Patsie, If you have enough time to get another set of pics, it's probably better to do so. It would seem from comments here that it's down to the individual who examines your application to accept /reject it when there is an issue, so you might be lucky....but there again you might not.

Hi Patsiej, we also had our photos taken with a white background but the photos came out greyish. We sent them off and had no problems at all. We decided to take a chance because one 'Supersnapz' shop we went into wanted £12.99 each for 4 pictures whereas the photos we sent came from a photo booth in a WHSmith and cost £4.

hi - can someone answer a couple of questions about the visa form for me please? do you have to put down a business address i.e your employer? and for referees, the uk ones are easy but who do you put for india? last time i just put our hotel,but no contact name - also dont have the hotels phone number. do you need to put two referees for india on the form?
thanks.

Hi bushbaby,we collected our visa`s and our friends on friday they had put N/A for indian referee`s,and we didn`t put any phone no`s

Hi DJK and Sydney

Thanks for you advice. We aren't going until January so I am going to send off the application forms tomorrow with the pictures as they are. Sometimes the pictures look fine and sometimes not - depends on the light at the time. Hopefully if the pictures aren't acceptable we will still have time to resubmit.

Will keep you posted on how we get on.

Patsiej

got another question - sorry i must be a bit thick, but where it says port of arrival and port of departure on the visa form, do you put diabolim airport for arrival and departure, or gatwick airport for departure. if anyone can answer this now it would be help as i wanted to post them today. i have asked our friends who we are going with and they used visa forms from they had from years ago and this question wasn't on it. even though they were old forms they got their visas back okay.
thanks

I just put Manchester for departure and Goa for arrival in India

Maria

I put Dabolim for both,didn't have a problem.Visa's were back in 4 days

The form says:

Places to be Visited in India: (a) Port of Entry: Port of Exit:

So I have alwas assumed it refers to your arrival and departure airport in India and never had a problem

all completed and posted but.......one thing i am now worried about. i paid by postal order as when i tried to complete on line the site kept coming up with "site error". so i printed off the forms and filled in by hand. when i went to the post office i asked the assistant if i was supposed to fill in the back of the postal order with my name and address, but she said no, that was for gift donations. now i'm worried that if it gets separated from our applications they wont know whose it is! but i do have the receipt with the serial number of the postal order on so they will be able to trace it i suppose. the price of the special delivery envelopes seem to vary too - it was £5.40 to send and £4.95 for the return envelope to go inside. now its baited breath until i get the passports back.i'm going to need a holiday after the stress of these visa forms!!

Hi Bushbaby,

I know just what you mean.

I am also stressed out after completing my visa application (also done by hand as the site was down). Sent it yesterday and just hoping there won't be any problems.
Can't see why they have to make it so complicated (and expensive). Usually go to Turkey where the visa is a 'piece of cake'.

Patsiej

Might take a bit longer than usual. There is a notice on the site regarding the high number of applications. They are advising a minimum of 15 working days. My application was with them 4 days before they opened it.EDIT.... But having said that, I now have some bright and shining visas a few days later.
So for an up-to date FAQ of what's acceptable / concerns from recent posts:
Indian Refs:= NA
Ports of entry exit: =Goa / Goa (p.s.don't use / slashes, anywhere - system won't accept them)
PIN: = get the pin of your hotel or a nearby hotel if you can't find yours or are staying elsewhere.
Phone Number in India:=NA
If anyone has any other queries, ask soon before I've forgotten what I filled in !!

hi, dont want to apply on line as i have printed off application forms and was going to just go to manchester and hand them in, been looking for info on this and cant seem to find it... do i need an appointment or can i just turn up with my forms and payment?

any help would be appreciated... thanks

posted my hand written visa forms 23/11 and received them back this morning. they received them on 24th and processed them on the 27th.posted monday -brilliant! interesting they dont show up on the tracker system on the post office website ?

Hi DJK and Sydney

Sent the visa application off last Monday 23 November and the finished product has just been delivered to my door by Royal Mail - 11.05 1 December.

Excellent service - can't think why they are saying to allow 15 working days excluding transit days.

All systems are now 'go' for Candolim in January. If by any chance you are there at the same time (8 - 22 Jan) I will buy you a drink!

Thanks for your help.

Patsiej

Hi Patsiej,
Glad it all went well for you and thank-you for your very kind offer!! Unfortunately, I won't be able to take advantage as we're off Dec 12th for 2 weeks. (You can see now why I was concerned about the delay - I didn't have a lot of time to rectify any mistakes). Hope you have a great time !!

Congratulations on your first visa Patsiej. We may be there around the tail end of your holiday but we are leaving it until the last minute before we book. We might see you there.

That is really good news Patsiej.

Djk we are also going away on the 12th.

Great Stuff KatieP. Hope to see you there.

Patsiej