Are Pakistani nationals restricted to entering India through four airports only?
A Pakistani friend who needs to go to India was informed (very late, near visa approval) by an Indian embassy official (in Singapore) that he can only enter* India through one of the four major airports: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
* By "enter" I mean that the immigration officers (perhaps the equivalent of "customs agents" in the US) will allow the person to enter the country through the immigration checkpoint of an airport, or be detained at the checkpoint and barred from entering the country. This is not related to "customs" which deals with importing goods, or to being inside a flight that lands at the airport.
Direct flights to and from a smaller airport were already booked, which are now being changed to two-stop flight plan landing at one of the four ports internationally then transiting to a domestic flight to the original destination.
We searched online for any information about such restriction but could not find any. Is this restriction as per Indian law? Where can a reference to this restriction be found?
Best Answer
This has all the hallmarks of some jobsworth throwing his weight around. The existence of such a “regulation” is very unlikely if only because “through one of the four major airports” excludes the land crossing at Attari (Wagah). This form mentions that (though clearly is ancient!) but there are many more recent references to it also.
Silence is hardly conclusive but the details here are generally comprehensive and seem very likely to have mentioned such an arbitrary rule, were there one.
The issue may be the initially-chosen (smaller) airport. Not all Indian airports are manned with Immigration officers (for example, at T1, not even New Delhi) and it does make sense to me that Pakistani nationals are required to arrive in India via a point of entry that does have Immigration facilities (which the "select four" do have).
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