India e-Tourist Visa (eTV) Guide 2026: Official Fees, Validity & Port Rules

1. The Sovereign Statutory Framework of the Indian e-Visa

The electronic visa (e-Visa) facility offered by the Government of India represents a sophisticated biometric immigration management system enacted under the statutory powers of the Foreigners Act 1946, the Registration of Foreigners Act 1939, and the Passports (Entry into India) Act 1920. Jointly administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs (Foreigners Division) and the Bureau of Immigration (BoI), the program enables eligible passport holders from over 160 sovereign nations to secure an advance electronic travel authorization without physically surrendering their passports to an Indian embassy or consulate abroad.

However, international travelers frequently misunderstand the legal nature of an online travel approval. An Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) is not an absolute right of admission. In sovereign immigration law, an ETA is a pre-screening clearance confirming that the applicant has satisfied preliminary security and consular criteria to travel to an Indian port of entry. The legal grant of entry occurs exclusively at the immigration border counter, where a Bureau of Immigration officer inspects your physical passport, evaluates your declared itinerary, captures ten-digit biometric fingerprints and iris scans, and affixes the sovereign immigration entry stamp.

Submitting fraudulent data, concealing past criminal convictions, misstating parental ancestry, or uploading manipulated photographs is a prosecutable criminal offense under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act 1946, resulting in immediate flight denial, administrative detention at the airport transit lounge, summary deportation at the carrier's expense, and multi-year or permanent blacklisting across the central immigration database.

2. e-Tourist Visa Sub-Categories, Validity Windows & Stay Durations

The Bureau of Immigration issues three distinct tiers of electronic tourist visas (eTV). Selecting the incorrect category during portal initialization cannot be modified after fee payment; travelers must choose the category that aligns precisely with their travel schedule:

Country-Specific Continuous Stay Privileges

For the majority of eligible nationalities (including European Union member states, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore, and South Korea), the continuous stay limit on a 1-year or 5-year e-Tourist Visa is capped at 90 continuous calendar days. You must exit India before midnight on Day 90, though you may re-enter shortly thereafter on a subsequent visit.

However, citizens of four sovereign nations enjoy bilateral reciprocal extensions: passport holders of the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan are legally permitted to remain continuously in India for up to 180 days per visit on both 1-year and 5-year e-Tourist visas. For US and UK passport holders, continuous stays under 180 days do not require registration with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).

3. Step-by-Step Sovereign Portal Application Walkthrough

The Government of India operates exclusively one official e-Visa portal: indianvisaonline.gov.in. Applications submitted through private commercial agency websites (which charge $150 to $300 in unnecessary intermediary markups) must ultimately be inputted into this same governmental portal. Below is the field-by-field procedural blueprint:

4. Authorized Ports of Entry vs Immigration Check Posts (ICPs)

A critical legal constraint of the Indian e-Visa program is that initial entry is restricted to 29 designated international airports and 5 major maritime seaports equipped with dedicated Bureau of Immigration biometric capture servers:

5. The Airport Immigration Protocol: Counter Navigation & Biometrics

Upon disembarking from your international flight at an authorized Indian airport, navigate through the arrival terminal following overhead directional signage marked "e-Visa / Electronic Travel Authorization". Do not stand in the standard queues reserved for Indian passport holders or foreign nationals holding physical consular sticker visas.

The Document Presentation Checklist

When you reach the Bureau of Immigration desk, present the following original physical documents to the immigration officer:

1. Your original physical passport (must possess at least 6 months of remaining validity from your arrival date and contain a minimum of two entirely blank unstamped visa pages).
2. A clean physical printout of your Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) confirmation document displaying status "GRANTED". Showing a digital PDF on a smartphone screen is not officially accepted; immigration officers physically stamp and initial paper records during secondary auditing.
3. A completed physical Arrival Card (Form D), distributed by cabin crew on your inbound aircraft or available at writing carrels before the immigration hall.
4. Proof of onward or return travel (a confirmed return commercial airline ticket or onward ticket to a third country).
5. Evidence of sufficient financial funds (credit cards, travelers cheques, or liquid currency) to support your stay.

Biometric Ingestion & Passport Stamping

The immigration officer will instruct you to place your four left fingers, four right fingers, and both thumbs onto a digital optical glass scanner to capture ten-digit biometric prints. You will then look directly into a desktop optical camera for facial iris capture. Upon system clearance, the officer affixes a rectangular ink stamp into your passport booklet.

Crucial On-Site Audit: Before stepping away from the immigration counter, inspect your stamped passport page immediately. Ensure that the officer has legibly recorded:

• The correct Arrival Date.
• The Visa Category (e.g., e-TV).
• The Permitted Departure Date (e.g., exactly 30, 90, or 180 days out).

If an officer mistakenly records an incorrect date or leaves the exit date blank, resolving this administrative clerical error later through the city FRRO office requires days of bureaucratic paperwork.

6. Dual Citizenship, Passport Renewal & Name Discrepancies

International travelers frequently encounter complex personal documentation scenarios. The Bureau of Immigration enforces explicit legal policies regarding these edge cases:

Traveling With a New Passport When the ETA is on an Expired Passport

If you hold a 1-year or 5-year e-Tourist Visa and your passport subsequently expires or runs out of blank pages, your approved e-Visa does not expire. You do not need to submit a new visa application or pay government fees again. To travel legally, you must carry:

• Your newly issued, valid physical passport booklet.
• Your expired or cancelled physical passport booklet that contains the original passport number linked to your ETA.
• A printed copy of your approved ETA certificate showing the previous passport number.

