On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 8:49 PM, Sidin Vadukut <[email protected]> wrote: [snip] > How much of this boils down to the reputation other countries have of our > passport verification and issuing process? I remember talking about this to > a Republic of Ireland government investment/tourism of some kind a few years > ago, who said that they were well aware of how archaic the passport issuing > mechanism in India was. As long as you can buy a new passport for Rs 35,000 > or so in Delhi, which was the rate when I last checked, the document is a > certificate of nothing at all. (Now Ireland also lets in Indian passports > with Schengens or UK visas in them.)
Ireland is giving a visa waiver if you have a valid Visa between Jul 2011 and Oct 2012 (timed for the London Olympics). http://www.discoverireland.com/in/ireland-plan-your-visit/facts/Visa-Passport-and-Embassies/ This looks like a temporary arrangement to get some tourism dollars. All signs are that Ireland will back to the old Visa regime as soon as the Olympics are over. > My experiences with Visa On Arrival have been mixed. Sri Lanka and Malaysia > were good. Turkey was absolutely terrible. Even the guys at the airport said > that if I ever were to come back I should just get a visa the usual way > before leaving. My experience of VOA in Bhutan (fantastic), Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (with pre-approval letter) was good. > Perhaps there are elements of racism and such like. But to be told, in > Turkey, that Indian passport were inspected more closely than Iraqi ones > was… a bit much IMHO. Same in China immigration but that is to be understood. Chinese immigration also has a gadget that you can use to report whether you were satisfied with the behavior/process of the visa officer. I have not seen this anywhere else I traveled. -- Vinayak
