India is a country of contrasts, where there is everything for an economic holiday: from ski resorts, excursions to ancient shrines, temples, and tombs to paradise beaches with coconut palms and warm sand. There is one "but " – to eat the famous local curry or do yoga in Rishikesh
However, to eat the famous local curry or do yoga in Rishikesh, all the tourists need a visa. However, there is also good news – you can apply for an e-Visa on Natvisa.com directly from home within a few hours!
India eVisa Application – Natvisa
E-visa – an electronic permit that is issued through our website. After registration, payment of the visa fee, and approval of the application, a document is sent to the specified email address. That will be your pass to India. The permit must be printed out, along with a foreign passport, provided to the border service staff upon arrival.
You need a minimum of docs: a scan of the first page of the passport (which will still be valid for at least six months from the moment of arrival in the country), a photo (file .jpeg from 10kb to 3Mb), a bank card with the required amount to pay the visa fee. Travelers must have a return ticket and enough money to stay in India.
For children, everything is the same - a separate application form is filled out, a scanned passport and a photo are uploaded. If the kid is traveling with one of the parents or a third party, you will be asked on the spot for notarized consent from the second parent or a power of attorney from both.
One of the main disadvantages of e-Visa is restrictions on movement because it is not possible to arrive at every airport. A traditional visa in this sense gives you complete freedom of movement. It does not matter how and through which checkpoint a tourist with a sticker in his passport enters the country – he will be allowed to pass through any checkpoint. Otherwise, both regular and e-Visas give the right to travel around all the states of India, except for individual administrative units, for crossing the borders of which special permits are required (they are issued separately in the municipal authorities).
Covid-19 Entry Restrictions
Before boarding the plane, all passengers must pass a thermal inspection, according to the results of which only the asymptomatic lucky ones will be allowed on board. It is also necessary to observe measures of social distance and use disinfectants.
All tourists arriving in India should download and install the Aarogya app (freely available in the App Store and Google Play).
Medical personnel present at the arrival airport (seaport or land point) conduct a thermal inspection of arrivals. Passengers who show symptoms of the disease during the inspection should be immediately isolated and taken to a medical facility following the medical protocol.
After checking the temperature, passengers who already have pre-obtained permission to pass the entire quarantine period (14 days) at home, present it on their mobile phones and freely leave the airport.
Upon arrival, the tourist must also undergo a fingerprinting procedure – his fingerprints must be entered into the database. Not all terminals have equipment for taking biometric data. This is the reason why you can fly through a small list of airports. With an e-visa, they arrive only at 28 authorized airports. In addition, you can arrive through five seaports, a list of which can be viewed at Natvisa.com.
Types of India Visa
E-Visa can be tourist, medical (+ 1 medical visa for an accompanying person), business. There is also a conference visa for participation in international conferences. They are issued for 1 month (double), 1 year, and 5 years (multiple).
In most cases, it is not possible to extend or change the type of visa while staying in India. It can be changed to "Med X" if the traveler is ill, and urgently needs medical intervention. It is also possible to change the e-visa to an "entry visa" if the holder marries a Hindu during a 1-month stay in the country.
Please note! Visas are valid from the date of issue. According to the multi visa, you can stay in India for no more than 90 days in a row. The E-visa is valid from the moment the stamp is affixed at the arrival airport. And it is from this time that the period of 90 days is counted.
Processing Steps for eVisa
How to apply for an Indian e-visa via Natvisa.com? It's very simple! You just need to:
- Fill in all the fields of the questionnaire.
- Upload a scan of your passport and photo.
- Pay the visa fee online (you will be automatically redirected to the page).
- Wait for the letter that will come to your email address.
The consulate will refuse to open a visa to applicants who violated the entry-exit regime during previous trips to India. Also, the refusal may take place in the case of providing false information, lack of mandatory documents, or insufficient solvency of the applicant. The migration authorities of India are suspicious of representatives of foreign media. Therefore, journalists often receive refusals in response to their applications.
Funds and Exiting India
The visa fee for an e-visa to India is:
- For Tourist e-Visa - $96.
- For Business e-Visa - $160.
- For Medical e-Visa - $149.
You can leave India through any authorized border checkpoint (airport, land crossing, seaport).
Passport Validity
To obtain Indian visas, the validity period of the passport must be at least 6 months at the time of entry into India, with at least two blank pages.
It is worth noting that in cases where you need to apply for a long-term visa, there is a small nuance. If your passport expires soon, you can still apply for a 5-year e-visa. When the validity period of the passport comes to an end, at the entrance, present the old and new passport and a printout of the electronic visa.
Delivery of e-Visa Document
The term of processing the online application is 3-7 working days. After the deadline, the response will be sent to your e-mail. If it is not present, check the spam folder. Attention! Submission no later than 4 days before the intended trip! You can request a monthly visa no more than 2 times a year.
Upon arrival in India, you need to go to the Visa on arrival check-in counter with return tickets, a printed E-Visa, and a foreign passport, which has at least 2 blank pages for new stamps.