Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Indian Citizenship, Indian Passport and Visa free travel


Indian Citizenship Act, 1955 defines an Indian citizen by the following terms:

Citizenship by Birth
Citizenship by Descent
Citizenship by Registration
Citizenship by Naturalization

And Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2005 defines Indian citizen by the policy known as Jus Sanguinis (Latin for: right of blood). Which means an Indian citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having a parent(s) who are citizens of India. In contrast with Jus Soli (Latin for: right of the soil)


As Indian citizens, we can acquire an Indian passport. With an Indian passport we are allowed to travel to some countries without visa, and some countries offer us visa-on-arrival.
Through a very few countries offer them to Indian passport holders, some of these countries are good for holiday visit.

I would list some of the countries I find interesting below, however it is always advisable to check with a travel agent or the country's embassy to confirm before taking off.

There are three types of Indian passports, these are:
1) Regular Passport: they are ordinary passports issued to ordinary citizens for ordinary travel; they are of deep blue color.
2) Official Passport: they are issued to government employees representing Indian government on official business; they are of white color.
3) Diplomatic Passport: they are issued to the top ranking Indian officials and Indian diplomats; they are of maroon color.


Currently (as on 24-Nov-2011) Indian government issues normal paper passports but soon start issuing biometric passports.
Biometric passports would contain a chip which would have all your data written on it, so these passports would be computer readable.

Permanent Residency or PR:
Acquiring a PR of another country has some advantages. PR status lets you stay in that country indefinitely without acquiring its citizenship.

According to the Indian Nationality Law you can not have dual citizenship so if you accept a citizenship of any other country your Indian citizenship is automatically terminated, under section 9(1).
Even acquiring and passport of another country is deemed to be a voluntary acquisition of another country's citizenship.

PR is also known in USA as Green Card, which is hard to get. If you get a PR of another country you become NRI (Non-Resident-Indian).
With PR you get the benefit to live and work in that country.

http://www.visasforindians.com/ is a good website which host information on tourist visas, work visas and PR of some countries.

According to an Indian citizen as acquire Singapore PR after staying in Singapore for at least 6 months on P, Q or S work pass. This would make it the easiest PR to obtain if this information is correct.
Similarly they also say that after staying in Canada for 1 year on continuous full time work experience you can acquire Canada PR.


For travel purpose there are many countries where Indian citizens can travel without Visas or Visas are issued on arrival plus some country's tourist visas are easily obtained.

All the countries offering visa free and visa-on-arrival to Indian Passport holders can be found on various websites including but not limited to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Indian_citizens
This Wikipedia page shows the countries list according to its continent.
Please note that wiki page may have some mistakes so its advisable to cross check all the info.
i.e. I couldn't find and info on Tajikistan giving visa free and visa-on-arrival to Indian Passport holders. This is actually a good country to visit if you like natural beauty, even through its not political stable.

Other good website is http://www.visahq.in/
This website give you visa related info many countries, through unlike its U.S. counterpart you can't apply for visas through them.


Very few of these countries are reasonable for a normal Indian citizen for vacation.
Some of the countries I think are worth looking into are mentioned below in no particular order.


Macau is one of the two Special Administrative Region of China the other being Hong Kong.
Currently they offer 30 days visa free travel to Indian citizen which is mentioned on Macau embassy website.
It’s a nice country to travel and vacation, the small island's main source of income is tourism and gambling being its main attraction in fact gambling is an important part of Macau's economy.  

Similarly Hong Kong offers visa free travel for 14 days to citizens of all commonwealth countries, India being one of them.
It's a nice place to visit with great culture and tourist attraction, Hong Kong film industry being one.

Note:
Even through they are separate nations they are also part of China and current tension between India and China may cause some tension between Indian and Hong Kong & Macau too.


Indonesia provides visa-on-arrival valid for 30 days for a fee of US$ 25.
Indonesia offers great urban and rural locations as well as great culture, its worth visiting.

Thailand provides visa-on-arrival valid for 15 days for a fee of 1000 THB.
Thailand has great locations and culture, its capital city Bangkok is a nice place to vacation.

Singapore, though they only give a 4 days transit visa upon arrival if holding ticket and visa for traveling to another destination. It is better to apply for a Singapore tourist visa and travel to this great nation.
Former Indian National Army Memorial is a must visit for every Indian, it is build at the same location of the INA War Memorial which was destroyed.


