Travel Bhutan by own car- Immigration,Permits and Tips

Introduction:-

The mystical land complete with Tales of Shangri-La & Dragons with an abundance of

wildlife with forest cover almost everywhere; abode of peace at the ‘Lakhang’ with age-

old practices of Tibetan Buddhism; curvy and picturesque mountain roads dotted with

‘Chortens’ ( You have to cross them from the left; high mountain passes with white flags

against the blue mountains and snow caps; the magnificent ‘Dzong’( Monastic Forts) for

administration and justice; men and women dressed in ‘Gho’ and ‘Kira’ respectively…

Yes!!! That’s a small glimpse of the small Himalayan kingdom known as Bhutan.

Initially we planned to cover the country from the West (Phuntsholling/Jaigaon entry

point) to East (Trashigang), but for time constraint we restricted our plan till Bumthang

valley in central Bhutan.

Immigration & Car Permits

For this trip we needed two types of permits – firstly the immigration permits for people

to enter and travel through Bhutan and another permit for an Indian Motor Vehicles

Registration to be allowed to be driven inside Bhutan. The permits for the travellers can

be arranged from Kolkata itself and is easy to obtain without any cost involved in the

process. For this one has to go to the Royal Bhutan Consulate located at Mall Road.But as

per latest circular form Bhutan Consulate the permit procedure from kolkata office has

been stopped from 15th June 2017.

Permit procedure for People & Vehicle From Phuentsholing

Part 1 :- (Phuentsholing to Paro/Thimpu )

Individual permit

Note :

Minimum 2 people are required to get permit, permits not easily issued for lone traveller

Time :

Between 30 minute to 1 hour ( depends on crowd)

Location

Permit office ( Immigration office as its called ) is as Tintin said around 200 mtrs or so

after you enter Bhutan gate in Phuentsholing. It’s on your right side as you come from

the Indian side after the Fuel pump next to Customs & clearance office.

The Office is on 1st floor above Customs & clearance office

Permit office opens at 9 am of Bhutanese time.

Document :-

Duly filled permit form

Copy of your passport , Adhar Card , Voter Card 

Couple of Passport size photo

Proof of Hotel booking At Thimphu or Paro.

Procedure :-

Go a bit early if possible but not too early as you need to get a Permit form that needs to

be filled up and submitted along with copy of your Passport. If the office is not open

when you visit you may request any Bhutaneese official you see there ,if they can provide

you the form in advance. The filled form needs to be given in the upstairs office ( ask for

Tourist route permit counter) You need to hand over the form with the passport copy /

Adhar Copy / KYC duly stapled. They will review and ask to see the original

Documents. Once done they will take your photograph and scan your fingerprints then

and there itself. Once done they will ask you to wait for half an hour to an hour

depending upon the rush to issue you the permits. Carry some passport size photo graphs

with you as well as they might ask for one in addition to the photo taken by

them. Counter Closes by 5 Pm ( As per Indian Standard time it is 4.30 pm) If you dont

have Passport / Adhar Card then you may have to get some clearance from Indian

Embassy nearby ( not sure as we had our passport) . Another important thing please

confirm your exit procedure when you leave from Bhutan otherwise you will be treated

an illegal emigrant in Bhutan.

Vehicle :-

Location

RSTA is located nearby but is not walkable

Go straight on the road from the permit office (opposite to border gate offcourse) take a 

left from the dead end circle

Ask for Phuentsholing main bustand , its located on the second floor of the bus stand

ask anyone where is the RSTA office once you reach the main bus stand which comes 

after you cross a small bridge.

Document

A handwritten or typed letter mentioning the places you plan to visit including the 

vehicle number and owner information ( refer attachment)

Insurance copy

RC book Copy

Drivers License Copy

Procedure

Take the documents described above and get it endorsed by RSTA incharge who sits in 

room 1 ( check with Counter 5 before you go to room 1)

Once the Senior official reviews and sign on your application form take it to counter 5

Once the official at counter 5 endorses your application go to counter 2  to pay the 

nominal permit fee . Permit fee is Rs. 100 per day per car.

Go back to counter 5 with receipt of payment and get permit form from him

Take the form to counter\room 1 for final endorsement

Take copy of the same ( 1st floor ) and give one copy to counter 5

Your Vehicle permit is done

Approx time = 30 minutes if you are lucky and if its less crowded

Part 2 :- Extension from Thimphu  

Time :

 can take upto half a day or more – You will be very lucky if it gets done in 30 mins

Location

Opposite Taj hotel 

Its in the opposite direction to Clock Tower ( same road) Norzim Lam

Its around 10-15 mins walk from clock tower to this office

Opens at 9 am ( Indian Standard Time 8.30 a.m.)

Document

Need to fill up a form given by them for stay extension. 

Your previous permit document

Procedure

Once you provide the filled up form along with pervious permit document , they will ask 

you to wait.

The issue of extension can take between 30 minutes to good 2 hours

Once the extension is received you need to fill another form detailing your itenary for 

visiting restricted areas like Punakha and beyond with dates of travel to those regions

Once done it would take another 30 mins to 2 hours for processing the permission to rest 

of Bhutan Overall be prepared to spend atleast half a day for permit issue / extension 

provided you are there at 9 am.

Vehicle

Approx time : 10 minutes if you are lucky however keep a good buffer

Location

RSTA is located near the Archery stadium .Its located above the main bus stand.

            

you need to go over the bridge that you see when you enter  Thimphu and then take a left.

Document

A handwritten or typed letter mentioning the places you plan to visit including the 

vehicle number and owner information same as before

Previous Vehicle permit document

Extension & new permit for rest of Bhutan issued from Immigration department Thimphu

Procedure

Take the documents described to RSTA offical who sits in ” Base Office/ room” if you 

enter from top ( that is over the bridge ) then you need to come to ground floor I guess.

Just ask at any counter ” tell them you need to renew your vehicle permit” am a bit 

forgetful as to if the Base office is on second or ground floor.

Show all the documents to the officer who sits in the small room, he will check and give 

an extension then and there.Your Vehicle permit is done.

Note: No one keeps the original or xerox copy of permits in any check post , so just one 

copy of all document is good enough.

At check post they will check you permits for persons and for Vehicle they will take down 

the name of driver, owner of vehicle, Vehicle number and drivers license number for 

every vehicle. Once done they will return the document back to you.

Download : Bhutan Entry permit form.

Sim Card of Bhutan :-

The very first task was to get a SIM Card as Indian Sim card is not valid after Phuntsholing.. You will  get signal in Phuentsholing as long as we are near the Gate. 

Tashi Cell and Bhutan Telecom are two mobile operators in Bhutan. Tashi Cell is private whereas Bhutan Telecom is government and oldest. Some review suggest us that Tashi Cell is better  thus we got  Tashi Cell Tourist SIM Card for Nu. 210/- with talk time of Nu. 200/. Shopkeeper informed us that, Tourist SIM Cards are valid for 1 month. You’ll just have to provide photocopy of your Entry Permit to get the SIM Cards. I asked for 3G packs but the shopkeeper informed us that, packs are not valid for Tourist SIM Cards. One can only recharge Top Up’s on Tourist SIM Cards. Though nothing like this was mentioned on the site of both Tashi Cell and Bhutan Telecom. Anyway, I decided to recharge a top up of Nu. 500/- as I plan to surf internet. But later throughout my trip I noticed that most citizens prefer Bhutan Telecom. But I also noticed that both Tashi Cell and Bhutan Telecom offers great service.