How To Apply Online for An Indian e Visa or e Visa (Updated)

How To Apply Online For An Indian e Visa / Indian Tourist Visa

By DAN FORTEZA

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you purchase something through that link, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Think of it as buying a cup of coffee for me on someone else. Thanks & enjoy!

India is so much more than just the Taj Mahal. India to me is a mix of everything. It is astonishing and fascinating; it is loud and crowded. It is INCREDIBLE and always calls for an adventure! Now, if you’re planning to visit India and looking for a guide on how to apply for an Indian e Visa (or  Indian Tourist Visa), then you’re in the right place.

Red Fort in Delhi | Dantravels.org

However, I’ll be only outlining the process on how to get the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) or “E-Tourist Visa” (now aptly called as “e Visa”). This is totally the visa to get if your sole purpose is just tourism or visiting friends and family.

THE INDIAN E VISA

The Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) facility became operational in November 2014 up to present and is eligible for citizens of over 40 countries, including those who are eligible for visa on arrival. The list was further expanded to 113 countries in August 2015 (see Visa Policy Map below).

Map Indian tourist visa
Visa Policy Map in India via Wikipedia | Dantravels.org

You’re lucky if you’re a citizen of Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives. Citizens of these countries do not require visa to enter India (unless arriving from mainland China).

But don’t you worry! Getting an e Visa is not that complicated. I received my ETA document attached via email on the same day I applied! The process is fast, simple and straightforward.

But again, just like in other visa application blogs I’ve written, no one can give you the guarantee of your Indian e Visa’s approval – not me, not even a lawyer or a travel agent. If anyone does, is most likely a scammer.

As a travel blogger, what I can offer you here is just a guide with helpful tips to increase your chances of getting that e-Visa. =)

YOU ARE ELIGIBLE OF E VISA IF:

A. You are a citizen of the following countries  – this is as of April 2019 (this is also in reference to the ‘Visa Policy Map’ highlighted in orange).

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
Cameroon Union Republic
Canada
Cape Verde
Cayman Island
Chile
China
China- SAR Hongkong
China- SAR Macau
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
LaosLatvia
Lesotho
Liberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg

Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
golia
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 & 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
US
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican City-Holy See
Venezuela
Vietnam
Zambia
Zimbabwe

B. You are entering India via any of the following Airports*:

Ahmedabad
Amritsar
Bagdogra
Bengaluru
Calicut
Chennai

Chandigarh
Cochin
Coimbatore
Delhi
Gaya
Goa

Guwahati
Hyderabad
Jaipur
Kolkata
Lucknow
Mangalore

Mumbai
Nagpur
Pune
Tiruchirapalli
Trivandrum
Varanasi

*Or Sea ports of: Kochi, Goa, Mangalore, Mumbai, Chenna

OTHER eligibility requirements:

C. Your objective of visiting India is recreation, sight seeing,casual visit to visit friends and relatives, attending a short term yoga programme, medical treatment including treatment under Indian systems of medicine, 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.

D. You have a passport that has at least six months validity from the date of arrival in India. The passport should have at least two blank pages for stamping by the Immigration Officer.

E. You have a return ticket or onward journey ticket,with sufficient money to spend during your stay in India.

F. You do NOT have Pakistani Passport or are NOT of Pakistani origin. Otherwise, you may apply for regular Visa at Indian Mission.

G. You do NOT hold a Diplomatic/Official passport or Laissez-passer travel document.

When you qualify the above requirements, then you’re good to proceed to applying your e Visa online.

Below are the step-by-step application process.

GET YOUR INDIAN E VISA IN 4 EASY STEPS!

STEP 1: PREPARE THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

You have to prepare first the required documents before you lodge your application online. The following documents and information are needed:

1. Scanned copy of your passport’s bio-page. Save it to .pdf format in no more than 300KB size.

Tip: To save you from using a scanner machine, you can instead use a mobile app called “CAMSCANNER”. It is available in both Android and iPhone. Just take a picture of the file and it can be saved as pdf. I use it myself and it appears just like a normal scanned document!

2. Recent Digital Photo. Dimension of 2″ x 2″ is preferable and must be with white background. Save it as .jpeg format in no more than 1MB size.

3. Hotel/Hostel Accommodation. When filling up the application form online, you would need this information under the section “References in India”.

TIP: I usually book my hostel accommodation at booking.com. Thus, I recommend you guys trying it as well.  Room accommodation ranges from cheap hostels to luxury hotels.

Please use my link to book your trip in India and you’ll get 10% of your booking back after your stay. Click this link to get that discount.

Or try Airbnb in finding comfy and cozy rooms! I have used Airbnb on some of my other trips and I loved it!

Have you tried Airbnb? Sign up with my link and you will get up to 42 USD (2,200 PHP) off your first stay. Click this link to get that discount.

