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How to apply for an India e-visa

Visiting India anytime soon? Be sure to apply for your visa prior to your trip to avoid any issues with the Indian immigration authorities on arrival. This is a short guide on how to apply for a visa yourself.

Step 1: Applying an e-visa online

You can apply for an e-visa if you hold a passport from anyone of the countries listed on the Indian immigration website (https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html). Do check the link out to see if you qualify. Major passports should have no issue applying.

India Visa

If you qualify for an e-visa, proceed to this link https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/Registration (valid as at 9 March 2018) to apply. Please be wary of other sites that look “official” in appearance. While they may look very similar, they are in fact travel agents seeking to profit from the average tourist with their high admin fees. One way to be sure is to check the URL for the .gov.in domain.

India Visa 1

Have the following details prepared prior to applying:

  • Port of Arrival
  • Estimated date of arrival
  • Visa Service (eg. Tourist / Medical / Business)
  • Recent colored photograph (dimensions 2in X 2in) size less than 1MB
  • Copy of Passport page containing personal particulars
  • Typical details required for form filling
  • Occupation information (Industry, employer etc) including past military experience
  • Places to be visited during this trip and also whether there have been past visits to India before
  • An Indian reference and a home country reference*

Don’t freak out when you see the Indian reference requirement. Just provide the name of the hotel you will be staying at and their relevant details like their phone number and address. It worked for my application.

While the forms aren’t too difficult to fill in, it will take some time to finish. So do allocate perhaps 10-15 minutes if you are going to apply for one. The Indian immigration authorities should definitely streamline the process.

Step 2: Paying required fees

Once you are done with the forms, you will have to proceed to pay the visa processing fee. While I would have preferred it to be a one stop process, payment is to be done separately (https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/PaymentCheck link valid as at 9 March 2018). You will need to have your Application ID when you make your payment. It cost me around SGD35.

I hope you found this mini-guide useful for your trip to India. Please remember to like and follow for more useful tips!
PS. I was originally supposed to fly to India last Saturday. However, I had to reschedule in light of my work obligations. No worries! I will still update with new content.