22
MARCH 2019 businesstraveller.comINBOX YOUR LETTERS
Star letter
When we presented ourselves at Delhi
airport for our flight home, my wife sailed
through, but the immigration officer asked me
to wait while he went to the immigration
office. I waited and 40 minutes later went to
the office to enquire what the problem was.
A senior official told me that as I had
entered India by sea, I could not exit by way of
Delhi airport. However, I showed the
supervisor the visa that had been emailed to
me, which stated that I had been permitted to
enter India through one of the 26 (sea, air and
land) ports listed, but that “he/she can depart
from any of the authorised immigration check
posts in India”.
The officer said that the form was incorrect
and that I would need to pay a fine, so I
pointed out that the email I had received was a
Government of India one and that the
Electronic Travel Authorisation I held was
printed on its headed paper with a barcode
and official registration number. My passport
was thus stamped and I was told I could leave.
Earlier in January, I entered Marmagao in
Goa by ship and when I presented myself at
the airport to depart the following day, the
immigration officer summoned two
supervisors to inspect my visa and passport. I
dug out my ETA and pointed to the sentence
that said I may leave by any authorised check
post in India. They were happy with that, my
passport was stamped and I was free to go.
It is clear that there is some confusion about
what to do when visitors enter by sea and leave
by air, so readers taking a cruise culminating in
India should be sure to keep a second hard
copy of their Indian ETA on their person in
order to prevent delays and the possibility of a
fine when departing the country by air.
Iain Hay, HelensburghSTAR PRIZE
This month’s Star
Letter winner will
receive a night’s
stay with dinner
and breakfast
for two adults
and two children
at Hilton Garden
Inn Birmingham
Airport (hilton
gardeninn.com).Please email
your letters
to talktous@
businesstraveller.
com, or write to
us at the address
on page 12, and
include your full
postal address
and daytime
telephone
number. We
reserve the right
to edit letters.TELL US ABOUT YOUR TRAVELS AT [email protected]HIDDEN COSTS
I was planning a holiday trip to the US in
winter and was looking to renew the ESTA
documents for my wife (I personally have a
visa for the US). I googled ESTA and the top
result was a website (esta-) that looked like a US
government site. I opened the form, which was a US
government form, and filled in my wife’s details. I was
expecting to pay US$14 for the ESTA. However,
paying with my credit card, I discovered that I was
charged US$99 for the ESTA document. I went back to
the website and discovered a disclaimer at the bottom of
the page saying that this was not an official government
website and that they charged US$99 for obtaining the
ESTA document via them.
I know I should have read the small print on the
website. But it looked very much like a US government
website so I started to fill in the form not realising I was
using a “middleman”. Besides the obvious deception, the
website doesn’t provide any service/added value at all for
the US$99 charged that I could see. I still had to do all
the work myself!
In the end I did receive the ESTA, so the site is not
illegal. However, please beware of these sites and make
sure not to be fooled by a website that looks “official”.
Meir Malinsky, LondonCRUISE CONTROLS
I disembarked a cruise ship in Mumbai in April last
year, so my wife flew out from the UK to meet me there
for a week’s holiday in Rajasthan. I had applied for our
Indian tourist visas online. It was a quick and easy
process, but the visa application form was particular
about through which ports travellers planned to enter
and leave the country.UP UP
AND
A STAY
Hilton Garden Inn
Birmingham Airport
has landed -
providing the best
place to eat and
relax before or after
your journey.