How to get the India e-visa online in 2025: Step-by-step application guide
Planning a trip to India is already an adventure in itself. But before you can dream of the backwaters of Kerala, the golden temples or the mountains of Munnar, there’s one essential step you simply can’t overlook: the Indian e-visa application.
Fortunately, India offers a straightforward online visa process, far easier than the traditional route. Still, the procedure comes with a few subtleties worth knowing.
In this blog post, I’m sharing a step-by-step guide based not only on the official information but also on my own recent experience applying for a visa ahead of my trip to Kerala in 2025. Here you’ll find everything you need to know: where to apply for the India e-visa, which documents to prepare, common pitfalls to avoid, the tricky questions, and even what papers to bring along when you travel.
In short, everything I wish I knew before I started.
Ready? Let’s go. 🚀
Last update: 16/05/2026
The information in this article is provided for general guidance only and is based on data available as of April 2025. While I strive to share content that is as accurate and up to date as possible, the procedures, entry requirements and conditions for the Indian e-visa may change without prior notice. I cannot guarantee the accuracy, validity or completeness of the information provided, and it is strongly recommended to consult the official and current details directly on the Indian government website: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in.
Who can apply for an Indian e-visa?
Good news: most international travellers are eligible to apply for an Indian e-visa.
The system now covers more than 160 nationalities, including the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada and almost all European countries.
To check if your country is eligible, you can consult the full list on the official website (section ‘Countries/Nationalities who are eligible to avail e-visa‘ on the left).
EXCEPTION | Travellers of Pakistani origin (even if holding another nationality) are generally not eligible for the e-visa and must apply for a regular visa through the traditional procedure at the embassy.
The different types of India e-visa
The Indian electronic visa is available for several types of stay:
- e-Tourist Visa: for leisure travel, family visits or short retreats (yoga, Ayurveda, etc.).
- e-Business Visa: valid for 1 year with multiple entries. Each stay must not exceed 180 days. Designed for business meetings, trade fairs and negotiations, but not for taking up paid work in India.
- e-Medical Visa: valid for 60 days with up to three entries, for those seeking treatment in a recognised clinic or hospital in India.
- e-Student Visa: valid for 1 year with up to four entries, for students enrolled in a recognised university or educational institution in India.
Most likely, you’ll need the Indian e-Tourist Visa — and that’s the one this blog post will focus on.
- 30 days (double entry): valid for 30 days from the date of arrival. This visa cannot be renewed or extended, so plan your stay carefully.
- 1 year (multiple entry): valid for 365 days from the date of issue.
- 5 years (multiple entry): same conditions as the 1-year visa, but valid for five years.
IMPORTANT | Your passport must be valid for at least 6 months after your return date and contain at least 2 blank facing pages. Make sure you travel with the same passport you used for your application.
Valid points of entry into India with an e-visa
If you’re travelling on an Indian e-visa, you must arrive through an authorised port of entry — otherwise, you’ll be denied entry to the country. Holders of an e-visa (tourist, business or medical) cannot cross via land borders (for example, from Nepal or Bangladesh), nor through every Indian airport. The good news is that the authorised list is extensive, and chances are your arrival airport is included.
As of May 2025, the authorised airports for French travellers using an e-visa number 34*, including:
- Mumbai (BOM)
- Delhi (DEL)
- Bangalore (BLR)
- Chennai (MAA)
- Goa (GOI)
- Cochin (COK)
- Trivandrum (TRV)
- Kolkata (CCU)
- Hyderabad (HYD)
- And more…
It’s also possible to arrive through certain seaports, including:
- Cochin
- Goa
- Mangalore
- Chennai
- Mumbai
If you’re planning to combine your trip to South India with a land crossing from a neighbouring country, an e-visa won’t be enough — in that case, you’ll need to apply for a regular visa through the consulate.
Make sure to check the full and up-to-date list on the website of the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs.
Accessing the official website
If you type “India visa” into Google, be prepared to stumble upon dozens of websites with names that sound official. They promise to handle the process for you and make your life easier…
Don’t fall for it! In reality, you could end up paying up to seven times the official fee for something you can easily do yourself in just 30 minutes. And worse still, there’s no guarantee your visa will even be valid — not to mention the outright scams that take your money without delivering anything at all.
My strong advice: always apply only through the official Indian government website: Indian Visa Online. You’ll see, the process really isn’t as complicated as it seems— even if the website itself could definitely use a bit of a facelift.
OFFICIAL SITE FOR INDIAN E-VISA APPLICATION | Indian Visa Online
Filling the online form
Once on the Indian Visa Online website, click on the “Apply here for e-visa” button to open the first page of the form. Most of the questions are fairly straightforward, but a few may require some clarification.
