Getting my Visa for India

I spent the next few days in Berlin, wrapping up some visa issues. During my time in Germany I had to get my visa for India, and that was an experience right there. It’s a bit more complicated when you’re a foreigner trying to get a visa. I had no other choice though, I couldn’t get it before I left because it would have expired by the time I made it to India. I had couriered my passport to Berlin earlier in the month, so that I could pick it up when I visited. The Indian embassy in Germany subs out visa application’s to a separate company.  When I first started figuring out what I needed to apply, I tried calling this company to confirm what they needed for my application. Whenever I tried calling, it was busy. No answering service or anything to even let me know I was calling the right place, just a busy tone. I decided to try the Indian Embassy, just to find out what was going on. One woman I spoke with just flat out asked me why I was calling them, told me I just had to keep trying that number that was perma-busy, and then hung up on me. Great representation for the country.

So all I could do was just repeatedly call until I got through. That was super annoying, but it worked. And once I sent off my passport, I was calling them every few days. All I had to do was say Canadian Passport, and they knew who it was. By the end, I think they were so sick of hearing from me they couldn’t wait for my application to be processed. I did an unannounced drop by the office when I first arrived in Berlin, and the woman actually laughed a bit when I told her who it was, since my visa still wasn’t ready. In the end I did get it, thankfully.