Indian government revamps E-visa for international visitors

The Indian government has recently revamped the E-Visa scheme for international travellers to India including those from New Zealand seeking to travel India solely for the purpose of recreation, sightseeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit.

This visa facility is in addition to the existing visa services available at the Indian High Commission, Wellington.

Since the entire E-Visa application process is online and does not require any facilitation from any intermediary or agent, the High Commission is advising everyone to be mindful of any unscrupulous elements claiming a speedy or express grant of E-Visa and charging any fees for that ‘non-existent’ service.

Key instruction for E-Visa

• The E-visa has three subcategories – e-Tourist Visa, e-Business Visa, e-Medical Visa with an available option of clubbing all these three categories.
• Double entry is permitted on E-Tourist Visa and E-Business Visa.
• Triple Entry will be permitted on E-Medical visa and can only be issued twice a year.
• E-Visa India Facility is available for passport holders for the 161 countries including nationals of New Zealand. It is not available to International Travel Document Holders.
• The applicants of the eligible countries many apply online minimum four days in advance of the date of arrival. The holders of E-visa are entitled to stay up to a maximum of 60 days in the country, and the validity of visa will be for 120 days. 
• There is a mandatory requirement of applicant’s passport having at least a six-month validity from the date of arrival in India and should have at least two blank pages for stamping by the immigration.
• Travellers are also required to have either return tickets or onward journey tickets before entering India.
• Recent front-facing photograph with white background and photo usage of Passport containing details like name, date of birth, nationality and expiry date, are to be uploaded mandatorily by the applicant. The application is liable to be rejected if the uploaded documents and not clear as per specifications.
• Applicants from New Zealand would pay about USD $50, with an extra 2.5 per cent bank transaction charges.
• E Visa fee once submitted will be non-refundable as the fees for processing for the application and independent of a grant or rejection of Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA).
• Applicants are required to carry a copy of Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) at all times along with them at the time of travel.
• The applicant will have to ensure that their Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) status is shown as ‘GRANTED’ on the website prior to the commencement of journey.
• Biometric details of applicants will be mandatorily captured at immigration on arrival in India.
• E-Visa is valid for entry through 24 designated airports (Ahmadabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Chandigarh, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum and Varanasi) and 3 designated seaports (Cochin, Goa, Mangalore). However, the foreign traveller can exit India from any of the authorised Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) in India.
• E-Visas are not non-extendable and non-convertible.
• E-visas are not valid for visiting Protected/Restricted and Cantonment Areas. (A prior permission is required from the concerned civil authority before visiting these areas).
• Applicants are required to exercise patience while submitting the application and making payment of e-Visa fee. If the number of unsuccessful attempts is more than three times, then the application-id would be automatically blocked and the applicant would be required to submit a new application.
• The E-visa fee payment status updating may take up to 4 hours due to technical reasons/network delays. In cases, where E-visa fee has been deducted but status is not updated, the applicants are advised to verify their payment status by clicking on ‘Verify Payment/Pay Visa Fee’ tab or by clicking in the link Verify Payment in the website link https://indianvisaonline.gov.in
• In India, for assistance applicants can call 24 by 7 E-Visa support centre at +91-11-24300666 or send email to indiatvoa@gov.in