Through I have my likeness inclined towards to Asian countries as they are closer to home and are much safer, there are some Caribbean countries which are worth traveling to as they offer great natural beauty and awe inspiring view though they are very far away for home and are high in poverty.

Jamaica offers 90 days visa free travel.
It’s a beautiful country, with spectacular natural landscapes. Its a country deep in poverty so it is advisable to keep a safe guard from local thugs.

Trinidad and Tobago also offers 90 days visa free travel
Trinidad and Tobago is a country consist of two islands, it has a good share of Indian culture and Indian people however there is also an a minor Indian-African clash.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines offers 1 month visa fee travel
A beautiful country with a great natural beauty, It has been one of the location of The Pirates of The Caribbean movies.


Please note again: do check with your travel agents and embassies before you plan your visit to avoid any complications.


You can check out more info on these countries and other countries, also check the pictures of the locations, on The Lonely Planet's website.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

A good website to visit for travel related information and a must for travelers.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Re: Broken Morning: OPEN LETTER TO A DELHI BOY


Hallo raagshahana

Reading your Blog post "Open Letter To A Delhi Boy" made me furious and also made me think.
It does not take I genius to guess what may have inspired you to write that post.
I am a full fleshed Delhiite, so it was natural for me to be annoyed with your protest.

However I would like to tell you that you have my sympathy, I know Delhi has many ugly sides but so does every other part of the human society.

Your views are stereotypical and your sarcasm is just plain racist.
I see you have focus most of your angry on the Punjabi community of Delhi.
And call it the Delhi society, you know there are numerous communities in Delhi, but unlike Mumbai where these communities have different presence in the city, in Delhi every community is a part of The Delhi Community, famously quoted by the Mumbai Dabbawalas. Which includes the Tamil, Maharashtrian, Oriya, and many other communities from every part of India.

You are not the only one who faced hardship in different city away from homeland.
It's not like North Indian are treated warm hearty in South India, not to mention Shiv Sena and MNS in Maharashtra.

I am not pointing finger at you or any community just showing you the facts.
Like the fact that in some part of South India if you speak Hindi you would not be answered or treated well.
And also the fact that in Bangalore, people have a mind-set of anti North Indian by over charging for any commodity, or the fact that you are very rarely would come across a restaurant with North Indian cuisine. However you will find a lot of South Indian restaurants in Delhi.

I don't blame you for your thoughts and expressing them which happens to be your fundamental right through out the territory of India(Both in North & South India), I am just telling you that these things are everywhere, the things you experienced. I don't know what prompt you to that post(letter) but I know that it wouldn't have been nice, and I know that Delhi has a tag 'not as safe for women' and some people try their level best to live up to that tag. But NOT EVERYONE IS THE SAME.
There are good as well as evil in every part of human inhabited world.

Through out history we have been an nation divided by many boundaries(geographical and psychological) and that have been our biggest weakness.

Author Chetan Bhagat has written an beautiful story called "2 States"  on the matter of differences of North Indians and South Indians through his own experiences of his struggle to bend the cultural differences for the sake of his love, his wife. He being and Punjabi married an South Indian girl with consent of both their parents which they fought greatly to achieve.
So you see that cultural differences doesn't matter if we stop giving them importance.

Through I would agree on some of your sarcastic stereotyping, yes some of the Punjabi youth has an big ego and we Delhiites are known to be arrogant we is not lie, as well as the rudeness of the Haryanvis.

I am not an Punjabi but your racist remarks towards the Punjabi community do angers me, since many of my friends are Punjabi who are good people. However I will let your remarks fade away as an angry response from an wounded heart.
With this post I wanted you respond to you in an open hearten manner, not to question you but to point out your wrong view about North Indian (maybe a little more of Delhi) in the least sarcastic manner(more satirical I suppose).

We have many problems in Delhi(so does every part of the world)
Still we have warm heart(Like the famous saying Yeh Delhi hai Dilwalon ki), it such that you have seen most of the wrong sides of Delhi.
I would suggest meet better people, there are around 16,753,235 people in Delhi.
Good people are not hard to find if you look with a good heart.



From Delhi With Love

A Delhi Boy

Response To:
Broken Morning: OPEN LETTER TO A DELHI BOY: Dear Delhi boy, Namaskaram from the South of India, or as you may like to believe, the countries south of the Vindhyas. I came to your city...