[sushantr5]

Hello Fellow BHPians,

Last few days I am thinking to plan a trip to India in August from Europe. I am in dilemma whether I should travel or not because of Quarantine Rules in Maharashtra. I am hearing lot of stories related to mandatory 7 days institutional quarantine when you arrive in Mumbai and Pune. This is not the case with all neighbouring states. I have not heard to first hand exeriences and knowledges from international travellers to Mumbai and Pune. So I thought there is nothing better place than TBHP to ask for the exeperiences and feedback. I could not find existing post for the concern so I decided to start new thread. Please merge this thread if there is any thread related to this is already exists.

I could not travel to India last year due to COVID so this year I am really keen on travelling so as I can see my parents and close relatives. I am travelling with my family with two kids in which youngest one is 3 years old. By the time we travels, me and wife will be fully vaccinated.

But quarantine rules on arrival to Mumbai airport are really absurd. I am afraid that I can be asked for instituational quarantine and this will ruin complete plan. Home quarantine is fine as the main purpose of visit is to see parents. I would like to ask is there any first hand or known experince in the group. What are exactly quarantine rules? Is there is any rulebook or exceptions to this rule?

I do not want our quarantine to be decided by a bargain at airport. Thank you in advance for your valuable inputs. This thread might be useful for the people who are in similar situation.

[Torque_Curve]

A friend of mine who returned from South Africa last week and landed here in Mumbai had to undergo quarantine at the Orchid hotel right next to the airport for a week. So as far I know, it is compulsory.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by sushantr5

But quarantine rules on arrival to Mumbai airport are really absurd. I am afraid that I can be asked for instituational quarantine and this will ruin complete plan. Home quarantine is fine as the main purpose of visit is to see parents. I would like to ask is there any first hand or known experince in the group. What are exactly quarantine rules? Is there is any rulebook or exceptions to this rule?

I do not want our quarantine to be decided by a bargain at airport. Thank you in advance for your valuable inputs. This thread might be useful for the people who are in similar situation.

Why is it absurd? Given the history of people (not only in India but even overseas) to not adhere to rules wrt Covid, it's the right thing to do. Last year the system at Mumbai airport was lax with a lot of airport staff allowing international passengers to bypass the process for additional bribes. Thankfully it was caught and I believe since then they do not allow any deviations.

The fact of the matter is for the state, they have to set the same rules for all travelers - irrespective of one falls in the bucket who will diligently follow the quarantine rules (at home) or not. Till the point the government creates bio bubble agreements or a fully vaccinated-based travel certificate, I don't think there's any other alternative.

This site has guidelines for international travelers (albeit dated documents).

[RadixLecti]

Hi, I'm a sailor. My company is currently routing all returning sea-staff through Delhi, where quarantine is not required if you take a PCR test on arrival, and get a negative result. They arrange the domestic flight to give a 10-12 hour layover in Delhi, to be sure of getting the PCR result in time.

You can even pre-book and pay for your PCR test, and the whole process was relatively smooth. The result is emailed to you in a few hours, and you can show this before boarding your domestic flight to Bombay or Poona, and also at the destination airport. I spent a few thousand on a private room in a lounge at Delhi airport to catch up on sleep and wait for my result.

We also have a PCR test done the day before our flight into India, but that seemed to be more for the airline and the layover airport (Dubai in my case) than the destination i.e. India.

In my view the slight inconvenience of an extra flight and PCR test is well worth avoiding 7 days of mind-numbing isolation in a hotel, however nice.

[iceman7]

I can give you a first hand account as I travelled from Europe to Mumbai in Feb 2021. Please note that this was at a time when COVID was at it's peak in Europe, and was just about starting to rise again in Mumbai/Maharashtra.

The Lufthansa website made it clear that institutional quarantine may be required and asked me to check with the local body and airport. So I went to the CSMIA website, and they had a full protocol on who needs to quarantine and who is exempt. At that time, there were 3 ways to avoid institutional quarantine -

1. If you were travelling with a child who is less than 5 years old
2. If you were over the age of 60, or 65 I believe
3. If you had an ailing family member in Mumbai that you had to tend to

I didn't meet any of the 3 criteria, but in typical Mumbai style, I was hoping to do some jugaad and avoid the quarantine. No Sir! What followed after I landed in Mumbai was surreal.

