India e-Visa Guide: 2026 Fees, Types, and How to Apply

• Official site — indianvisaonline.gov.in (the only one)
• Who needs it — most foreign tourists; the portal lists the countries whose citizens are e-Visa eligible
• 30-day cost — US$25 (US$10 in April–June), plus a 3% bank charge
• 1-year / 5-year — for most nationalities US$40 for the 1-year and US$200 for the 5-year; for the 5-year, Japan pays US$25, the US US$160 and the UK US$484
• Processing — the portal states no processing time; it emails you whether the visa is granted or rejected
• Apply window — 4 to 120 days before travel; pay at least 4 days before arrival
• Passport — valid for at least six months when you apply, with two blank pages; apply on the passport you will travel with

Almost certainly yes. Citizens of the countries on the portal's eligibility list can use the e-Visa, so most tourists never visit an embassy. The portal names only three nationalities that can get a visa on arrival: Japan, South Korea and, with conditions, the UAE. Everyone else who is eligible must apply online and wait for the e-Visa to be granted before flying.

• OCI cardholders — the Ministry of Home Affairs describes the OCI card itself as a multiple entry lifelong visa; travel with the card and a valid foreign passport.
• Nepal and Bhutan — citizens of both have special entry arrangements rather than an e-Visa.
• Visa on arrival — only for nationals of Japan, South Korea and the UAE (UAE nationals only if they have earlier held an Indian e-Visa or regular visa); everyone else who is eligible must apply online first.

indianvisaonline.gov.in is the only official India e-Visa site. The portal says its services are completely online and need no intermediary or travel agent, and it warns against anyone who claims to speed up an e-Visa and charges money for it. If a site is not indianvisaonline.gov.in, do not pay it.

• The 1-year and 5-year visas allow a maximum stay of 180 days in a year.
• All e-Tourist Visas are non-extendable and non-convertible.
• A 3% bank charge is added to the e-Visa fee (the portal's payment FAQ gives 4% for PayPal), and the fee is non-refundable whether the application is granted or rejected.
• The portal says the e-Visa fee is country or territory specific, so your fee follows your passport; always confirm your exact figure on the official portal before you pay.

These fees come from the e-Visa portal's e-Tourist Visa fee table, dated 8 September 2026; where this page and that table differ, follow the table. The 30-day and 1-year fees shown are the usual rates. Among the nationalities here, the table lists no fee for the 30-day visa for Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa, and US$25 for the 1-year visa for Japan, Singapore, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Where the 5-year column says "Reciprocal", look up your own figure on the portal: most nationalities pay US$200, and the amounts run from US$25 to US$484 for those who pay. China does not appear in the portal's fee table or its list of eligible countries. A 3% bank charge is added to the fee. Always confirm your exact fee on indianvisaonline.gov.in at payment.

• A passport — valid for at least six months when you apply (for a child's passport, the portal asks for six months from the date of arrival), with at least two blank pages.
• Your passport photo page — a digital scan, PDF, roughly 10–300 KB.
• A recent photo — front-facing, plain white background, JPEG, roughly 10 KB–1 MB. Photo errors are the top reason for rejection.
• A payment card — plus your India address and onward travel details to hand.

Do your status check online on the official portal, with your Application ID and passport number. It is free. Anyone charging to "check your status" is reselling a lookup you can do yourself in seconds. Wait until it shows "Granted", then print your ETA and carry it.

The government fee is non-refundable even on rejection, so getting it right the first time matters. Most rejections come from a non-compliant photo or a mismatch in passport details, not from anything serious. You cannot appeal an e-Visa rejection; you re-apply with the errors fixed and pay again. If you have had a prior refusal or your case is unusual, a regular visa through an Indian mission is sometimes the better route.

Your e-Visa is tied to the passport you apply with. Your fee depends on your passport's nationality, not your country of residence, and the portal says to travel on the passport you applied with. If you get a new passport after the visa is granted, it says you may be allowed in on the new one if you also carry the old passport the ETA was issued on, and it offers a service to transfer an ETA from the old passport to the new one.

The portal's Entry Points list names 37 designated international airports for e-Visa holders and 38 seaports for cruise tourists; the airports below are some of them. An e-Visa does not allow entry by a land border. You may depart from any of the Indian Immigration Check Posts. If you are flying into a smaller airport or arriving by sea, check your entry point is designated before booking.

• Delhi
• Mumbai
• Bengaluru
• Chennai
• Kolkata
• Hyderabad
• Goa
• Jaipur
• Cochin
• Amritsar
• Varanasi

India also requires a digital arrival card, submitted online within the 72 hours before you land. It is free, it is run by the Bureau of Immigration, and it is an arrival record, not permission to travel — you still need your visa or OCI. Use the same passport you will show at immigration. See our full e-Arrival Card guide for the form, the channels, and the QR-code warning.

The e-Tourist Visa covers recreation, sightseeing, visiting friends and relatives, and short yoga programmes or courses that are not formal or structured. The portal lists nine e-Visa categories, among them e-Business, e-Medical, e-Student and e-Transit. It says the e-Visa is not allowed for employment, or for NGO activities and journalism. For those, or if you are not e-Visa eligible, you need a regular visa from an Indian mission. For pure leisure, the e-Tourist Visa is almost always the right choice.

• Official portal and rules: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in
• Fees from the e-Visa portal's e-Tourist Visa fee table dated 8 September 2026 (https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/images/Etourist_fee_final.pdf) and terms from https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html; always confirm your exact fee on the portal, as rates change.