- Do you have a Chalo Code? The “Chalo India” code refers to an old initiative by the Indian government to invite members of the Indian diaspora to visit the country as part of special campaigns or cultural programmes. This code is only provided to those directly involved in such events. As a regular French traveller with no official ties to the Indian diaspora, this doesn’t apply to you. You can safely tick “NO” without it affecting your application in any way.
- Religion: If you’re an atheist like me, you can select “Others” and then type “None”.
- Visible identification marks: This simply means whether you have a scar, birthmark, tattoo or any other visible feature that could help identify you physically. If yes, give a short description such as “Small mole on right cheek”, “Scar on left eyebrow” or “Tattoo on right forearm”. If not, just write “None”.
- Have you lived for at least two years in the country where you are applying for the visa? This question does not refer to India, but to the country from which you are submitting your application — usually your current country of residence.
- Countries visited in the last 10 years: This is often the question that makes seasoned travellers panic. Some fellow bloggers have carefully listed every trip they made over the past decade, only to discover the field is capped at around 15 countries. Focus on the destinations where there’s a clear record of your visit — for example, where you went through border control or where your passport carries a stamp. Travel within the European Union, for instance, is harder to track.
- Reference name and address in India: You can simply put the name and address of your first hotel in India.
Preparing the required documents
To ensure your Indian e-visa application goes smoothly, you’ll need to provide two essential files. And this is often where things get tricky.
1. A recent passport-style photo with a white background, in JPEG format.
It must weigh between 10 KB and 1 MB, with minimum dimensions of 350 x 350 pixels. Don’t just snap a photo of your passport picture — it’s likely to be rejected. Instead, stand against a white wall with even lighting (daylight works best), ask someone to take a photo of you with their phone, then crop it neatly using an app (like Snapseed, Lightroom, or even your phone’s built-in editor). And that’s it!
Non-compliant photos are the number one cause of visa rejections — so don’t cut corners on this step.
2. A scanned copy of your passport’s information page — the one with your photo, name and dates.
This file must be in PDF format, between 10 KB and 300 KB. And yes, as you’ll soon realize, that’s really not much.
How much is the Indian e-visa? Paying the visa fees
We’ve reached the final step of the process.
The fees vary depending on your nationality and the type of visa, but they usually fall between 10 and 20 USD. For reference, for a 30-day e-Tourist Visa, we paid 10 USD per person (as of April 2025). As you may or may not know, we are French and Spanish, both living in Spain. I am not sure exactly how much the Indian e-visa would cost for the UK, but if you’ve recently been through the process, I’m curious to know 🙂
Payment is made online in the “Verify Payment/Pay Visa Fee” section.
You have three options for payment:
- SBIePay (State Bank of India)
- PayPal
- Axis
All three options are reliable and secure, but they don’t always work smoothly. After two failed attempts with Axis — and reading feedback from other travellers who faced similar issues with SBI — I tried PayPal. And voilà! Honestly, I think it’s the easiest option. On top of that, while payments usually come with a 2.5% banking fee, with PayPal I was only charged €0.35.
After each failed payment attempt, you’ll need to wait a while before trying again (from memory, at least one or two hours).
How long does the India e-visa take ? Processing times
The processing time for an Indian e-visa is usually between 3 and 5 working days. That said, during busy periods or around Indian public holidays, it can take longer. To avoid any last-minute stress, I recommend applying at least 7 days before your flight — or even earlier if possible.
In our case, we got lucky: our e-visa was approved in less than 24 hours. But it’s best to be safe, so don’t count too much on that…
You’ll then receive a confirmation email stating that your visa has been “Granted”.
Printing your e-visa before departure
Before you leave, make sure to print your Indian e-visa. Not only will you need to show it upon arrival in India, but the airline will also ask for it when checking in your luggage — and they won’t let you board without it.
What we didn’t know is that the confirmation email alone is not enough. To prove that your visa has been approved, you must present an official version of the document, which includes the photo you uploaded during the application process as well as a QR code. That is NOT the same thing as the visa confirmation.
To get it, go back to the Indian Visa Online website and click on “Check your Visa Status”. Enter your Application ID and passport number, then download the PDF document with your photo.
This is the page you’ll need to print and show at the various checkpoints. In Abu Dhabi airport, they actually asked us to download the proper document on our phone and then print it before they could issue our boarding passes (in case you need it, there’s a counter right in front of the E row where you can print anything you want. And they’re really nice, too!).
Oh, and keep a copy on your phone too, just in case!
Now you know exactly what to do to successfully complete your Indian e-visa application and get all the formalities done on time. If you follow the steps carefully — using the official website, uploading the right files in the right format and printing your visa — everything should run smoothly.
All that’s left is to zip up your bag…
Have a wonderful trip to India!
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