Visiting India? India's e-Visa Enables Visa on Arrival for citizens of over 160 countries, and eliminates having to go to the Embassy or Consulate General of India. We recently completed our applications and were approved, so I thought I'd share my tips.
India E-Visa Requirements and Cost
Before applying, make sure that your passport is valid for at least 6 months from your date of arrival in India and will have at least 2 blank pages when you arrive in India. Don't apply for an E-Visa if you'll be getting a new passport between the time of your application and the time of your entry to India; you need to enter using the same passport you used to apply.
Also note that the validity of the E-Visa is 60 days from the date of arrival in India, and is double entry for the tourist visa.
You must be from one of the eligible countries (listed below) to apply, but note that even if you are from one of the eligible countries, if you hold a Pakistani Passport or are of Pakistani origin, you'll need to apply through the Indian Embassy or Consulate, and not via the E-Visa process.
The cost of an India E-Visa for U.S. Citizens is $100, plus 2.5% bank transaction charge. Only Visa and MasterCard are accepted, no AMEX cards.
You'll also need to be entering India via one of the e-Visa equipped airports or seaports (see below).
India Airports and Seaports Eligible for E-Visa Arrivals
Airports: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Chandigarh, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum, Varanasi, Vishakhapatnam
Seaports: Cochin, Goa, Mangalore, Mumbai, Chennai
When to Apply for Your India E-Visa
You must apply at least 4 days before your arrival date in India, and no more than 120 days prior to arrival. For example, if you apply on October 16, 2018, your arrival date in India could be October 20, 2018 – February 13, 2019. I don't recommend waiting until 4 days prior to arrival, however, since if your application is refused you won't have time to apply via the embassy or consulate.
Who Can Apply for an India E-Visa
Citizens of most countries are eligible to apply for an India E-Visa:
Albania, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameron Union Republic, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Island, Chile, China, China (including Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR), Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'lvoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan , Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger Republic, Niue Island, Norway, Oman, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal , Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Island, Tuvalu, UAE, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City-Holy See, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe
What You'll Need to Gather for Your India E-Visa Application
You'll need to scan your passport bio page, convert this to a pdf, and compress the pdf so that it's between 10KB to 300KB. I just did a quick Google search to find free tools to convert a jpg to a pdf and compress the pdf, or you can use your favorite methods.
You also need a digital passport type photograph in jpeg format, with your head centered in the frame, on a white or light colored background, no glasses or head covering, no shadows or border. The size must be a minimum of 10KB and maximum of 1MB, and I found that a 400 x 400 pixel image worked well. While I had actual passport photos for my husband and me that I scanned, I didn't have one for our son, so I simply took a recent iPhoto, which fortunately was accepted.
Because of the questions asked on the form, if you're married, you may also need to check with your spouse on his/her parents' middle names and where they were born, if you don't already know this.
Where to Apply for the India E-Visa
Go directly to the Government of India E-Visa Application page to begin your application. You'll be prompted to enter your passport type, arrival airport or port, birth date, email, expected date of arrival, visa service (tourists can select “Recreation/Sightseeing”) and will need to enter the Captcha and acknowledge that you've read the instructions and have the required scans of your passport bio page in pdf format and passport photo in jpeg format, before continuing.
You'll then need to complete the next screen, with gender, city and country of birth, and more intrusive information such as citizen/national ID (I put not applicable), educational attainment, and even religion. If your religion isn't in the drop down, or you're agnostic or atheist, you'll need to select “Others.” You'll also be prompted for passport details, including place of issue, date of issue, and expiration date.
Subsequent screens will ask for your marital status, your and your spouse's occupations, your spouse's parents' names, nationality and birthplace, the countries you've visited in the past 10 years, if you've ever been denied for an Indian Visa previously, if you've been arrested, if you've applied for asylum anywhere, etc.
How Long Does It Take to Be Approved for an Indian E-Visa?
After you pay the $102.50 fee (for U.S. citizens; fee may vary by country) you should receive confirmation of your application to your email. It can take up to 72 hours to be approved, but in our case we received confirmation in about 18 hours.
Have you applied for an India E-Visa?
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