Immigration clearance? No problem. Done in less than 5 mins. Baggage collection? Bags arrived less than 5 mins after I got to the baggage area. Customs? Smooth sailing. Now all this while I did not see a single BMC official and thought that there is no quarantine. Boy I was so wrong.

After I cleared customs and exit into the main arrival hall, I was greeted by an absolute cheerful bunch of BMC officials. I was given a form and a list of 70-80 hotels to choose from. These were hotels where I could quarantine. I bargained. I negotiated. I showed them my negative RT-PCR test. I tried to sneak out. But to no avail. So, at 2:30 in the morning, I gave up. I picked a hotel from the list, completed formalities at the desk, paid 50 rupees for a bus ticket, and was ferried from the Airport to my hotel by a BEST bus.

Here is the bright part of the story. Hotel tariffs are CHEAP. Taj Lands end - 4600 a night. Taj Colaba? The same. I chose Sofitel in BKC which is closer to home and paid 3900 for each night. I thought, if you are getting quarantined, why fight it. Might as well enjoy it. I did kick and curse myself for not picking lands end. The view would have been lovely. All 3 meals included in the price. Although, this is not food from the hotel. There is a separate dabba service which brings you food. And the food was delicious!

Now, I am not saying the next thing with any pride, but I might as well share my full experience with you. Ideally, when in institutional quarantine, you are supposed to be in your room for 7 days. I did not. I went down to smoke few times a day, and to get fresh air. There is no way you can be stuck in an AC room for 7 days without any fresh air. BMC officials made a check once in 7 days, but that was about it. At this point I must say that I was extremely proud and happy the way BMC handled the whole process.

Long story short - if you are travelling with a child under 5 years of age, you may be able to skip institutional quarantine. Although, you may still need to quarantine at home and BMC will stamp your hand. Things have improved in Europe now, and hopefully back home in Mumbai, so please check the CSMIA website and their Twitter handle. They have a lot of info there.

Safe travels and let us know how it goes.

EDIT - As I rode on the bus from the Airport to the hotel, I got chatting with the BMC official who was escorting me to the Hotel. We literally drove past the lane which could have taken me home and I made one last desperate attempt at asking him to allow me to go home. He was sympathetic to my cause and said he just can't. One part of me was very very happy that they stood their ground. Yes, there have been lapses and some people bribed their way out. Some even escaped from the quarantine hotel, but those hotels were taken off the quarantine list, and I assume BMC went after them.

[TorqueyTechie]

Well my friend who travelled from UK to India in Feb of this month travelled to Bangalore and then boarded a bus to Pune. There was no institutional quarantine in Karnataka and they took this option.

P.S : I would not recommend this and I did tell her off as well for doing that. It is better to be in quarantine than risk others.

[ApriliaNut]

I landed in Mumbai in first week of March from USA using Air India. That's when things had started going south in India.
It was mandatory to have a negative RT-PCR report (within last 72 hrs) to even board the flight, which I had. On landing in Mumbai, they looked at the report, took the details of my final destination, advised me to monitor myself for symptoms and I was allowed to go.

But that was more than 3 months ago. Policies might have changed but negative RT-PCR report from within past 72 hours is still mandatory. It may also depend on the Covid condition at the origin of flight.

Now that I am preparing to travel back to USA, it brings to a question of my own to anyone who might have travelled to USA recently, specially to JFK/EWR.
What pre-boarding requirements & post landing process you had to follow for your journey? Thanks in advance.

[nikhil_pon]

Any idea if Indian citizens with US tourist visa are allowed to travel or is the travel ban still in place?

[sushantr5]

Thank you for all your responses.

I have every thing where I may be prevented from institutional quarantine.
1. I will travelling on RT-PCR result
2. Two doses of COVID Vaccine
3. A child less than 5 years.

But still I do not trust authorities and I may be forced for institutional quarantine. Home quarantine is perfectly fine with me. I am being extra paranoid as I am travelling with kids. I found these guidelines on CSMIA website. I hope this is latest one.

[Amrik Singh]

Originally Posted by ApriliaNut

What pre-boarding requirements & post landing process you had to follow for your journey? Thanks in advance.

