There are numerous types of visa categories for India, but the most common one is the tourist visa. Here you will find all the information and steps to take to get your tourist visa for India.
First of all, the main website to apply for your tourist visa for India:
https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/
The above link is of the official website of the Indian Government, where you can see all the recent updates. On the site, you will also see three options for getting your India Tourist Visa:
- Tourist eVisa by the Bureau of Immigration
- Regular/Paper visa by an Indian mission/post
- Visa on arrival for citizens of Japan and South Korea
Tourist E-Visa by the Bureau of Immigration of India
This is the most common and easiest way to get a tourist visa to India. So what is an eVisa? An E-visa is provided to international travellers whose sole objective for visiting India is recreation, sightseeing, a casual visit to visit friends and/or relatives, attending a short term yoga programme, medical treatment including treatment, business purpose, as attendant to e-Medical visa holder, attending a conference/ seminar/ workshop organized by a Ministry or Department of the Government of India, State Governments or UT Administrations etc. & their subordinate/ attached organizations & PSUs and no other purpose/activity are eligible for E-visa.
You can apply for your E-visa by following this official link of the Indian Bureau of Immigration. There you will also find a list of countries eligible to apply for the E-Visa for India. If your country is not on the list, please check out this section below. Also please note e-Visa is non-extendable, non-convertible & not valid for visiting Protected/Restricted and Cantonment Areas of India.
There are five types of tourist visa categories available:
- E-Tourist visa
- E-Business visa
- E-Conference visa
- E-Medical visa
- E-Medical attendant visa
The main focus of this blog will be about the E-Tourist visa.
Some of the important points to note about E-tourist visa is:
- Validity (how long is the visa valid for before you need to be in-country: One year after the (Electronic Travel Authority or ETA) has been granted. This is the proof, you will receive the actual visa once in-country.
- Entry: Multiple
- Stay: Continuous stay during each visit shall not exceed 90 days for countries except the USA, UK, Canada and Japan. For USA, UK, Canada and Japan continuous stay during each visit shall not exceed 180 days.
Conditions and Requirements for e-Visa for tourists in India
The following are the conditions to be checked before applying for E-Tourist Visa:
- Passport should have at least 6 months of validity from the date of arrival in India.
- The passport should have two blank pages for stamping by the immigration officer.
- The travellers should have a return or onward journey ticket.
- The traveller should apply a minimum of 4 days in advance before arrival in India for an E-Tourist visa.
- Make sure you are ready with a scanned copy of passport to be uploaded. The photo and details in the passport should be clear.
- This link gives the exact idea of how the application form will be and could make it easy while applying for the visa.
Please note that a regular tourist visa is not extendable.
How to apply for an e-Visa for tourist in India
Once you have all your documents ready, its time to start filling out the application form.
Step 1 – Apply Online for your tourist visa for India
- Follow the link below to start filing your application: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/Registration
- Have a scanned copy of your passport size photograph and passport ready for submission.
- There are certain formats the photograph and passport should be:
- Photograph:
- Format: JPEG.
- Size: 10KB – 1MB.
- Height and width of the photo should be equal.
- The photo should present the full face, front view, eyes open and without glasses.
- Center head within the frame and present full head from the top of hair to bottom of the chin.
- The background should be a plain light-coloured or a white background.
- No shadows on the face or on the background.
- Without borders.
- Passport:
- Format: PDF
- Size: 10KB – 300KB
- Photograph:
- Make sure all the details are accurate.
- More detailed information on India Visa Photo Requirements can be found here.
Step 2 – Pay India Tourist Visa Fee Online
- E-visa fee is country/territory specific.
- To find out the charges for your country please click on the link.
- An addition 2.5% will be charged on your visa fee as bank charges.
- The fee must be paid at least 4 days before expected to travel otherwise the application will not be processed.
- e-Visa fee once submitted is non-refundable as the fee is for processing of the application and is not dependent on either Grant or Rejection of Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA).
- It will take a minimum of two hours once the payment for the status to be updated due to technical reasons/network delays.
