The first rule: use only the official portal
The official site: the Government of India's online visa portal is indianvisaonline.gov.in, and the e-Visa section sits on that site.
What search shows you: the first results are often private agencies, some with flags, Indian government colours and words like official in their names.
- Official portal
- indianvisaonline.gov.in
- Run by
- The Government of India
- Private agents
- Charge a service fee, same visa
- Warning sign
- Payment before the government form
- Agents and fakes: a few are legitimate agents who charge a service fee for filling in the form. Others charge you and deliver nothing.
- No better visa: none of them can get you a visa you could not get yourself through the government site.
- Bookmark it: type the address yourself rather than clicking an advert, and check the address bar before you enter passport details or a card number.
- Close the tab: if a site asks you to pay before it has shown you the government application form, leave it.
Do you need a visa?
Nearly everyone: almost every international visitor needs a visa arranged before they travel.
The exceptions: citizens of a small number of neighbouring countries, and people of Indian origin with an Overseas Citizenship of India card, known as an OCI card, which works as a long-term visa.
- OCI holders: check that your card is linked to your current passport, because the rules on carrying old and new passports have changed over the years.
- Two passports: use the same one for your visa application, your flight booking and your arrival at immigration.
- Children: they need their own passports and their own visas, even infants.
- Side trips: if you are going on to Nepal, Bhutan or Sri Lanka and coming back into India, think about the number of entries your visa allows before you choose one.
- Read your own case: the portal lists who is eligible for each visa, and eligibility can depend on nationality and occasionally on family background.
e-Visa or regular visa
- For a holiday
- The e-Tourist Visa
- You receive
- An ETA by email
- Visa stamped
- In your passport on arrival
- Extendable?
- As a rule, no
- Visa on arrival
- A very few nationalities only
The e-Visa
Entirely online: you complete a form on the official portal, upload a photograph and a scan of your passport's photo page, and pay by card.
- What you get: if approved, an Electronic Travel Authorisation by email, often called the ETA. The visa itself is stamped into your passport when you arrive.
- Categories: tourist, business, medical and conference visas, among others. For a holiday in Rajasthan you want the e-Tourist Visa.
The e-Tourist Visa and its durations
More than one length: it has been offered with different validities and different numbers of entries.
- Set by the government: the options, the length of each stay and the fee for each change from time to time, sometimes by season.
- Why no numbers here: an out-of-date number is worse than none. The portal shows what is available to your nationality on the day you apply.
- Cover the whole trip: as a general rule, an e-Tourist Visa cannot be extended or converted into a different kind of visa once you are in India.
The regular paper visa
When you need it: if your nationality is not eligible for the e-Visa, or your trip includes work, journalism, professional filming or research.
- Where to apply: an Indian embassy, high commission or consulate. Many missions handle the paperwork through an appointed visa centre.
- What it involves: a paper or online form, an appointment, your passport and sometimes an interview. It generally takes longer than the e-Visa.
- Start here: your nearest Indian mission's website.
Visa on arrival
Very limited: India has offered a visa on arrival to a very small number of nationalities.
- Everyone else: you will not be allowed to board your flight without a valid visa or ETA.
- Our plea: please don't plan to sort it out at the airport.
The e-Visa process, step by step
- Step one
- Check eligibility and the window
- Step two
- Fill in the application
- Step three
- Upload photo and passport page
- Step four
- Pay online by card
- Step five
- Receive and check your ETA
- Step six
- Arrive at a designated port
Step one: check your eligibility
- Where: on indianvisaonline.gov.in, open the e-Visa section and read the instructions and the list of eligible countries.
- The window: check how far in advance you may apply and the latest date you should apply before travel. The government sets these windows, and they have changed in the past.
Step two: fill in the application
What it asks: your details exactly as in your passport, your parents' names, your address, profession, previous visits to India, the purpose of your trip and your expected port of arrival.
- An address in India: we send every guest their first hotel's name and address for this, along with their full itinerary.
- Save your application ID: you need it to return to the form, pay and check your status.
Step three: upload your photograph and passport page
The photo: recent, digital, your face front on, against a plain light background.
- The scan: your passport's photo page. Each upload has its own size and format rules on the portal.
- Why applications stall: photos that are too dark, badly cropped, with glasses glinting or a busy background.
Step four: pay online
How: by card through the portal. The amount depends on your nationality and the visa you choose.
