Indian Visas Will No Longer Require Self-Immolation, the Amazing Bath Amenities Race, and What Joe Biden Thinks of Airports (Bits ‘n Pieces for February 8, 2014)

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Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. Having just gone through the Indian Visa process with their outside contractor BLS in NYC, I can attest to what a great development this is. While I didn’t have to self-immolate thankfully, I felt like I wanted to a various points in the ordeal. At least I now have a 10-yr visa though. 🙂

  2. BLS is like an extension of the Indian Govt. – corrupt and inefficient. The previous visa processor was at least pleasant to deal with and very responsive, in my experience.

  3. I have an Indian OCI card (Overseas Citizen of India) since my parents were born there. When I got it, I was told that was all I needed to enter the country (along with my current US passport) since it provided me most of the benefits of Indian citizenship.

    Yet I still need to provide my old passport (2 passports ago) with my old visa to enter the country. It’s stupid.

  4. Indian visa is PIA. Had a US citizen friend with US passport. His App for visa took 2 months and after begging multiple times, they gave her the visa during the day of his flight and he missed the first flight. He was born in China but his US citiznship didn’t matter to them and demanded all kinds of docs from China. He has been living in US right after his birth.

  5. @Jim – Please educate yourself before making such comments. David Headley, the enabler of Mumbai attacks was(is) a born American citizen – has a Pakistani muslim father and an American mother. Chinese Uighur muslims who had gone to Afghanistan to fight alongside their brotheren from Al Queda were among the detainees at Gitmo. Having an American citizenship does not preclude one from being a suspect, just like being a non-muslim from India does not preclude one from TSA harassment – the female Indian ambassador was publicly searched and thoroughly examined in full view of the public by the TSA at an airport a couple of years back. Ignorance of facts does not excuse one from making silly posts.

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