Visa to India

Every Foreign National needs to obtain a VISA for visiting India. For details please click on: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/index.html

Indian Government is providing Visa on Arrival enabled by Electronic Authorization, which is also called e-Visa.

For details, please click: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html

e-Visa has 3 sub-categories i.e

e-Visa facility in India is now extended to 165 countries in the world. Please click on the following link for more details:

Eligibility for e-Visa

• An international traveler can avail an e-Visa to India for a number of purposes, including sightseeing, leisure purpose, for medical treatment that is of a small period, for meeting friends / relatives or for a business visit.
• It is important that the passport of the traveler must be valid for 6 months, from the date when he is arriving in India. Apart from this, there must also be at least 2 blank pages in the passport so that the Immigration Officer can put a stamp.
• While coming to India, the international traveler must have enough money to spend here and must also possess a ticket for an onward journey or a return ticket.
• If the country of origin of the international traveler is Pakistan and he is possessing a Pakistani Passport, then he will be required to apply for a normal Visa at the Indian Mission.
• The facility of e-Visa is not offered to Laissez-passer travel document holders, and Official / Diplomatic Passport Holders.
• It is necessary that every individual has a separate passport. E-visa will not be given to an individual if he is validated on Parent's or Spouse's Passport.
• International Travel Document Holders cannot apply for an e-Visa.

Instructions for e-Visa

• As written above, e-Visa has 3 sub-categories that is, e-Tourist visa, e-Business Visa and e-Medical visa. An international traveler can club these categories for visiting India.
• It is necessary that the permitted nationals must apply for an e-Visa online, minimum 4 days in advance of their date of arriving in India, with a window of 365 days. For example, if a person is applying for an e-Visa on 1st November then his / her date of arrival should be 5th November to 30th October next year.
• Along with the application of e-Visa, other documents are also required. This documentation includes a recent photograph with white-color background. The photo page in the passport must contain personal details such as name of the holder, date of birth, nationality, expiry date and so on. Also, one more document is required depending on the type of e-Visa. If the documents and the photographs that have been uploaded are not clear, then, the application can get rejected.
• The fee of e-Visa is territory / country specific. An extra of 2.5 percent for bank transaction charges will be levied on e-Visa fees. The applicant is required to pay this fees at least 4 days prior to his date of travelling or the application is not going to be processed.
• Since the fee is for the processing of the application form, thus after payment, the fee is non-refundable. It does not depend on Grant or Rejection of Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA).
• At the time of travelling, carrying a copy of ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) is mandatory for the applicant. Before starting your journey, make sure that the status of ETA is 'GRANTED'.
• Providing biometric details is mandatory for the applicant at the immigration on arrival in India.
• From the date of arrival in India, an e-Visa is valid for 60 days. Double entry is allowed on e-Tourist Visa and e-Business Visa, while triple entry is allowed on e-Medical Visa.
• 24 designated airports allow entry to an e-Visa applicant, namely, Varanasi, Trivandrum, Tiruchirapalli, Pune, Nagpur, Mumbai, Mangalore, Lucknow, Kolkata, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Goa, Gaya, Delhi, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chandigarh, Chennai, Calicut, Bengaluru, Bagdogra, Ahmedabad and Amritsar. There also are 3 designated seaports for the same i.e. Mangalore, Cochin, and Goa. However, exit can be done from any of the authorized Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) in India.
• In a calendar year, between the months of January and December, an e-Visa can be applied maximum for 2 times.
• Please be aware that an e-Visa is non-convertible and non-extendable. Also, if you wish to visit Cantonment areas of Restricted / Protected Areas, an e-Visa is not valid for that. For visiting these areas, special prior permission has to be taken from the Civil Authority.
• If your number of unsuccessful attempts for applying for an e-Visa goes up from three, then the application id will be blocked automatically. Thus one must be very careful while paying the fees of the e-Visa. If unsuccessful attempts have been more than three, then the applicant needs to apply afresh. Fill the application form again so that a new application id can be generated.
• Because of network issues or technical reasons, it may take 4 hours for the updation of e-Visa fee payment status. Therefore, before one applies again, he/she must wait for four hours, after submitting the application and paying the fees.
• If the traveler is from any country affected with Yellow Fever or if he is coming from any country whose nationals need to carry Yellow Fever Vaccination Card before coming to India, they might be kept in isolation for 6 days on arriving in India. (https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html)