India e-Visa: Step-by-Step Application Guide

The India e-Visa gets marketed as a fast, painless digital process anyone can complete in minutes. Most of that is true — unless your photo doesn’t meet spec, your passport expires within six months, or you accidentally paid $150 to a third-party site for a $25 government form. The official fee runs $25 to $80 depending on visa type. Everything above that is someone else’s margin.

This is not immigration or legal advice. Visa rules change — verify current requirements at indianvisaonline.gov.in before applying.

The Third-Party Site Trap: You’re Paying Someone to Click for You

The single most expensive mistake in the India e-Visa process is paying the wrong website. Search “apply India e-Visa” and you’ll find a wall of private processing companies — some with official-looking government seals and .com domains that read like government portals — ranking above the actual government site. These companies charge $50 to $200+ for the same application you can submit yourself in about 20 minutes. They’re not doing anything you can’t do. They figured out that confused travelers will pay for hand-holding.

The only legitimate portal is indianvisaonline.gov.in, operated by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs. Bookmark it. Use nothing else.

These third-party services aren’t illegal. Some even advertise processing time guarantees, which sounds reassuring until you realize they have zero control over actual processing. India’s immigration bureau reviews applications on its own timeline regardless of who submitted the form. A third-party service promising “priority processing” is promising something it cannot deliver.

There’s one narrow case where a paid service makes sense: if you genuinely cannot navigate an English-language online form and need live human support. Everyone else — the official portal handles the entire process, no service fee.

Bottom Line: Apply at indianvisaonline.gov.in directly. If you’ve landed on any other site, close the tab.

India e-Visa Types and What Each One Actually Costs

Five e-Visa categories exist. Most travelers need exactly one. Getting the category wrong means a rejected application and starting over — so confirm your travel purpose before selecting anything.

Fees vary by nationality — the amounts above apply to most Western passport holders (US, UK, Canada, Australia, EU). The portal shows your exact fee after you select nationality. Don’t assume the generic rate applies to you until you check.

The value math on 1-year versus 30-day is clear: $40 versus $25 for triple the flexibility and unlimited re-entries. If there’s any chance you’ll return within 12 months — or if your itinerary crosses into Nepal and back — the 1-year pays for itself on a single border crossing. The 5-year at $80 is the best rate for regular India travelers. Two trips covers the investment. The 180-day continuous stay cap is generous for most people. It doesn’t confer residency and doesn’t renew — you just reapply when it expires.

Bottom Line: Single trip, fixed dates? The $25 30-day visa does the job. Any flexibility in your plans or a return trip likely within the year? The $40 1-year option is the smarter spend.

Who Qualifies: Nationality Rules, Passport Minimums, and Port Restrictions

Which nationalities are eligible?

Citizens of 165+ countries qualify. The list covers most of North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Notable exclusions: Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Sudan — nationals of those countries must apply for a sticker visa through an Indian embassy or consulate. The full eligibility list is searchable on indianvisaonline.gov.in. Check before applying, not after.

What passport validity does India actually require?

Your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond your planned arrival date. Arriving October 1, 2026? Your passport needs to be valid through April 1, 2027 at minimum. Two blank pages are also required for the entry stamp. There are no exceptions, no grace periods, no consular discretion on this rule. The portal checks at application submission. Border officials check again on arrival. If your passport expires within six months of your travel date, renew it before applying — attempting the visa with a near-expiry passport wastes the application fee.

Are there restrictions on where you can enter India?

Yes — and this is the one that surprises overland travelers. e-Visa holders can only enter India through 30 designated international airports (including Indira Gandhi International in Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International in Mumbai, and Kempegowda International in Bengaluru) or five designated seaports. Land border crossings are not available. If you’re planning to arrive overland from Nepal, Bangladesh, or Pakistan — or flying into a smaller regional airport not on the authorized list — the e-Visa does not cover that entry. Verify your port of entry against the official list before booking flights.

What to Gather Before You Open the Application Form

The application session times out. Gather everything before you start — having to restart because a file isn’t ready costs nothing but time, but it’s entirely avoidable.

• Passport scan — Personal data page and last page. Clear JPEG or PNG, under 1MB. No glare, no shadow, all text fully legible.
• Passport-style photo — 2×2 inches (51x51mm), plain white background, face filling 70–80% of the frame, JPEG format, under 1MB. No glasses. No hats. No filters. Neutral expression with both eyes open. The portal rejects non-compliant photos without specifying exactly why.
• Email address you actively monitor — Your approved visa PDF is sent here. Use a personal account. Work emails with aggressive spam filters have caused travelers to miss approval notifications.
• Payment card — Visa, Mastercard, or American Express. Expect a 1–3% foreign transaction fee from your bank on top of the visa fee. Some prepaid cards are declined by the portal — use a standard credit or debit card if possible.
• First address in India — Hotel booking, Airbnb confirmation, or a host’s home address. You don’t need to be there the entire trip — a first-night address is sufficient.
• Expected arrival date — You can apply up to 120 days before travel. The visa activates from first use, not from the application date.

The photo is where most rejections happen. India’s spec is strict. A selfie against a light wall won’t pass. Lighting needs to be even, no shadows on the face or background, background genuinely white not off-white. If you don’t have a recent passport photo, tools like PhotoAiD or Passport Photo Online both format photos to India’s exact specifications for under $5. That’s cheaper than reapplying.

