India's e-visa asks for a short list of things: an ordinary passport valid at least six months beyond your date of arrival with two blank pages, a recent photograph against a plain light background with your face uncovered, a legible scan of your passport bio-data page, a travel purpose that fits one of the e-visa categories, and a fee paid online at the point of submission. Everything below is the detail behind those five items: the categories, the uploads, the fee, and the India-specific errors that send applications back. Treat every figure you read anywhere as something to confirm against your own passport, because India revises categories, fees and eligibility with very little notice.
The e-visa categories
India runs several e-visa categories, each tied to a stated purpose. You choose one when you apply, and the purpose has to match what you actually intend to do once you land.
| Category | Typical use | What varies between variants |
|---|---|---|
| e-Tourist | Sightseeing, visiting friends and relatives, short recreational courses | Several variants, from a short single-visit permit to multi-year multiple entry |
| e-Business | Meetings, trade fairs, sales, recruitment, technical discussions | Longer validity and multiple entries, with a cap on each individual stay |
| e-Medical | Treatment at a recognised Indian hospital | Shorter validity, a limited number of entries, tied to the treating hospital |
| e-Medical Attendant | Accompanying a patient traveling on an e-Medical visa | Issued against the patient's application; the number of attendants is capped |
| e-Conference and other narrow categories | Attending an event cleared by the relevant Indian ministry | Usually short and single entry, with clearance paperwork attached |
Validity, the permitted number of entries and the maximum stay per visit all differ between variants, and the government adjusts them. A category description on any website, this one included, is a starting point. The answer that counts is the one returned for your passport on the day you apply.
Passport requirements
- Ordinary passport. Diplomatic, official and service passports fall outside the e-visa system; those travelers apply through an Indian mission.
- Six months of validity beyond your arrival date. A passport that expires shortly after your trip will be refused; renew a borderline one before you apply.
- Two blank pages. The e-visa is electronic, but immigration still stamps the passport on entry and exit.
- Sound physical condition. A torn bio-data page, lifted laminate or water damage causes problems at the border even when the e-visa itself has been granted.
If you hold more than one nationality, apply on the passport you will actually travel on and present that same passport at immigration. The approval is bound to the passport number you entered.
The photograph and the document uploads
The photograph
- Plain white or very light background, evenly lit, with no shadow falling behind the head.
- Face fully visible, eyes open, neutral expression, no sunglasses. Head coverings worn for religious reasons are accepted provided the full face stays visible.
- Recent: taken within the last few months and recognisably you as you look now.
- Square framing, head centred and filling most of the frame.
Pixel dimensions and file-size limits are set by the portal and change from time to time, so read them on the upload screen itself. Photograph problems are the single most common upload failure across e-visa systems; the failure modes and their fixes are covered in Visa photo rejections: 12 fixes to pass automated checks on the first try.
The passport scan
- Colour scan or photograph of the bio-data page with all four corners visible and nothing cropped.
- The machine-readable zone along the bottom fully legible, character by character.
- No glare across the printed text. A phone photograph is fine if the page is flat, in focus and evenly lit.
Purpose-specific extras
- e-Business: evidence of the commercial relationship, such as a business card, an invitation letter from the Indian company, or correspondence naming you.
- e-Medical: a letter from the Indian hospital that will treat you, on hospital letterhead.
- e-Medical Attendant: the patient's application details, so the two records link together.
- e-Conference: the event invitation plus the ministry clearances the organiser should be able to supply.
The wider set of supporting files that e-visa programmes tend to ask for is set out in the seven documents needed for an electronic visa application.
What it costs
The Indian e-visa fee turns on three variables: your nationality, the category you apply under, and the validity you pick within that category. Some nationalities pay a nominal amount; others pay several times more for exactly the same permit. Long multi-year tourist variants cost more than short ones, and some tourist variants carry a seasonal adjustment.
You will not find a figure printed on this page, deliberately. India revises the schedule, and any site quoting one flat universal price is either out of date or quietly folding a markup into what it presents as the government charge. The live fee for a specific passport and category appears in the requirements response when you run a check, and again on the official portal at the payment step. Your bank may add a foreign-currency charge on top; that comes from your card issuer, not from India.
Where to apply
There are two legitimate routes. The official Indian government e-visa portal, operated by the Bureau of Immigration, where you pay the government fee and nothing else. Or a commercial service that completes and submits the application for you and charges a service fee, stated separately from the consular charge so you can see both numbers.
The route to avoid is the third one. India's e-visa is among the most heavily imitated programmes online: sites with official-looking seals, near-identical domain names and paid search placement above the real portal, charging a large multiple of the government fee for a form-filling service they often never perform. Five common electronic visa scams and how to avoid them sets out the tells worth checking before you type a passport number into anything.
Processing time
Approvals commonly arrive within a few business days. That is a pattern rather than a promise: applications flagged for manual review, cases with supporting documents, and peak travel periods all take longer, and there is no service level you can hold anyone to.
Apply at least a week before departure, and further ahead if your trip falls in high season or your category needs supporting paperwork. India also enforces an earliest window, so an application filed many months in advance can be rejected on timing alone. Check the current window before you submit.
Where an Indian e-visa lets you enter
An Indian e-visa admits you through designated airports and seaports only. Land borders are outside the scheme entirely, so a bus or car crossing from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Bhutan needs a regular visa issued by an Indian mission. Departure is more flexible: you can usually leave through any authorised immigration checkpoint, land crossings included.
The list of designated ports is revised as new airports are added. If your routing is unusual, say a ferry arrival or a small regional airport, confirm the current list before you book the ticket.
The stumbles that cost people time
- Name fields filled in to look tidy. India matches what you type against the machine-readable zone of your passport. If your passport leaves the surname line blank and puts everything in given names, enter it exactly that way. Splitting a compound surname, dropping a middle name or reordering the fields produces a mismatch that immigration will act on.
- Photograph rejections. Background, shadow and crop account for most of them, and each round trip costs a day.
- Applying too close to departure. There is no reliable way to accelerate a submitted application, and a flight in 48 hours is not a reason the system recognises.
- Assuming the e-visa covers a land entry. This one strands people at the border with a valid approval in hand.
- Treating it as a family application. Every traveler needs an individual e-visa on an individual passport, infants and children included.
- Transcribing the passport number loosely. A capital O typed where the passport prints a zero will pass the form and fail at the border, where the approval is matched against the number you submitted.
- Picking the category that looked simplest. Arriving on a tourist e-visa to run business meetings is a misuse of the permit, and the questions at immigration are specific.
Which nationalities can use the system
Most nationalities are eligible for the Indian e-visa, which is why it is often described as universal. It is not. A handful of nationalities are excluded from the online scheme and must apply at an Indian mission, and some passports face additional clearance steps that push the decision well past the usual few days. The list shifts with diplomatic relations. Check for the specific passport in hand rather than assuming the general rule includes it.
Check before you book
The reliable sequence is to confirm the requirements first, then book. Running the passport and the full route through a requirements check returns the category that applies, the document list, the current fee for that nationality, and the transit stops that people forget until an airline mentions them at the desk. It takes less time than reading this page, and the answer is for your passport.