I am planning a holiday trip to EU before heading home for my vacation in India.
I am an Indian Citizen and am currently on an F1 visa. I am using my tax money to travel to Germany to meet my friend during August-September.
I have booked British Airways, where I fly from San Diego to London with 2.40-hour halt in Heathrow and London to Munich, Germany. I will be in Germany little less than 2 weeks before I head to India. My flight back is, Munich, Germany to London with 4 hours connecting in Heathrow and London to Chennai, India. My last leg of the flight is from Chennai, India to San Diego, USA via Heathrow (3-hour halt).
Leg 1: SAN-LHR-MUC: Won't need a visa as I am traveling from the USA.
Leg 2: MUC-LHR-MAA: Do I need to DATV for my transit in London. I will not be leaving the airside.
Leg 3: MAA-LHR-SAN: I don't need a transit visa as I am traveling to UK to the USA with a valid visa.
I have my Schengen visa for the trip Do I need to get DATV for Leg 2 of my flight? I called up British Airways and they said, I don't have more than 24 hours of transit, so I don't need a visa but the UK visa and immigration page says something different.
Any help would be appreciated… I don't want to miss my connection or pay more money if I can get a hassle-free vacation with just additional $68 for the DATV.
P.S The whole trip is done in a single booking.
UPDATE: BRITISH AIRWAYS, as usual, wasn't very helpful nor was the email from the British embassy. I applied for the DAT visa and awaiting the decision, Will update the post when I get the visa. I shall also update this post with the DAT visa process.
UPDATE: 29th July: DAT VISA approved and got a multileg entry for 6 months.