It sometimes is very herbous to book emergency flight tickets from the USA to India especially if you are caught up in a situation that forces you to travel.

Since most of the Indian youths have either migrated or are working elsewhere, it may not be easy to particularly get tickets for parents and elder members who are still in India on very short notice. After all, any kind of emergency cannot wait for too long to be addressed.

No matter whether it’s a scheduled meeting at work, the sick child or other family member, or any other emergency, time is tight and every second is precious.

Okay, so what are the steps to get emergency flights from the USA to India? What are the policies and regulations concerning flying?

Here, the procedures to follow and the tips that can be followed for making the last minute flight ticket bookings from the USA to India have been enumerated so that a quick and efficient and an emergency can easily be made.

Tips to Book Emergency Flight Tickets From USA to India

• Airline tickets can be bought up to two hours before the expected time of departure. At times, if an individual is unable to obtain the tickets through booking online then one has to make a visit to the reservations center or service found within the airport. It is highly unlikely that any airline will accept an actual reservation one hour before the plane is set to take off if the client has an important emergency that they cannot afford to skip the flight for.
• You have to stress the importance and the emergency of the event – that is why you need to fly, even if the prices are gone sky-high. It also would be rather useful if at the time of the reservation, you will be offered some form of discount.
• Policemen who intervene, when you look for an emergency airline ticket to India, will want you to present a valid identification. There is a priority accorded to those kinds of crises that are life and death in nature. Hence, there is a necessity to prove that it is a real emergency and that the person will not use this chance to visit a friend or a symposium.
• To ensure this you have to compare the price being charged at least at a few travel portals available online. What is more, it is quite possible to arrange the ticket purchase for the flight to India in the odd hours since people don’t prefer such flights as they are quite inconvenient. As for buying the ticket, it is most secure to use a reliable travel site, which sells the cheapest flight tickets from the US to India.

Eligibility Criteria for Booking Emergency Flights

Even though emergency flights are available, not everyone is eligible to book these flights. You will need a solid justification, which the embassy will need to check and properly verify.

Any one of the potential seven causes could be the issue:

1. Lay Offs:

If you are an Indian and you are on an h1B (L1) visa and once you lose your job, your status nowhere will be deemed as ‘illegal’ at that juncture. For h1B employees the grace period allowed was 60 days, nevertheless, if you have exceeded this period, it would be better to fly out of the country using one of the above mentioned flights or, change status from h1B to B2. If you find a job in the US you can always sponsor your h1B visa from India, that’s why it will be more sensible to go for the former option than changing your field of specialization.

2. Visa Expiry Issue:

If you stay in the country with only your visa but went there to inaugurate your newborn grandchild or just came to visit your family for a small period of time you can get on the evacuation flight. However, if you have overstayed and you have been there for more than eight months, perhaps it is also advisable to renew your B2 visa.

3. Medical Emergency Flights:

Many Airlines offer Medical Emergency Flights to India because India is a popular destination or because they have their operational base in the country. You do not lose this right if you have to go to or come from India for medical reasons or attending to a sick or other relative. Tickets for the medical emergency flight can be easily described and can be very easy to purchase.

4. Pregnant Women or Elderly Women:

This aircraft is available for pregnant ladies (in any month) and old people (no further differentiation is provided by the embassy, although the older than 55 years worker from Japan).

5. Demise of a Family Member:

You can actually be allowed on to the emergency flight if for instance you have lost a loved one and wish to get to their funeral.

6. Tourists:

Even if your visa has run out or is about to do so, tourists would still be free to organize and take the evacuation flight.

7. Students:

Assuming on the off chance that you are a student and your school is shut, you can hail an aircraft back to India. This also applies to students that on F1 visa or any other type of visa The impact of the current changes on B2B meetings Mandatory Vaccination Policies for International Students

It should be noted that OCI cardholders are allowed to travel to India only by Special Flights and not by the emergency evacuation flights being operated by Air India. Finally, if one is an OCI holder, he or she will be privy to travel only on the arranged flight and this condition is subjected to the following factors;

• You are a minor born to Indian nationals who are living in a foreign country temporarily.
• You have a sudden bereavement in the family, let us assume it is the passing on of a relative.
• Couples in which one of them has OCI card and the other one is Indian by origin and have permanent settlement in the country.
• University students whose parents live in India and who have Indian nationality.

Registration Process For Emergency Flights

Otherwise, if you are an eligible candidate in the said post, you will be required to self-register at the official website of the Indian Embassy of Washington. Please be advised that this web site works for all the requests and exists for all the people in the USA regardless of the place they live in.

If one wishes to one of the existing evacuation flights being operated, you are to select ‘COVID-19 – Registration Form’ and if one qualifies for OCI special flights then you are to select ‘COVID 19 – Registration Form for OCI Cardholder’. As directed in the Embassy instructions, and in an effort to work smarter, we need to complete the physical form individually.

If your registration form gets approved, the embassy will contact you directly via mail and will give you two/three dates to choose from.