Nov 28, 2014, 3:38 am
Last edit by: JDiver
E-Visa / ETA and 30 Day Single Entry Visa on Arrival in India
India new Visa On Arrival
(Actually advance online e-Tourist Visa with actual visa issued on arrival)
https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html
The Indian e-Tourist Visa is available for holders of passports of following countries and territories:
Albania, Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Island, Chile, China, China (Hong Kong SAR), China (Macau SAR), Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'lvoire, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niue Island, Norway, Oman, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, UAE, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA, Vanuatu, Vatican City-Holy See, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Eligibility
Citizens of the above-listed countries using ordinary passports from such countries when the sole objective of visiting India is one or more of the following: recreation (of most but not all sorts); sight seeing (in most of India); casual visit to meet friends or relatives (in most of India); short duration medical treatment; or casual visits for most (but not all) business purposes.
The passport should have at least six months' validity on the date of arrival.
International Travellers should have return ticket or onward journey ticket,with sufficient money to spend during his/her stay in India.
The visa is valid for a single entry for a stay of 30 days (from the date of entry) and cannot be extended.
Be sure to fill out your information very accurately! If there's anything off, you may be required to board the next flight out operated by your airline of entry.
Travellers having Pakistani Passport or Pakistani origin may please apply for regular Visa at Indian Mission.
Not available to Diplomatic/Official Passport Holders.
E-TOURIST VISA APPLICATION PROCESS
Step 1
Apply online
Upload Photo and Passport Page
Step 2
Pay visa fee online
Using Credit / Debit card
Step 3
Receive ETA Online
ETA Will be sent to your e-mail
Step 4
Print ETA and carry it for and on the flight to India so you can present it on arrival at the immigration desks.
This being India, it is the real experience on arrival that is critical, especially since this is a brand new operation.
We need datapoints for
- How long it took you to get through immigration?
- Any issues (human, bureaucratic or technological?)
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Evisa & Visa on arrival for India
Jan 19, 2015, 12:45 pm
#32
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: WAS
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Nexus, GE
Posts: 2,122
Experiences with E-Visa
I'm wondering if anyone has had an experience yet with the new Indian E-Visa scheme. Does it work as smoothly as advertised?
In case you haven't read about it, info and the list of countries is here:
https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html
Odd country inclusion/exclusion. US and Australia are in, but Canada and the UK are not.
This definitely looks like the way to go for me, as the Indian consulate in Toronto has backlogs of over a month.
Couple questions that crossed my mind that would be useful to address in this thread:
Seems like a great spot for people to record their experiences going forward.
In case you haven't read about it, info and the list of countries is here:
https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html
Odd country inclusion/exclusion. US and Australia are in, but Canada and the UK are not.
This definitely looks like the way to go for me, as the Indian consulate in Toronto has backlogs of over a month.
Couple questions that crossed my mind that would be useful to address in this thread:
- Actual processing times
- Any odd issues with photo requirements
- Just what is "casual business" in the list of permitted uses.
Seems like a great spot for people to record their experiences going forward.
Jan 19, 2015, 11:29 pm
#33
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Jan 29, 2015, 2:41 pm
#34
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Are there any US citizens who have had any experience with this yet? Planning to fly to India next month and this seems like the easiest and quickest way to obtain a visa. I meet the requirements, my main concern is the document check by the airline. In my past experience when traveling to India the airline would check the visa pretty thoroughly before allowing one to board. I assume most airlines have gotten the memo on TVOA by now, just curious if anyone has experienced any issues with this.
Feb 8, 2015, 10:14 am
#35
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: WAS
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Nexus, GE
Posts: 2,122
Well, one data point so far. Just applied on a Saturday...was approved in 15 hours. Pretty fast turnaround. Sure beats the 1.5 months the Toronto consulate is taking right now.
Feb 8, 2015, 10:31 am
#36
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Feb 8, 2015, 3:10 pm
#37
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: WAS
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Nexus, GE
Posts: 2,122
The thing that almost threw me was trying to find the info on my previous Indian visa...took some time to track that down.
Now the next interesting data points will come at check-in and then at actual arrival. I'm hoping they paste a physical visa into the passport as everyone wants to see it when you check in at a hotel.