The immigration officer at your Indian arrival airport will inspect both passports, capture biometrics, and affix the entry stamp into your newly issued passport.

Name Discrepancies (Middle Names, Hyphenations & Maiden Names)

The most frequent trigger for boarding denial by airline check-in staff at overseas departure airports is a name discrepancy between the airline reservation and the ETA document. Your ETA bio-data must match your passport Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) precisely character-for-character. If your passport includes middle names or hyphenated surnames, they must be included in your e-Visa application. If an airline ticket omits your middle name but your e-Visa and passport match, airlines will generally board you. However, if your e-Visa and passport have differing surnames (e.g., un-updated maiden name after marriage), airlines will decline boarding.

7. Non-Extendable Policy, e-FRRO Procedures & Overstay Penalties

Under Ministry of Home Affairs statutory rules, an Indian e-Tourist Visa is strictly non-extendable, non-convertible, and non-renewable within India under ordinary circumstances. You cannot visit a local immigration office simply to request an extra 30 days of holiday travel.

Emergency Inpatient Medical Conversions via e-FRRO

The sole statutory exception to the non-convertible rule involves severe, acute medical emergencies where a foreign tourist is admitted to an intensive care unit or undergoes emergency surgery that renders them clinically unfit to fly before visa expiry. In such cases:

1. The treating NABH/JCI accredited hospital's International Patient Desk initiates a formal communication on official medical letterhead detailing clinical diagnosis and medical unfitness to travel.
2. The patient or legal representative logs into the official e-FRRO Portal (eservices.boi.gov.in).
3. An application is submitted for "Conversion of e-Tourist Visa to e-Medical Visa" or "Visa Extension on Medical Grounds", uploading hospital admission sheets, medical certificates, and passport copies.
4. The regional Foreigners Regional Registration Office conducts an administrative review and issues an electronic visa extension certificate.

Overstay Penalties and the Formal Exit Permit Protocol

Remaining in India beyond midnight of your permitted departure date violates Section 14 of the Foreigners Act 1946. You cannot simply arrive at the airport and pay a spot fine at the airline check-in desk. Airport immigration officers will decline boarding clearance to any overstaying passenger who does not hold a formal Exit Permit issued by the FRRO.

The overstay resolution protocol requires:

• Logging into the e-FRRO portal from your hotel or residence to submit an online Exit Permit application.
• Paying statutory compounded fiscal penalties. Overstay fines are calculated on a progressive sliding scale: up to 30 days overstay incurs a government penalty of approximately $300 to $400 USD; 31 to 90 days incurs higher compounding fines; and exceeding 90 days carries legal prosecution risk.
• Processing of an Exit Permit requires between 3 to 10 working days. You must re-book your international departure flight to a date following expected Exit Permit issuance.
• Overstay records are permanently uploaded to the Ministry of Home Affairs centralized immigration watch list, resulting in automatic automated rejection of future electronic visa applications.

8. Consular Fraud Protection: Spotting Predatory Visa Scam Portals

Due to the high global volume of travelers searching for Indian visa applications, unscrupulous commercial entities operate hundreds of fraudulent and predatory imitation websites. These platforms utilize aggressive search engine advertisement bidding (Google Ads) to appear at the top of search results for queries like "Apply Indian Visa Online" or "India e-Visa Official Portal".

How Predatory Intermediary Portals Operate

These commercial copycat websites mimic official Indian governmental emblems, ashoka lion insignias, and color palettes. They charge travelers between $150 and $350 USD for an application that legally costs $10, $25, or $40 USD on the sovereign portal. In worst-case scenarios, fraudulent platforms steal sensitive credit card credentials and passport bio-data without ever submitting the application to the Bureau of Immigration.

9. Pre-Flight Inbound e-Visa Audit Checklist (10 Points)

Before packing your luggage and boarding your inbound flight to India, review this 10-point compliance checklist:

1. ETA Status Verification: Have you verified on indianvisaonline.gov.in that your ETA status displays "GRANTED" (not "Processing" or "Under Review")?
2. Physical Printout: Do you have at least two clear physical paper printouts of your approved ETA certificate packed in your carry-on luggage?
3. Passport Validity: Does your physical passport possess at least 6 months of validity remaining from your exact date of entry into India?
4. Blank Pages: Does your passport contain at least two entirely blank, clean stamp pages for arrival and departure immigration endorsements?
5. Name Concurrence: Does the full name on your airline ticket match your passport bio-page and approved ETA document?
6. Arrival Port Verification: Is your flight landing at one of the 29 designated international airports (or 5 seaports)?
7. Return/Onward Ticket: Do you possess a confirmed return flight ticket or onward international travel reservation out of India?
8. Hotel Reference Proof: Do you possess a printed reservation voucher for your first night's accommodation in India showing the hotel's full street address and phone number?
9. Financial Solvency Proof: Do you possess access to international credit cards or sufficient foreign currency cash to demonstrate self-sufficiency?
10. Connected Frontier Permits: If your travel itinerary includes Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, or high border zones, have you synchronized your Protected Area Permit (PAP) requirements?

10. Frequently Asked Questions (India e-Tourist Visa)