not a possibility because, according to multiple officials at the embassy, an applicant for an Indian visa at the Beijing Embassy must have lived in China for a full 2 years by the date of the application. By the date of the application, which is right around now, we would have lived in China for approximately 1 year and 8 months. We were told that we must apply through an embassy in our home country- USA.
So, we found out that to apply through our home country, we must fill out an application with a company called CKGS and they would forward the application to the Indian Embassy in whichever American city we would like. We called CKGS before we started and discussed the particulars and were told that the only problem might be that they cannot accept our passports through mail sent from China. We asked if we could mail our PP's to a family member with an American address and were told that should be okay.
That was all a few weeks ago. Now, after filling out all the documents, notarizing, and everything, we called CKGS one last time to ensure that everything we had was correct before we mail off everything to the US. We're now told that this company, per regulations setup by the Indian Embassy, do not accept applications from persons living abroad. We were told that we must be currently residing in the US in order to get approved. To be sure, we have a permanent US address, and that is all that their application ever asked for. Nowhere was it stated that we must be physically residing in the US in order to get a visa, but now we have come to this block. We have emailed our new school's HR and the guy we discussed this with is seeing if he can get an exception made for us since we are in a bureaucratic black hole, but I certainly don't know for sure what might happen from this.
Does anybody have any experience with these types of issues? We don't want to be denied on our application because that sticks with you on your record and we most certainly don't want to lose these great jobs due to this type of silliness. I'm probably panicking for no good reason, but any help would be appreciated! :)
So my wife and I recently accepted a dream job in India. We're super excited about it! A few issues we're having, though, that I'm hoping everyone here can help with.
We're currently employed by a school in China and are coming to the end of our 2-year contract. In order to get an Indian visa, we thought we could simply go through the Indian Embassy in Beijing, but we were told very explicitly that is not a possibility because, according to multiple officials at the embassy, an applicant for an Indian visa at the Beijing Embassy must have lived in China for a full 2 years by the date of the application. By the date of the application, which is right around now, we would have lived in China for approximately 1 year and 8 months. We were told that we must apply through an embassy in our home country- USA.
So, we found out that to apply through our home country, we must fill out an application with a company called CKGS and they would forward the application to the Indian Embassy in whichever American city we would like. We called CKGS before we started and discussed the particulars and were told that the only problem might be that they cannot accept our passports through mail sent from China. We asked if we could mail our PP's to a family member with an American address and were told that should be okay.
That was all a few weeks ago. Now, after filling out all the documents, notarizing, and everything, we called CKGS one last time to ensure that everything we had was correct before we mail off everything to the US. We're now told that this company, per regulations setup by the Indian Embassy, do not accept applications from persons living abroad. We were told that we must be currently residing in the US in order to get approved. To be sure, we have a permanent US address, and that is all that their application ever asked for. Nowhere was it stated that we must be physically residing in the US in order to get a visa, but now we have come to this block. We have emailed our new school's HR and the guy we discussed this with is seeing if he can get an exception made for us since we are in a bureaucratic black hole, but I certainly don't know for sure what might happen from this.
Does anybody have any experience with these types of issues? We don't want to be denied on our application because that sticks with you on your record and we most certainly don't want to lose these great jobs due to this type of silliness. I'm probably panicking for no good reason, but any help would be appreciated! :)