- Warn your bank: it may treat this as an international payment, so tell them if your cards are often blocked abroad.
- Keep the receipt: save the payment confirmation.
Step five: receive your ETA
By email: when your application is granted, an email confirms your Electronic Travel Authorisation.
- Or on the portal: check its status with your application ID and passport number.
- Read every line: your name, passport number and date of birth must be exactly right, and the visa type the one you applied for.
- Keep copies: print one and keep a digital copy on your phone.
Step six: travel and arrive
Designated ports: e-Visa holders must enter India through one of the airports or seaports listed on the portal.
- Our guests' gateways: Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur are among the airports they use most, but check the current list before you book an unusual route.
- At immigration: your fingerprints and photograph are taken, and the visa is stamped into your passport.
What to have ready before you start
Passport: valid well beyond your journey. The portal has asked for at least six months' validity from your date of arrival, with blank pages for the stamps. Renew it first if it is close.
Photograph: recent and digital, meeting the portal's rules, taken in good light against a plain white or light background.
- Passport validity
- At least six months from arrival
- Blank pages
- Needed for the stamps
- Photo
- Plain white or light background
- Time to allow
- An unhurried hour
- Passport scan: a clear colour scan of the photo page, the page with your details and photograph.
- Flights: your flight details, or at least your planned date and airport of arrival.
- First hotel: its name and address, which we send you with your itinerary.
- Past visits: details of any previous visits to India and any previous Indian visas.
- Payment: a card for the online fee, and a little patience for the security checks.
The mistakes we see most often
Using an unofficial website
- Say it again: use indianvisaonline.gov.in.
- Paid agents: if you use one, you are paying for a service, not for a different or faster visa.
A name that doesn't match
- Exact match: your name on the visa must match your passport exactly, including middle names, and your flight booking should match too.
- Recent name change: if you have recently married or changed your name, travel on the passport you applied with.
Applying with one passport, travelling with another
Linked to a number: the visa is tied to the passport number you entered.
- The risk: renewing after applying, or travelling on a second passport, can cause problems at check-in or immigration.
- The fix: apply with the passport you will carry.
Leaving it too late
- Often quick, not always: holidays, technical problems or a request for more information can slow things down.
- Our advice: apply within the window the portal allows, and not in the last few days before you fly.
Choosing the wrong visa
- Mixed trips: a holiday combined with a conference, business meetings, medical treatment or a film shoot may not be covered by the tourist visa.
- Check the purpose: read each visa type on the portal and pick the one that fits your whole trip.
Forgetting the children
- One each: every traveller needs their own visa, including babies.
- Double-check: make one application per person, and check each child's passport number and date of birth.
Other things the border may ask for
Yellow fever: if you have recently travelled through or lived in a country where yellow fever is present, India may ask for a valid vaccination certificate on arrival.
Who it affects: mostly travellers coming from parts of Africa and South America. Your doctor or a travel clinic can tell you whether it applies to you.
Where to check: official travel-health advice from your home country lists the countries concerned. Our health and safety guide explains where to find it.
- Yellow fever certificate
- If coming from affected countries
- Prescription medicine
- Original packs, prescription or letter
- Satellite phones
- Restricted
- Drones
- Need permission
- Indian rupees
- A closed currency, with limits
- Medicines: some freely available elsewhere are controlled in India. Carry prescription medicine in its original packaging with a copy of your prescription or a doctor's letter, and enough for the whole journey.
- Anything unusual: check the rules before you travel.
- Satellite phones and drones: satellite phones are restricted, and drones need permission.
- Cash: large amounts of foreign currency should be declared to customs.
- Rupees: a closed currency, with limits on taking them in and out. Our guide to money and tipping explains how we suggest guests handle cash.
- In proportion: none of this troubles a normal holiday, but it is worth knowing before you pack.
What happens when you land
Where most guests land: Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, usually late at night.
Immigration: walk from the plane to the separate counters for e-Visa holders, with your passport and a printed ETA in your hand.
At the counter: the officer checks your documents, takes your fingerprints and photograph, and stamps the visa into your passport.
- Main gateway
- Indira Gandhi International, Delhi
- Usual arrival
- Late at night
- Immigration
- Separate e-Visa counters
- Have in hand
- Passport and printed ETA
- Customs
- Green channel if nothing to declare
- Arrival cards: India has at times asked foreigners to fill in a disembarkation or arrival card, on paper or online before travel. Check the current arrangements on official government sites.
