Jitu

A DAAD scholarship for India is co-financed by the Indian government. The institution which takes care of all this, is called ICCR (Indian Council of Cultural Relations). So after passing the first stages of application and interview at the DAAD, it will suggest your application to the ICCR. Therefore some forms have to be filled out among others also a certificate of physical fitness, which states, if the applicant is in a good shape to join an Indian institute, and which has to be filled out by a registered medical practitioner.

On the first page it contains a matrix of 30 sicknesses, which someone may had in the past. Each sickness has to be marked with a minus for a negative finding or a plus for a positive findings (see copy below). If any of the findings is positive, the applicant is rejected. Unfortunately no applicant who was born with a nose or had coughing in the past, is eligible for a scholarship. Even sweating or night sweat is not allowed. So only people from Greenland or North/South Pole, without noses and without coughing can get a scholarship by the ICCR. Fortunately I never had a nose and even in Chennai I have never sweated . The question is, how many are there with a history like this? My guess is, that this form has been translated once and the interpreter did not know English so well. Oh, does anybody know, what sickness is called “Type”? Is it a sickness or more a description for a character property?

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Every foreigner who wishes to stay more than 180 days continuously in India, needs to get registered at the Foreign Registration Residential Office (FRRO) or also just called Foreign Registration Office (FRO). There are dedicated FROs in a few major cities. As far as I know and accordingly to IGCS in Germany (http://www.igcsvisa.de/indvis-whatis-piocard2.htm) there are four FROs altogether:

• Hans Bhawan, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, ITO, New Delhi (phone: +91 11 2671 1384)
• Tata Press Building, 2ND Floor, 414 S.V Marg, Mumbai (phone: +91 22 2262 1169)
• 237, A.J.C. Bose Road, Kolkata (phone: +91 33 2247 0549)
• Shastri Bhawan Annexe, 26, Haddows Road, Chennai (phone: +91 44 2827 7036)

Fortunately in most cities the superintendents of the police act as a FRROs. However most of the information given on the web page does not apply for most of the people. The Indian bureaucracy itself does not know, what documents are needed and it might vary each day. Also plan to spend three days at the office till everything is processed. Yesterday I was there, today I am just coming back from the office, and I have to go there again by tomorrow. In the hope, that this information might cut down your stay by at least one day, let me tell you, what documentation is really needed. First a little bit about my background: I have a student visa with a validity of 5 years and I am currently an exchange student at the Indian Institute of Science. I applied for a research visa so that I can follow the PhD program of the same institute. So far I am preparing my stay and getting in touch with the new surroundings. Since it might take more than 180 days till the application of the research visa is processed and a registration has to be completed within 14 days after arrival (This might be true for most nationals except Pakistanis and some more), I need to get registered. If you go to the FRO be prepared to see many frustrated faces and to hear plenty of discussions. I recite the man behind the helper’s counter of FRO: “This office is run by the Indian government and not according to your rules.” I just replied something like: what a poor government then. So discussions do not make any sense. The people behind the desk are well seated in their chairs and almost nothing can change that.
Here is what is needed to get registered:

1. Registration Certificate (You get it from them, make four copies. Most of the times a Xerox is just opposite of the office – what a coincidence.)
2. A letter to the superintendent, which is a form that you also get from them.
3. Your passport and visa (2 copies from each of them)
4. Student ID
5. 6 recent Photos (even if it says on the form which lists the necessary things that you need 5 five or less photos), each photo must be the same
6. 2 copies of a bonafide certificate that states where you live (on campus and that you joined your department successfully)
7. Maybe they will ask for the admission letter.

Take also scissors, a pen and a glue stick with you, since the photos need to be glued to the registration certificate and its copies. And do not forget a good book or your MP3 player, since it takes some hours till everything is processed. Also be prepared that each time when you want to turn in all documents, something different is wrong and you need to fill out something more or need to change some things (which were fine, when you tried to turn in them previously). So it can be very frustrating. A single summary, what is wrong at once, is not possible.
The FRO of Bangalore is located in Infantry Road near Mahatma Gandhi (MG) Road (see map below), ZIP Code: 560051. Its phone number is +91-80-2294 2186, fax +91-80-22200920. Usually the auto (Rickshaw) drivers are aware of this road. Office hours are from Monday till Friday from 10am to 1:30pm and from 2:30pm to 5:30pm.

