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I have a cheap flight booked to Bangkok that connects in Mumbai where both legs are seperate bookings. According to the website I booked it through (kiwi) I will leave the transit zone in Mumbai and need a transit visa but through my research it seems you only leave the zone if you recheck luggage or go to a hotel or something like that. I will only have hand luggage and my stop is only a couple of hours so no hotel required. Will I still need to go through immigration?

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    Do you have a passport that allows visa free or visa on arrival in India?
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Mar 9, 2023 at 12:27
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    If this is booked as a self-transfer, you may find that the first airline considers your final destination to be Mumbai irrespective of your luggage arrangements. So you could be denied boarding unless you have the right travel documents to enter India
    – Traveller
    Commented Mar 9, 2023 at 13:24
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    For a more specific answer, please edit your question to include your citizenship, where you would be arriving from, the airlines involved (ideally the specific flights), the times of arrival/departure, the respective terminals.
    – jcaron
    Commented Mar 9, 2023 at 15:38
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    Email the handling agent at the departure airport and ask if they'll let you board with this itinerary without papers for entering India
    – Crazydre
    Commented Mar 9, 2023 at 16:56
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    Not passing from immigration doesn't necessarily mean you do not need a (transit) visa. Also consider delays. And you are welcome in this site. I just checked the Mumbai airport website and ... good design but they avoid to provide information (for sure nobody care about content: transit you are required to look transit faq, which do linkt to the wrong section, but the transit section repeat the question mostly irrelevant to transit (and repeat again the same question, just to increase the number of questions)
    – Giacomo Catenazzi
    Commented Mar 10, 2023 at 14:13

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Assume you will not be let onto the first flight unless you have the right to enter India, as that is the standard for most airlines.

Whether you need to go through passport control, customs (even without hold luggage you may be checked) and check-in and security depends on the actual airport and in some cases the combination of flights.

I am not familiar with the airports in India, but it is quite common world wide to send all passengers on incoming flights through immigration, and have them re-enter the airside of the airport after checking in for the next flight.
You might be lucky and stay airside, but you will still need to be allowed into India, as the airline can not be sure you will be allowed on your next flight and they are responsible for you entering or leaving India.

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    Correct, having luggage or not has nothing to do with your permission to enter a country legally.
    – travel
    Commented Mar 9, 2023 at 20:30
  • Since when is it "quite common world wide to send all passengers on incoming flights through immigration"? In my experience, the opposite is the case for major airports, especially hubs, with the US the only major exception that comes to mind.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Mar 11, 2023 at 12:44
  • @Relaxed, recently we have had a few questions about transfering in the UK in airports other than Heathrow and about Ireland, in which cases the incoming passengers had to leave the airside area. I think I have heard it about Australia as well but I am not certain there. And in Paris (I think CDG airport) you have to go through immigration if you are unlucky with the terminals. And those is only the ones I have heard about, enough to warn OP that it might happen.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Mar 11, 2023 at 17:57

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