- Customs: collect your bags, and most leisure travellers walk through the green channel for nothing to declare.
- If in doubt, declare: large amounts of cash, valuable equipment or anything you are unsure about. Check the current customs rules first.
- Drones: they need special permission, so leave yours at home unless you have arranged it properly in advance.
- Outside arrivals: a member of our team waits with your name, helps with your bags, hands over a local SIM if you asked for one, and drives you to your hotel.
- Delays: if your flight is late, we know, and we wait.
- Read next: airports and flights for the main gateways, and SIM cards and internet for staying connected from the first hour.
Your passport and visa during the journey
Hotel registration: Indian law requires hotels to register foreign guests, so each check-in desk asks for your passport and visa page and takes a copy.
At palace hotels: it is done discreetly while you sit with a welcome drink, and your passport comes back within minutes. It is normal.
- Make it quicker: keep a photocopy of your passport photo page and visa page with you, and a digital copy on your phone.
- Where to keep it: carry your passport on travel days, and leave it in the room safe while sightseeing in a city.
- Identification: some trains, airlines and wildlife parks ask for it when you book or travel.
- Safari permits: for Ranthambore and other national parks they are often issued in your name with your passport details, so we ask for them when we book.
- Keeping documents safe: our health and safety guide has more.
- If you lose it: contact us at once. We help you report it to the police, which you need for a replacement, and contact your embassy or consulate in Delhi.
Border areas and special permits
Open to all: Jaisalmer, the dunes at Sam and Khuri, and the desert villages most visitors see need only a normal tourist visa.
Near the border: a few places have restrictions for foreign visitors, and these rules can change with circumstances.
- How we handle it: we check before including any remote desert stop, and never take guests where they need a permit they don't hold.
- Elsewhere in India: some regions, particularly the north-east and the high Himalaya, need special permits for foreign visitors.
- Plan early: if you are combining Rajasthan with travel further afield, look at those permits early, because they are separate from your visa.
Combining India with its neighbours
The key question: how many times you will enter India.
Single entry: fly into Delhi, spend two weeks in Rajasthan, then fly to Kathmandu and home from there.
- Delhi in, Kathmandu out
- Single entry
- Bhutan mid-trip, back to Delhi
- Two entries
- Agra, Varanasi, Gujarat
- All in India, no effect
- Neighbours' own rules
- Check with each government
- Two entries: fly to Bhutan in the middle of your journey and come back to Delhi for the flight home.
- Check your visa: different visas have allowed different numbers of entries, so check yours before you book the side trip.
- Neighbours' rules: each country has its own visa or entry rules. Bhutan has its own system and fees, arranged through its own official channels.
- What we do: plan the Rajasthan part of your journey and help you work out the order of flights.
- Within India: Agra for the Taj Mahal, Varanasi or Gujarat make no difference to your visa. See Rajasthan and Varanasi and Rajasthan and Kutch.
How we help, and where we stop
Your visa is between you and the Government of India. Our part is making sure that when you sit down to the form, every answer it asks for is already in front of you.
Your visa pack: when you confirm a journey, your planner sends your itinerary, the name and address of your first hotel, your arrival details and the date we suggest you start your application.
- Side trips flagged: if your journey crosses into Nepal or elsewhere, we flag it so you can choose the right number of entries.
- Unusual cases: for dual nationality or a recent name change, we suggest you speak to the Indian mission in your country before applying.
- What we never do: ask for passport details or card numbers over an unsecured channel, or ask you to pay a visa fee to us.
- The pleasant part: read our packing guide, think about travel insurance, browse our Rajasthan travel guide and, when you are ready, plan your journey with us.
A short visa checklist
Passport checked: valid well beyond your return, with blank pages, and the one you will travel on.
Rules confirmed: eligibility, visa type, fees and the application window, all on indianvisaonline.gov.in.
Applied officially: on the government portal only, with your application ID saved.
- Uploads done: photo and passport scan to the portal's specifications.
- ETA checked: received, every detail matched against your passport, and printed.
- Copies packed: passport and visa pages in your hand luggage and on your phone.
- Arrival form: any arrival card or pre-arrival form checked on official government sites.
- Insurance bought: with medical cover that works in India.
- Planner updated: about any change to your passport or arrival details.