If you use a Mac beware applying for your online India Visa! The India Consulate has outsourced its application process to Travisa Outsourcing – at least if you live somewhere overseen by Consulate General of India-New York. Ed and I were each able to use Safari to go through the online application process without a problem.
The website stated that if a payment process did not come up after the application process you need to start the application process over. After poking around the website a bit, I found a link to payment processing. When I tried going through that link processing the fees through Safari, it was a no-go! Travisa’s system did not recognize our application numbers or passport numbers. I went back and tried again – still rejected on both.
I then did some digging around to find that their “preferred browsers were IE or Chrome”. Really? Not even Firefox? So I tried Chrome. I figured I would have to go through the application process again because it still stated on the website that if a payment process did not come up after the application process you need to start over. In Chrome, I went to the application link, typed in all the information on the first page, and then clicked “Continue”. Waited…clicked again…waited – um, okay nothing is happening here… I clicked around the page, changing selections with no issue, dragged my mouse back down to the bottom and clicked “Continue”. Nothing! Not even any indication that their server was being contacted. Hmmm…
I decided to go back to the page that had a video explaining the application process. I had to expand the video to see what was being instructed. The video is incredibly blurry, but you can figure out what the commentator is talking about. After watching the video, I found that the written directions are a bit inconsistent with the video directions. The video directions state after the application process, you return to the directions page to click on another link that takes you to the payment process – it does not continue to a payment process automatically.
OK, now what? I have two printed applications with assigned numbers through Safari. Make sure not to save paper using double-sided printing – they want two separate pages AND use legal size paper, not letter. I also recommend saving your application as a PDF after it is completed. I decided to try processing the payment through Chrome – and it worked! You can send up to three passports in the same FEDEX shipment. Travisa prefers Money Orders because they say credit cards cause delays, plus there is no option to choose credit cards for payment in Chrome. Then uploading your latest passport type photo you will paste to your application and uploading your signature. Be ready to get the 48-hour delay warning if you don’t upload your photo and signature.
And I almost forgot – you will most likely have to download their security certificate since it will indicate the site is not secure. I did not try using the websites through Firefox.
Useful India Links:
- Consulate General of India, New York (type in their search window “Tourist Visa”)
- The search will offer you this link: India Visa Center – Travisa Outsourcing
