Travel
A Guide to Acquire your Visa for your travel from the UK to India
Getting a visa for your travel from the UK to India is not too difficult. Here is a step wise guide based on my personal experience to help you in case you need a visa to visit India. The first step is to download the visa form from the website of High Commission of
India. After carefully filling up the form, get two passport size photographs and visit one of the Indian consulates. In London, it is
the India House, Aldwych. Before visiting the Consulate, check out the official holidays listed on the web site, lest you end up there on an off day. Be sure to carry the sum required for your Visa application in cash as credit cards or cheques are not accepted.
Be prepared for long queues. It is advisable not to visit right after a holiday as the queues can be longer than usual. To beat the queue, it is essential to arrive early. The later you arrive, the longer you will have to wait. In fact, being too late may mean that you will fail to get your visa on the same day. Altogether, you have to stand in three queues.
The first queue is right outside India House. When you reach your turn, you need to show the clerk that you have a valid passport. In return, the clerk gives you a queue number or numbers. This depends upon the number of visa or passport applications made by you.
Armed with your queue number, you need to join the second queue upstairs. Take the stairs and head to the main room. The current queue number is displayed in a corner of the room, along with an alphabet from A to E. The display panel flashes from A1 to E99. Go to a window, when your queue number is flashed. Hand over your passport, passport photos, application money and application. You will be provided with a receipt containing your queue number, which would be the same as before. Your passport won’t be returned as it would be required for visa processing.
Now, you will be asked to wait. If everything is in order, your number would be called out pretty soon. The moment you hear your number, go to window 1 and collect your passport. Your visa would be inside your passport. When they ask you to check the details, do it carefully. After all, you need to be absolutely certain that there are no discrepancies concerning your passport number and the dates of your planned trip.
Once you have acquired the visa, it is advisable to make few copies of it to help you in case you need them.
The most common misconception is that the EHIC provides a full extension of our NHS coverage abroad. In other words, as the NHS is generally considered a ‘free health service’ to U.K. residents, so the costs of any treatment under the EHIC, whilst travelling within the European Economic Area (EEA), will be paid in full.
This is not the case, particularly in France, where the health system is contributory, not only through ‘social charges’, but also at the point of treatment.
The EHIC entitles the card holder to any necessary medical treatment due to either an accident or illness within the EEA. The EHIC entitles the holder to state-provided medical treatment within the country they are visiting and the service provided will be the same as received by a person covered by the country’s ‘insured’ medical scheme.
The key area here is that any that there are only few EEA countries provide totally free “state-provided medical treatment” and, as the entitlement is intended to provide cover at a level the same as received by a person covered by the country’s ‘insured’ medical scheme, do not expect it to be totally free!
Additionally, as this entitlement is for “state-provided medical treatment” it is also not intended for treatment at a ‘private hospital’. Should you require medical treatment abroad, you need not necessarily have any opportunity to choose where you are taken!
Indeed, we recently heard of a situation where an EHIC holder had to be taken to a hospital in France, only to be faced with an invoice for the room only of €200+ a day!
Repatriation to the UK, private ambulance and incidentals such as accommodating a relative in a nearby hotel, are specifically excluded.
Furthermore, the EHIC is also not valid for those travelling abroad with the express intention of to seeking medical treatment – those wishing to do so should consider applying for an E112.
To summarise, then, the cover provided by the EHIC is intended to cover travellers to an EEA country to the same degree as a national is covered under the State scheme.
So, as in France, if the State scheme of the member country you are visiting does not provide 100% cover, then neither will the EHIC. For this you should look to obtain either suitable travel insurance or, in the case of France, a medical ‘top up’ plan, such as the EHIC Holiday Top up Plan. The advantage of the latter of these plans is they are designed for long stay holidays and do not have any exclusions for pre-existing medical conditions.