STEP 2: PROCEED WITH YOUR E VISA APPLICATION ONLINE

So this is it. You’ve come this far! =)

For you to be able to facilitate your application ONLINE, just follow the through the below steps:

1. Go to indianvisaonline.gov.in and click the e Visa Application box. 

India's e Visa page | Dantravels.org
India's e Visa page | Dantravels.org

Next, click ‘Apply for eVisa here’ at the bottom right corner.

Indian e visa page updated website
India's e Visa page | Dantravels.org

Then it will lead you to a page to start registering.

Just complete the requested information, click eTOURIST VISA, and select your main purpose of travel, e.g. recreation/sightseeing. Tick on “I have read the instructions…”, and then click continue.

Website of Indian tourist visa
Registration page | Dantravels.org

2. On the next page – Applicant Details Form, fill up those information requested – Applicant Details. Passport Details,  Address Details, Family Details, Occupation details, Visa & Travel Details, and Reference in India.

Website of Indian tourist visa
Applicant Details page | Dantravels.org

Under Reference section, if you’re not visiting a family or friend, fill it in with your hotel name and address. Again you can book hostel/hotel on this link HERE for booking.com or HERE for Airbnb to get discounts.

Reference Section | Dantravels.org

Then, ‘Save and Continue’ to direct you to the payment section.

REMEMBER: once you click ‘Save and Continue’, you can NO longer change any of the information, so make sure you’ve got everything right.

3. On the next pages, you will be asked to upload your .jpeg photo and your .pdf passport’s biopage. Ensure that you fulfill the specification under STEP 1.

Once done, you’ll be processing your payment! Woo hoo!

STEP 3. PAY THE VISA FEE

You will be redirected to the Payment portal just like the snapshot below.

Just click the bullet that says ‘Yes’ and click on ‘Pay Now’.

Then, you would select either ‘Sbi e-pay’ or ‘Axis Bank’ as your payment gateway.

Update: You can now also pay visa PayPal.

Indian eVisa portal now includes PayPal
Reference Section | Dantravels.org

I selected ‘Sbi e-pay’ (Sbi stands for State Bank of India), and I don’t think there is a difference if I selected ‘Axis Bank’.

Then the next page will be an Sbi portal page which gives you the option to pay for the visa fee with a debit card, a credit card or with PayPal.

Once done, you’ll receive a confirmation email stating that you have successfully lodged your application and will take 72 hours for processing (but it only takes 12 hours in my case) just like the one snapshot below:

Confirmation email | Dantravels.org

HOW MUCH DOES THE VISA COST?

The e Visa fees are divided into four slabs of zero, USD25, USD80 and USD100, depending on nationality (based on reciprocity), plus a bank fee of 2.5% of the visa fee. Check out the detailed visa fee chart here.

Take note that it is FREE for countries such as Indonesia, Jamaica, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Niue Island, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uruguay, & Vanuatu. LUCKY them!

For Filipinos like me, it costs me USD80.00 (plus a bank fee of 2.5% of the visa fee).

NOTE: Payment is non-refundable.

UPDATE: In August 2019, the Indian Government announced a 30 Day Visa during the peak season for 25 USD. Refer to related news here

STEP 4. WAIT FOR THE RESULTS OF YOUR APPLICATION

After you completed the whole online application process, you just have to wait for the result of your e-Visa application.

In my case, I submitted my application at around 10:00AM (GMT+8) and then I received an email at around 9:00PM (GMT+8), the same day, that my e-Visa application status is GRANTED!

See how easy it is to apply for India’s e-Visa? I hope this blog helps you in any way. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a reply in the comment section below. I’ll reply as soon as I can.

With all that said, I wish you all the best on your Indian tourist visa application!

My Indian e-Visa | Dantravels.org

SUMMARY:

Visa Type: ETA / e-Visa
Visa Validity: 4 Months
Entry type: Double Entry
Visa Fee: 80.00 USD

UPDATE: In August 2019, the Indian Government announced a 30 Day Visa during the peak season for 25 USD. Refer to related news here

BOOKING ESSENTIALS

  • Hotel / Hostel
    • Booking.com. I usually book my hostel accommodation at booking.com. Thus, I recommend you guys trying it as well.  Room accommodation ranges from cheap hostels to luxury hotels. Book hostels through booking.com as they have free cancellation or pay-at-the-hotel option.
    • Airbnb. Try Airbnb in finding comfy and cozy rooms! I have used Airbnb on some of my other trips and I loved it!

Have you tried Airbnb? Sign up with my link and you will get up to 42 USD (2,200 Php) off your first stay. Click this link to get that discount.

  • Flights
    • KAYAK. All of my flight bookings are all from KAYAK. Kayak is one of the world’s leading travel search engines and searches hundreds of travel sites.

I suggest you check Kayak (click HERE) as they usually offer cheap fare rates compared to other booking sites.

 

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Jongho Kim

    Thanks for sharing!!!

    1. dantravels

      Gamsahamnida, Jongho!

Leave a Reply