One thing is not clear as to in which category do you fit in ?
US Citizen, Working in US, Student or Visitor ?? Only certain category of passengers are being allowed presently. Check with Airlines if you are eligible to fly.

To circumvent the travel ban, passengers are flying to Russian states or even Mexico, staying for 14 days and allowed to fly in to US.

[DVK]

Originally Posted by sushantr5

2. Two doses of COVID Vaccine
3. A child less than 5 years.

These two points are more than enough to avoid any sort of institutional quarantine. I travelled from Europe to India (other state) transiting via Mumbai 1 week ago.
The process is quite streamlined now and very simple to follow. You will need the usual list of documents such as:

• Negative RT-PCR

• Air Suvidha form (to be filled after uploading RT-PCR)

• Registration in the Indian embassy in Germany/Netherlands/France depending on your transit airline.

I did take print outs too, but a digital copy of these documents will more than suffice, so that is one less thing to worry about. Upon getting down in Mumbai, you will have 3 queues after immigration and baggage collection for

1. Mumbai
2. Other Maharashtra
3. Other States

Go to the respective line and submit your vaccination certificate. As far as I know that along with the kids are more than enough to prevent an institution quarantine. I think this will also prevent you from taking the Molecular test in Mumbai, but I am not sure about it. You will get a form regarding the same that you have to submit in this line. along with a copy of your vaccination certificate/RT-PCR test. Additionally, I did come across a lot of sea farers travelling back to India, but apart from them, my flight was running empty! hardly 60 people in a capacity of 300! I think it should be the same for you too so you can relax a little on the flight.

Do note that things keep changing quite a bit. And the best place to stay on top of such things is via Facebook groups such as Air bubble Europe

I hope it helps! Travel safe!

[audioholic]

I flew to Bengaluru last Friday from Frankfurt, Germany. We should have a negative RT-PCR test when we board the aircraft, and must have the Air Suvidha form. Registration with embassy is removed I believe since we can only register once and I had already done that last October. Good that they removed that part of the process since I felt it was useless.

Arrival in Bangalore was fantastic. It has been the fastest check out of airport in the last few years of traveling. Flight de-boarding was very systematic for a change, and people didnt stand up and queue in the aisle. As soon as we get out of the flight and aerobridge, there is a very well organised setup of COVID test. They have a sequential arrangement with sufficient staff. After this the air suvidha form is collected along with measuring SpO2 level. Immigration was also a bliss and for a change, there were more officials at the counters than the passengers walking in. Customs was no frill and as soon as I came to the baggage belt, my baggage had already arrived.

I think from the time I got out of the aircraft till I got out of the airport, it was a duration of less than 30 minutes. Usually it would take a lot more than that especially with baggage arriving very late.

The Covid test result was mailed to me within three hours. As long as you and everyone in the flight tests negative, there is no further tracking from the government officials or BBMP. Overall, a well organised experience.

[JitendraK78]

Hi,

I travelled from Amsterdam to Delhi to Pune on 30th/31st May 2021.

In order to avoid institutional quarantine at Mumbai, I took a flight from Amsterdam to Delhi and a connecting flight from Delhi to Pune.

At Delhi, after landing, RT-PCR sample was taken (self paid) and the receipt was stamped with a date after one week (I landed in Delhi on 31st May, and the stamp said I need to home quarantine myself till 5th June).

After landing in Pune, RT-PCR report was checked. Since my stopover at Delhi was about 8 hrs, I had already received the RT-PCR report for sample taken at Delhi airport. So, after showing the report at Pune airport arrivals, I could exit the airport and go home.

No one from PMC bothered to check on me in Pune till 5th June.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Flight de-boarding was very systematic for a change, and people didn't stand up and queue in the aisle.

Immigration was also a bliss and for a change, there were more officials at the counters than the passengers walking in.

Why did it take a pandemic to have these two things in place?! Hope this continues even post-covid!

[sandeepmohan]

Flying into India should be hassle free as long as you have a certificate that says you have been tested negative. You need to think about it though. This virus is brilliant at hiding so you could well be asymptomatic. Besides, sitting on a plane for >9 hours, a lot can change in this time.

What you need to think about more is if you can head back to Europe. India is currently a red flag to most countries. Unless you have some agreement with your employer or contractor to work from India for a indefinite period of time.