American ID requirements for indian domestic flights

Upvote:1

I am an American citizen and have travelled to India a couple of times in the past. I have also flew internal flights - and used my American passport as the ID. Nobody ever asked me for anything else.

Even though I had an Indian visa in my passport, nobody ever flipped the passport pages to check it. They simply looked at the photo page and waved me through.

Upvote:4

As an American Citizen with Indian Origin I believe you are travelling to India without a Visa with the help of your (and your family members as well) PIO(merged with OCI Card in 2011) or OCI Card. That should be more than enough to embark the flight.

The Indian Embassy lists the OCI Card as a valid Identity Proof for several tasks, even though it doesn't mention domestic flights, it should be sufficient.

For surety I will recommend carrying your passport along though, but I don't believe it will be necessary for domestic travel although it is mandatory while entering or leaving the country alongside your passport (with the lifelong U Visa in it).

Upvote:8

I'm not sure whether the fact that you're Indian yourself has anything to do with it, frankly.

I am an American citizen and have in the past purchased internal flights within India over the internet, paying in Rupees using my credit card issued by an American bank. I flew from USA to the UK and then to India using my American passport. I landed in Hyderabad, where I spent about two weeks on business. I then flew an internal flight from Hyderabad to Bangalore - on leisure, attending a friend's wedding - and back to Hyderabad. A couple of days later, I flew back to England.

On the internal flights, I used my American passport (which naturally had Indian visa to enter the country in the first place) as a proof of identity. Nobody looked at the visa - all they looked at was the photo page in the passport. I flew with Kingfisher Airlines at the time - but I don't think there's any difference, really.

To summarise, I had no problem buying tickets online and flying using my US passport as a proof of identity.

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