Indian Arrivals and Departures

It really is difficult to paint a picture of the process of International Arrivals and Departures in India, but I am going try my best.

Arrivals

After you touch down you may be lucky enough to 'not' have to take a bus from the plane to the terminal, lucky you, but you may be asked by the hostess to check your boarding pass. Yes, on ‘exiting the plane’ they may want to ‘check it’ - why would you need to see my boarding pass ?

If you’re lucky to be given entry cards on the plane, in fact its unusual, you can go directly to immigration. Otherwise, you make a mad dash, along with the entire plane, to the 2 or 3 counters to grab the few remaining cards and run to the queue and proceed to fill out the cards while waiting along with everyone else. 

The interrogation at immigration, particularly if the Sir (Mike) is not with us, due to us being on dependant visas is always interesting. “Why are you here? Where is the Sir? Why is he not with you? What is his job? Who is he working for? Do the children study? How long are you here for? When will you leave India again? Where do you live?

Currently, Mike and I are both travelling with 2 passports, the old one has our original Indian visa, which is mandatory to travel with. We then have paperwork for our Visa extensions and additional paperwork for our change of passport details. We are quite the administrative nightmare at Immigration these days and every time we front up to Immigration, it is like we are the only expats living here with paperwork !! 

After some fingerprints, photos and some interesting discussions, the magical stamp is received, and we walk all of 3 metres for another guard to check the stamp that was just done ! (As a side note this same process of stamp:check:stamp occurs at each and every shop I go in to within India - it's just the receipt that gets stamped/checked !!) 

We then proceed to security... yep, another security check and we have to have our hand luggage scanned - on ENTRY! I must point out that there is absolutely nothing between the plane and this check point - no shops, nothing!! So what they are checking for I have no idea, AND we are leaving the airport……..

We then proceed to get our luggage from the baggage carousel where you are harassed by porters ..... no thanks. When you finally get your luggage, you should check to see if there are any white chalk marks on your cases. If so, that is the very secure method of customs identifying bags for further analysis. So, you can imagine I always have some wet wipes in my bag..... wipe, wipe, done, no longer a customs review required ! It should be noted that they are mostly looking for people with extra electronics and alcohol and avoiding taxes!! My meat, crackers and lollies are not usually a problem.

You are then out the door to be harnessed by more men wanting you to take their taxi and use them as porters. 

Now, for Departures. Only passengers with ID and proof of travel on that day, actually within a few hours of travel, are able to enter the airport building. No one else can get through security.

Now for the checks.......

Check 1 - ID proof at the building entrance

Check 2 - ID, Visa and boarding pass at the airline counter

Check 3 - Immigration queue check, just because.

Check 4 - Immigration officer, checks the whole lot of paperwork and lots of questions.

Check 5 - security guard 2 metres behind the immigration officer to check the stamp you just received.

Check 6 - hand luggage security check with ID and boarding pass check with pat down and frisk. Your boarding pass MUST be stamped or you will not be allowed on the plane. There used to be an additional check that ALL hand luggage (including pillow pets for the parents amongst us) must have a bag tag and be stamped for it to be allowed on the plane. No stamp, not allowed! 

Check 7/8 - duty free purchases or lounge access

Check 9 - the queue to board the plane, just to get in the queue.

Check 10 - scanning of boarding pass at the gate.

Check 11 - at the entrance to the plane

Check 12 - hostess on the plane

I’m sure I’ve missed some but it’s one crazy process……
Have I enticed you to come and visit ??