E-Visas for India Coming Soon, Visas on Arrival Now

India is trying to make things a bit easier for visitors from around 30 countries. Soon (by end of November 2014) you will be able to use their new E-visa process.

Quoting from a Times of India article:

NEW DELHI: Government’s gift to tourists — electronic visa — is likely to be launched by October-end. There are about 30 countries including the US, Japan and South Korea where the facility will be extended first while Germany, Israel and Russia are under consideration.

Sources said countries already being given visa-on-arrival including New Zealand, Luxembourg, Finland and Singapore besides Japan, South Korea and the US will be able to apply for electronic travel authorization (ETA) or e-visa. There are at least a couple of countries from the African continent that are also in consideration. Sources said Germany, Israel and Russia were also being actively considered.

The electronic travel authorization (ETA), or E-visa, will be for a short trip, limited to 30 days. You should receive an online confirmation within three to five working days. I don’t have a link yet for the application. They are planned to start by November 27, 2014.

The 30-day visit limit is also the case for the visa-on-arrival (VoA) as well. For more information on VoA, go to this link: http://www.immihelp.com/nri/indiavisa/tourist-visa-on-arrival.html.

Below is a list of present VoA Countries (Note: The government is also likely to extend Visa on Arrival facility to Spain, Italy and France by early next year. Recently, the facility has been extended to US, Australia and Fiji, in addition to the list below.)

• Cambodia
• Finland
• Indonesia

• Japan
• Laos
• Luxembourg

• Myanmar
• New Zealand
• Philippines

• Singapore
• South Korea
• Vietnam

This is applicable at the following airports:

• Bengaluru
• Chennai
• Delhi
• Kochi
• Kolkata
• Mumbai
• Hyderabad
• Thiruvananthapuram

In addition an on-line application process for the 180-day Tourist visa has been added. Here is the Web link for the Tourist visa application: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/ .