The visa, counted back from your event.

The official portal comes first

The Government of India's e-Visa portal is the only official place to apply online: indianvisaonline.gov.in. If the address does not end in .gov.in, it is a commercial site, however official it looks. The government fee depends on your nationality and the length of visa you choose, a few nationalities pay nothing at all, and the fee is not refunded if an application is refused. The portal shows your fee before you pay.

One fact worth knowing before anyone tries to sell you speed: the Government of India charges no emergency or express fee for an e-Visa. That is the government's own advisory on the portal. A service offering you a faster government lane is selling its own help, not the government's.

Which group is your passport in?

No visa to arrange. Citizens of Nepal and Bhutan enter India without a visa under the freedom of movement arrangements between the countries, with the document rules set out on the official site; note the exception, arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or Pakistan takes you outside the exemption. Citizens of the Maldives get up to 90 days without a visa for tourism, business and medical visits. Holders of a valid OCI card travel on the card with a current passport.

e-Visa, applied for online. Most other nationalities, about 175 of them, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union states, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. The list changes, so check your exact nationality on the portal's eligibility list before you rely on it. The categories that matter for this calendar: coming to watch a festival, a match, a concert or a fair as a visitor is the e-Tourist Visa, issued for 30 days, one year or five years. Coming for business meetings, sourcing or a trade fair as part of your work is the e-Business Visa. Coming to speak, perform, be paid, work, or attend a conference as a delegate is neither: read the conference section below before you touch the tourist form.

A visa from an Indian mission, in advance. If your nationality is not on the e-Visa list (Pakistan and Bangladesh are the cases readers of this site ask about most), if you hold a diplomatic or official passport or a travel document rather than an ordinary passport, or if the portal directs you to a mission, your route is a regular visa from an Indian embassy, high commission or its visa centre, with an appointment and a longer clock. Start eight weeks out.

Count back from the event

Count from your arrival date, the day your flight lands, which is usually the day before the event. The lines below mix two kinds of date: the government's own minimums, and our working rules built on top of them.

120 days before arrival: the application window for the one year and five year e-Tourist visas is open. Applying early costs nothing extra.

8 weeks before arrival: embassy visas and conference visas should already be in motion. These routes move in weeks and depend on other people's paperwork.

30 days before arrival: our apply-by line for an e-Visa. Decisions normally arrive within about 72 hours, and the portal can write back within a day asking you to re-upload a photograph or passport scan, which restarts the wait. A month leaves room for both.

14 days before arrival: the latest comfortable application. After this line you are relying on everything going right first time.

4 days before arrival: the official minimum. e-Tourist and e-Business applications, and the fee payment, must be in at least four days before the date of arrival or the application will not be processed. Treat this as the cliff edge, not the plan.

Within 72 hours before arrival: file the e-Arrival card online, at boi.gov.in, on the e-Visa portal, or in the Indian Visa Su-Swagatam app. It has been required of every foreign visitor since October 2025. It is arrival information, not a visa, and it does not replace one.

Three dates on this calendar, worked through

Jaigarh Heritage Festival 2026, Jaipur, 18 December 2026. Arriving 17 December: apply by 17 November on our line, 3 December at the latest comfortable point, 13 December at the official minimum. The e-Arrival card window opens 14 December.

Jaipur Jewellery Show 2026, Jaipur, 22 December 2026. Arriving 21 December: apply by 21 November on our line, 7 December at the latest comfortable point, 17 December at the official minimum. The e-Arrival card window opens 18 December.

AICOG 2027: 69th All India Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Surat, 6 January 2027. A conference, so the clock is different: arriving 5 January, the organiser invitation and clearance route should have started by 10 November 2026, eight weeks out. If your conference is closer than that and the paperwork has not started, contact the organiser today, before you book anything non-refundable.

Applying on the official portal, step by step

1. Apply on the portal and choose the category that matches why you are coming, not the one that sounds easiest.

2. Upload a recent front facing photograph with a white background, and the photo page of your passport.

3. Your passport needs at least six months validity from the date you arrive in India, and two blank pages.

4. Pay the fee at least four days before you travel. The application is not processed until the fee is in, and the fee is not refundable.

5. Watch your email. If a document or image is not right, the portal writes to you, normally within 24 hours, and asks you to re-upload it.

6. Your Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) arrives by email. Check that the status reads GRANTED on the portal before you travel, and carry a printed copy.

7. Enter India through one of the authorised immigration checkposts on the official list. An e-Visa is not accepted at every border post.

8. Within 72 hours before you land, file the e-Arrival card.

Conferences, speakers and performers

A conference is the sharp case on this calendar, and the one most likely to catch a traveller out. Delegates and speakers do not travel on the tourist route: the conference route runs on an invitation from the organiser, together with clearances the organiser obtains from the Indian government, and it moves in weeks. If you are exhibiting at a trade fair or in business meetings around an expo, the e-Business Visa may fit. If you are on the programme, being paid, or holding an invitation letter from the organiser, follow the organiser's visa instructions exactly and start when the letter arrives. When in doubt, ask the organiser and your nearest Indian mission before booking anything non-refundable. A refused boarding costs more than a phone call.

If the form defeats you: paid help, honestly labelled

The official form is unforgiving about photographs, file sizes and category choices, and some travellers would rather pay a service to check the application and submit it for them. eVisas is the service we link to. Be clear about what it is: a commercial company, not the Indian government. It charges its own service fee on top of the government fee, it cannot guarantee that a visa is granted, and it cannot sell you an emergency lane, because the government does not run one. The official route above costs only the government fee and most applicants manage it unaided. Use the help if the form, the photo rules or a rejected upload are costing you more than the fee would.

Get help with your India visa applicationvia eVisas · affiliate link

The traps

Copycat application sites dressed in flags and crests: the official address ends in .gov.in, and it is the only one that issues anything. Emergency fee offers: the government does not charge one. The wrong category: a tourist visa does not cover paid work, performing, or a conference podium. A passport expiring inside six months of your arrival, or with no blank pages left. Landing at the wrong border: e-Visa entry is through the authorised checkposts only. And the quiet one: some regions ask foreign visitors for an area permit on top of the visa, so check the event page and the official position before you book for the Northeast or the islands.

Then plan the trip

With the visa moving, the rest of the trip is on this site: the getting there page for airports, trains and the eSIM that keeps your documents reachable, the practical page for money, plugs and manners, and the events calendar for the date you counted back from.

Visa facts on this page were checked against indianvisaonline.gov.in on 3 November 2026. Visa rules change; the portal is the final word.