visa on arrival and innerline travel permits

• Jayanti Ramnath
• 04 Dec 2017
• Travel With Kids

Remember those innumerable documents, the distressful serpent like queue, those drilling questions and then the infuriating waits to get the visa !! Phooh, we were almost exhausted before we even took off for a vacation and in any case, if we did not plan the trip well in advance, we had to drop our vacation plans.

But now things have changed for better. Applying Visa and getting it to travel abroad has become simple and less strenuous. India ranks 59th in the list of most powerful passports. Today, Indian passport holders can travel to 58 countries without visa and on visa on arrival. So, pack your bags and get set go…. 

Here is the continent wise list of countries, where we Indians need visa on arrival. For some countries, you may have to pay Visa Charges and some you may not. The stay limit also differs from country to country.

Asia-
Cambodia
Thailand
Macau
Nepal
Laos
Vietnam
Hongkong
South Korea (Jeju)
Jordan
Maldives
Indonesia
Bhutan
Iraq
Sri Lanka
Turkey
Tajikistan
Timor Leste

Africa-
Seychelles
Kenya
Madagascar
Cape Verde
Mozambique
Mauritius
Tanzania
Ethiopia
Guinea
Togo
Uganda
Comoros Islands
Djibouti
Gambia
Sau Tome and Principe

North America
Trinidad and Tobago
Montserrat
St Lucia
British Virgin Islands
St Kitts and Nevis
Jamaica
Haiti
Grenada
Nicaragua
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Turks and Cacios

Oceania
El Salvador
Fiji
Micronesia
Samoa
Vanuatu
Tuvalu
Cook Islands
Niue
Nauru

South America & Europe
Ecuador
Bolivia
FYRO Macedonia
Dominica
Guyana
Svalbard
Eurasia - Georgia

While we can take off to all the aforesaid countries and get a visa on arrival, do you know there are few places within our country, where you can visit, only if you a travel permit ?! 

Access to certain parts of India, particularly disputed border areas need travel permits. This permit is called Inner Line Permit or Restricted Area Permit.

Here is the list of places you can visit provided you have obtained ILP/RAP –

1. Arunachal Pradesh - beautiful hidden gems which are must here are -Ziro, Tawang, Bomdila and Itanagar.
2. Sikkim – Gangtok, Pelling, Tsangu lake
3. Certain parts of Himachal Pradesh – Kinnaur and Lahul Spiti
4. Ladakh, -lie close to disputed border of China
5. Uttarakhand – lie close to the disputed border of Tibet
6. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
7. Some parts of Kutch of Gujarat
8. Mizoram – should not miss to visit Aizawl, Lunglei, Sercchip
9. Nagaland – excellent place for rock climbing/trekking and must visit places are Kohima, Dimapur, Phek, Wokha

These permits are issued by district commissioners or by regional magistrates. Along with the travel permit fee, for some places you need to pay an Environmental Tax of Rs 300/- too. You need to keep these receipts carefully, till you exit from there.

Live with no excuses and travel with no regrets. So, do not forget to save this blog. This can be handy while you plan your next vacation trip.

Travelling to the surreal and disappearing places of India will leave you speechless, but later will turn you to be a storyteller.
Do not forget to encourage your kids to make travel journals.
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