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It is quite an odyssey to get the correct visa, especially if someone wants to study in India and does not only go there as a tourist. I called up the visa service provider, which handles all visa issues and forwards them to the embassy, to explain to them, what I need, and to ask what kind of support letters they need from me. After everything was set, I transfered the money and sent them my passport and documents. After a week the passport came back and it had the wrong visa (what else). And there it is, the start of the odyssey:
It took several months to convince the Indian embassy in Germany that a research visa exists, which is needed for the PhD program at an Indian institute. Till November they were not aware of this although the Indian embassy in Japan (thanks to the Internet) even support applicants for this kind of visa. One month later (in December) the status was that a student visa and a research visa are exactly the same although the Ministry of Home Affairs in India even separate them on their web page, which is accessible to everyone (http://www.education.nic.in/hesch1.asp). A day after Christmas the Indian embassy and their visa service provider came to know that there is a difference and that it takes 3 to 8 months for application. My date of departure was the 5^th of January. According to them, it seemed to be no problem to change the visa, while I stay in India. It would take the same time, but I can start to work on the PhD research. With that information I called up the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Higher Education. There I was told that as of March 2007 they do not change any visa any more until further notice. Now the question is: From where did the embassy get its information?

The worst thing and therefore a good hint is: Do not believe, what the visa issuing service provider nor the embassy tells you. You need to double check each information. They never tell you that they do not know something, because it looks unprofessional and proofs a lack of knowledge. They just tell you anything and you take it for granted, since you trust them (they are the people handling visa issues every day). I am pretty sure that I know more about visa application than them by now. Let’s see, currently I am in India on the issued student visa. If I can change it here or if I have to go back to Germany or not, no one knows and so far I am tired of being played with. So the odyssey continues…

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After so many hours in the plane, the passengers felt happy that they could walk freely and did not have to breath in the dry and cold air of the AC of the plane. But what was this? Just before baggage claim an x-ray machine to scan the people’s cabin luggage and that after the flight? The reason for that revealed itself, when the passengers wanted to leave the airport: If customs found any electronic parts in the luggage the duty slip of the immigration sheet is marked, which was again checked at the exit.

At the exit the guy kindly redirected me to a desk and asked me, what kind of electronics I have in the bag. I answered that it is a laptop and an external hard disk for backup purposes. The backup hard disk is not very big (maybe 40GB) and very old. He asked me about the value of the disk and I replied that I will not even pay 5 Euros for it. Then he thought for a second and said that the duty will be Rs800, which is way too much. I said something like: “What is this?” and I am so proud that I bargained it down to the half. So there is no close season once you arrived in India.

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When you reach Bangalore airport at around 7pm, you need to expect that it needs much more time to reach the final destination. By that time it takes around 1.5 hours to cover a distance of just 15km, which is the distance between the airport and IISc campus. It is so packed that the traffic creeps very slowly through the streets. The campus itself is very nice and calm, no very much traffic and even the sound of the horn is heard really rarely. But as soon as you go through one of the gates, the world chances entirely. Here the chaos theory can be analyzed mathematically in real life. Every chance of passing others is taken and every square inch of available space in front of a red signal (if and only if the long traffic worm comes to a hold) is used. The air smells like an exhaust and the fumes are floating above the streets.

But how does it work? Where are the traffic rules? For Europeans, who are used to rules (especially Germans), it is not understandable. Somehow nothing happens and I do not know why. It seems that the driver is only aware of what happens in front of him. He is not interested in what is going on in the back, because that is in the charge of the ones who follow. Nobody reacts, if the drivers sound their horns. Since nobody reacts, the drivers even honk more. “I blow my horn, so I am.”

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