World of Embassy

If your final destination is United States or Canada, you may come to US/Canada either through Atlantic or Pacific route. For Atlantic route, you may have a stop over in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam etc. For Pacific route, you may have a stop over in Singapore, Hong Kong etc.

During your intermediate international stop over, if you have sufficient time and you want to tour the city and/or country, you may apply for transit visa at the appropriate counter at the airport. Transit visa is a temporary short period visa during your journey. Some countries require that you have a stop over of minimum of 24 hours to grant you transit visa. But Singapore provides transit visa for a stop over of as less as 4 hours. They even have airport transportation available at no charge for passenger tour.

Recently, several countries have started to require transit visa for persons transiting their countries even if they do not want to go out of airport. However, most people who are going to or coming from with valid visa do not require transit visa. There has been lot of confusion in this regard among people and many times even airline staff does not have correct information.

Airlines such as United Airlines, Air India, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates (not a complete list), you may have stopover in London Heathrow.

If you are one of the passport holders listed below and will transit the UK airside (i.e. Mumbai-London Heathrow London Heathrow-New York, and not Mumbai-London Heathrow and then London Gatwick-New York destination, staying in the UK less than 24 hours), you require a Direct Airside Transit Visa to transit the United Kingdom. This is the case even if you only intend to remain airside and will not pass through UK Immigration.

AFGHANISTAN, ALBANIA, ALGERIA, ANGOLA, BANGLADESH, BELARUS, BURMA (MYANMAR), BURUNDI, CAMEROON, PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA, COLOMBIA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (ZAIRE), ECUADOR, ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, GAMBIA, GHANA, INDIA, IRAN, IRAQ, IVORY COAST, KENYA, LEBANON, LIBERIA, MACEDONIA, MOLDOVA, NEPAL, NIGERIA, PAKISTAN, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, RWANDA, SENEGAL, SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO, SIERRA LEONE, SOMALIA, SRI LANKA, SUDAN, TANZANIA, TURKEY, TRNC, UGANDA, VIETNAM, YUGOSLAVIA, ZAIRE (FORMERLY DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO), ZIMBABWE.

Please note however that if you are transiting en route to the Republic of Ireland, and you are a national of one of the countries above, you will require a visit visa and the exemptions below do not apply.

Exemptions: You are exempt from this requirement if:

You hold a valid US or Canadian visa and your ticketing includes a visit to the US or Canada.

You are in possession of an onward ticket for travel by air via the UK when leaving the US or Canada within 6 months of your last date of entry to the US or Canada with a valid US/Canadian visa.

You hold a USA Permanent Resident Card issued on or after 21 April 1998. To calculate this subtract ten years from the expiration date on your Alien Registration Card.

You hold a Canadian Permanent Resident Card issued on or after 28 June 2002.

You hold a valid Category D visa (normally printed on a red/pink sticker, green stickers do not qualify) issued by EU/EEA member states, which are valid for more than 3 months.

You hold a valid EU residence permit.

You hold a diplomatic or service passport issued by the Peoples Republic of China.

You hold a diplomatic or official passport issued by the Government of India.

You hold a diplomatic or official passport issued by the Government of Vietnam.