- Before re-applying, the applicants are requested to wait for 2 hours for payment status updating, after final submission of the application form and payment of the fee.
- In cases where the e-Visa fee has been deducted but the status has not been updated, the applicants are advised to verify their payment status by clicking on ‘Verify Payment/Pay Visa Fee’ tab on the home page or by clicking on the link Verify Payment.
Step 3 – Receive ETA Online
- You will receive your ETA or Electronic Travel Authorization via e-mail.
- Applicant should carry a copy of ETA while travelling to India.
- Please confirm that your ETA status is shown as ‘GRANTED’ on this website prior to commencement of your journey.
- Applicants can track the status of their application online by clicking VisaStatus.
Step 4 – Fly to India
- When your all set and ready to book tickets make sure you are entering through the authorized immigration check post.
- Persons holding eVisa will be allowed to enter into India only through the designated international airports (28) namely:
| Delhi | Mumbai | Chennai | Kolkata |
| Thiruvananthapuram | Bengaluru | Hyderabad | Cochin |
| Goa | Ahmedabad | Amritsar | Gaya |
| Jaipur | Lucknow | Trichy | Varanasi |
| Calicut | Mangalore | Pune | Nagpur |
| Coimbatore | Bagdogra | Guwahati | Chandigarh |
| Visakhapatnam | Madurai | Bhubaneswar | Port Blair |
- Also, make sure you have your onward ticket or return ticket ready to be presented at the immigration office.
- Once all these documents ie passport, ETA, onward/return ticket is submitted E-visa will be stamped on the passport.
Regular/Paper Visa from Indian Mission or Post
This is the option for citizens of the countries that are not applicable for the eVisa or who want to have the validity of their tourist visa for more than one year. It’s basically three-step process but a bit more time-consuming. You can get a tourist visa validity for a maximum of one year. You will have to apply a minimum of 14 days before your planning to visit the country. We will go through various steps of this procedure in detail.
Step 1 – Fill out the online application for the tourist visa for India
- The applicant shall access the Visa Application system online through the following link: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/index.html
- While filling the fields please be careful you are giving the right information as once you submit the document there is no more Redo.
- The applicant should select the Indian Mission from where he can apply for the visa.
- Once these data are entered and submitted an application ID is generated which should be noted for further communication.
- The system will automatically ask the Applicant for the following confirmation:
- Select ‘Yes’ if the applicant wants to seek appointment and make a payment online.
- Select ‘No’ if the applicant just wants to print the submitted application form and approach the concerned Indian Mission for submission of the online form along with supporting documents.
- The price for the visa varies depending on the type, country and validity of the visa.
Step 2 – Submit the application at an Indian Visa Application Center, Indian Mission or Embassy
- If you have fixed an appointment visit on the exact time to verify and submit the application form along with the supporting documents.
- Each applicant should create a separate appointment with the Indian visa processing centre or Mission.
Step 3 – Collect your passport and visa
- You can either collect it directly from the Indian visa application centre or Indian mission.
- Or it could be sent through post to your residential address.
Visa on Arrival India
Citizens of only Japan and South Korea are the only two countries who are eligible for a visa on arrival. Visa on arrival can’t be extended and is non-convertible. Japanese and South Korean nationals would be required to fill out an application form (Annexure I). It is advisable to download it, print it, fill it and present the same to the ‘Visa Officer’ at the visa counter on arrival.
Requirements
- The applicant should not exceed 60 days of stay and the sole purpose of the trip should be for business, tourism, conference and medical purposes.
- The applicant should produce return/onward tickets.
- The passport should have a minimum validity of one month.
There are only six airports that issue a visa on arrival:
| Delhi | Mumbai | Kolkata |
| Chennai | Bengaluru | Hyderabad |
Visa for Sri Lanka
If you are looking to get your visa for Sri Lanka, please check out our other blog here.
Question about your Visa for India
If you have any questions or doubt about your visa for India, feel free to comment under this post and we will get back to you as soon as possible!
