The process of applying for and obtaining an entry visa to India was more time-consuming than I had anticipated. I submitted my application to the Indian Consulate through Travisa Outsourcing, a third-party company who handles most India visa applications.
I had used Travisa's services twice before and had very positive experiences. However, this time - while not miserable - was a little more disorganized. Apparently there is confusion every year over the fact that Fulbright ETA's require an entry visa and not a working visa. This resulted in my application being put on hold for 10 working days. Now, I should have contacted Fulbright as soon as my application was put on hold (they had advised us to contact them immediately if we encountered any problems). Instead I waited for four or five days before notifying them.
Even after contacting Fulbright, I still ended up calling Travisa and being put on hold with a representative for nearly one hour. But, with polite persistence my application was finally processed and sent to the Indian Consulate. Still, despite all this, I received my passport with the proper India visa about 2 1/2 weeks after Travisa received my paper application in the mail.
I know that other ETA's had similar issues, but there were also some who had no problems at all. I know of one fellow ETA who submitted his application approximately one week later than me and still received his visa before I did - I'm convinced that those of us who applied right away helped to uncover all of the problems and that Travisa had everything sorted out by then!
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