Feb 16, 2015, 5:55 pm
#38
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 26
Inida visa on arrival - second best experiecne in the world
Are there any US citizens who have had any experience with this yet? Planning to fly to India next month and this seems like the easiest and quickest way to obtain a visa. I meet the requirements, my main concern is the document check by the airline. In my past experience when traveling to India the airline would check the visa pretty thoroughly before allowing one to board. I assume most airlines have gotten the memo on TVOA by now, just curious if anyone has experienced any issues with this.
she flew by BA and they asked for a copy of the approval-email at check-in
she landed at BANgalore - very smooth, no delays or issues.
this TVoA is SUPER....why second best- i have travel many countries requiring visa...so far australia was the best and still is....they have electronic visa and the application was simpler and no photo upload.....india now second in my experience only because it needs a bit more work and a couple of tricky question.
KUDOS to the indian visa system...a load off after the bad news from outsourcing companies.
Feb 24, 2015, 1:40 am
#39
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Los Angeles, New York, Lisbon-Portugal
Programs: BA Gold, UA Premier 1K, Amex Plat, GlobalEntry
Posts: 844
For those who already have a valid Indian Visa on an Expired US Passport.
Transfer of Tourist Visa
The Validity of an Existing Tourist Visa does not expire if a Visa holder acquires a New passport (if old passport has expired or is damaged), as long as his / her personal particulars (Name has remained the same and nationality of the holder has not changed.) The visa holder can travel carrying their old passport with a valid Indian Tourist Visa along with new passport.
However, if such a visa holder wishes to formally transfer the Tourist Visa for the remaining period of the duration of the visa onto the new passport; please refer to the information below. This is a purely an optional choice for applicants.
http://www.in.ckgs.us/visa/type-of-v...ist-visa.shtml
The Validity of an Existing Tourist Visa does not expire if a Visa holder acquires a New passport (if old passport has expired or is damaged), as long as his / her personal particulars (Name has remained the same and nationality of the holder has not changed.) The visa holder can travel carrying their old passport with a valid Indian Tourist Visa along with new passport.
However, if such a visa holder wishes to formally transfer the Tourist Visa for the remaining period of the duration of the visa onto the new passport; please refer to the information below. This is a purely an optional choice for applicants.
http://www.in.ckgs.us/visa/type-of-v...ist-visa.shtml
Mar 5, 2015, 3:32 am
#40
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: WAS
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Nexus, GE
Posts: 2,122
So I landed in BOM after the long flight from EWR and used the TVOA with absolutely zero problems. The agent didn't ask a single question, but it did take a minute or two to capture biometrics (fingerprints and photo).
Just a note, it's very easy to miss the correct counters for VOA in BOM as it's poorly signed. They are counters 1-8 which are just on your left when you first enter the immigration hall.
And one addendum...bring a print out for your airline. They need to see the "granted" status with your visa number. Agent said he's had to deny boarding to a couple people whose payments had not gone through and did not have "granted" status.
Just a note, it's very easy to miss the correct counters for VOA in BOM as it's poorly signed. They are counters 1-8 which are just on your left when you first enter the immigration hall.
And one addendum...bring a print out for your airline. They need to see the "granted" status with your visa number. Agent said he's had to deny boarding to a couple people whose payments had not gone through and did not have "granted" status.
Mar 15, 2015, 1:28 pm
#41
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: SNA
Posts: 18,240
For someone who travels once a year to India on business (visiting another office of same employer for general meetings, etc) would you recommend getting another 5 year business visa(will expire before next trip)- or just doing this process once a year?
Mar 16, 2015, 2:31 pm
#42
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: WAS
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Nexus, GE
Posts: 2,122
Hmm...I don't know really. Probably in terms of cost, it's roughly a wash of doing this once a year versus one business visa (depending on your nationality). The TVoA allows for "casual business" in addition to tourism...who knows that's defined as. If you're really there on a business visit, it seems a bit safer to use the business visa. Then again, for me, the Toronto consulate was such a mess, and business visas such a pain to get, that's why I chose TVoA.
Mar 18, 2015, 9:29 am
#43
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 390
If you visit India regularly, I'd recommend going for the 5 year business visa. They will only allow 2 TVoA per year, and who knows, they could limit the amount of TVoAs per person even further.
Mar 18, 2015, 9:31 am
#44
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 390
I've written one more blog post about the Indian Tourist Visa on Arrival procedure. Turns out they had trouble reading my fingerprints (this has never happened before) and they had no procedure in place for how to handle this.
http://willrunformiles.boardingarea.....i34RljkG.dpbs
http://willrunformiles.boardingarea.....i34RljkG.dpbs
Apr 9, 2015, 8:46 am
#45
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: IND
Posts: 301
Hopefully this efficiency spreads to other parts of Indian government!