How to Apply: Every Step in Order

1. Open indianvisaonline.gov.in. Select “Apply for e-Visa.” On the homepage, that’s the only button you need.
2. Select your nationality and visa type. Choose e-Tourist, e-Business, or e-Medical. For e-Tourist, select your duration: 30-day, 1-year, or 5-year.
3. Enter your expected arrival date. The system calculates visa validity from this date. If plans are uncertain, enter your best estimate — you can arrive within the 120-day window.
4. Fill in personal details. Name must match your passport exactly — including middle names, hyphens, spaces, and suffixes. A single character mismatch is grounds for rejection. Nationality, date of birth, and passport number also must be verbatim from the document.
5. Provide travel details. Port of entry (the first airport in India where you land) and first address in India.
6. Answer the background questions. These cover criminal history, military connections, and prior visa refusals. Answer truthfully. Misrepresentation can result in permanent ineligibility — and Indian immigration has flagged travelers for inconsistencies between application history and arrival interviews. Most applicants answer “No” to everything.
7. Upload your photo and passport scan. Both must meet the file size and format requirements. The portal validates file size. If a file is too large, compress it — tools like ILoveIMG work for free and handle JPEG compression without visible quality loss.
8. Review every field before submitting. There is no editing after payment. Errors require a full reapplication and a new fee.
9. Submit and pay. Fees are non-refundable regardless of outcome. Save the Application ID you receive — it’s your only way to track status.
10. Check status and download the PDF. Go back to indianvisaonline.gov.in, enter your Application ID and date of birth. When status shows “Granted,” download the PDF immediately and print two copies. Airlines and Indian immigration both may ask for a printed version.

Apply at least 7–10 business days before travel, not the official 72 hours. That buffer covers document review delays, manual processing flags, and any correction window if something is wrong. Submitting 24 hours before a flight is a gamble — and not a small one.

Processing Times: What “72 Business Hours” Means in Practice

The official processing window is 72 business hours. That’s accurate under ideal conditions — complete application, valid documents, normal government operating period. A meaningful share of applications take longer, and the portal won’t warn you when that’s likely to be your application.

The holiday and peak-season problem

Indian national holidays slow processing with zero notification on the portal. Diwali — typically in October or November — is the biggest single slowdown period. The week around Republic Day (January 26) is another. Applications submitted in those windows that would normally clear in two to three days can sit in queue for seven to ten business days. There is no escalation path and no premium lane for standard e-Visa applications. You wait.

October through February is India’s peak tourism season. Higher application volume during those months slows average processing even outside holidays. If you’re traveling between November and February 2026, budget 10–14 days from application submission to approval. Submitting right before Diwali and expecting 72-hour turnaround has burned many travelers who then missed flights.

Manual review: what happens and what to do

A small percentage of applications get flagged for manual review. The portal won’t tell you why or when. Status stays on “Under Process” longer than expected. This can happen due to passport data discrepancies, travel history to certain countries, or randomized security screening. The only option is to wait. If you haven’t received a decision after 14 business days, you can contact the Indian e-Visa helpdesk through the official site — but response times are slow and outcomes aren’t guaranteed to change.

Rejections: the financial reality

Rejections are uncommon for eligible nationals with correct documentation, but they happen. India does not provide reasons for rejection. You’ll receive a notification, no explanation, and no refund. The $25–$80 fee is gone. You can reapply immediately — but if the rejection was based on eligibility rather than a documentation error, reapplying doesn’t change anything. In those cases, the traditional sticker visa processed through an Indian consulate or through VFS Global (India’s official outsourced visa processing partner in many countries) is the next step. VFS Global adds a service fee on top of the visa cost and takes 5–15 business days, but it covers scenarios the e-Visa system doesn’t reach.

Bottom Line: Build in 10 days of lead time as a default. If you’re traveling during an Indian holiday period, 14 days. The 72-hour claim is technically possible — just not reliably repeatable.

When the e-Visa Is the Wrong Tool for Your Trip

The India e-Visa handles the vast majority of short-term visits cleanly. Apply it to a situation it wasn’t built for, and you’ve burned both the processing time and the non-refundable fee — then you still have to do the consulate route anyway.

If your single continuous stay exceeds 180 days, you need a long-stay tourist visa issued at an Indian consulate — the e-Visa’s continuous stay cap is firm and non-negotiable. Study, journalism, remote work for a foreign employer, religious missionary activity, and NGO work all require specific visa categories not available through the e-Visa system. Describing a research fellowship as “tourism” on an e-Visa application is misrepresentation. Indian immigration officers at major airports ask pointed questions about intended activities, and inconsistencies get flagged.

Land arrivals fall outside e-Visa coverage entirely. Overland entry from Nepal via Sunauli, Bangladesh via Benapole, or any other land crossing requires a sticker visa. Same for anyone flying into a smaller airport not on the authorized port list. For those situations, apply through the Indian consulate in your home country or through VFS Global. The process takes longer and costs more, but it’s the only path that works.

The e-Visa program has genuinely simplified travel to India compared to what the consulate process looked like before 2014. As India continues expanding the authorized port list and eligible nationality count, it will likely cover more travel scenarios in coming years. For now, use it for what it was designed for — standard short-term tourism and business visits — and it’s one of the more functional e-Visa systems among major travel destinations. When the situation calls for a traditional visa, that’s not a failure of the system; it’s the system working as intended.