By Khem “Babu” Khadaka, founder, driving the roads of India and Nepal since 1996 · GoIndiaNepal · Last updated: October 2026
The India e-Visa is an online visa you apply for at indianvisaonline.gov.in at least 4 days before you fly, and for most Western passports the 30-day tourist version costs about US$25.
The hard part is not the form. It is the border.
Most travellers fill in the India e-Visa in twenty minutes and think the job is done. Then they plan a road trip from Nepal into India and find, sometimes at the border itself, that the e-Visa only works at a short list of crossings. The most popular crossing for tourists, Sunauli near Lumbini, is not on that list. We have changed routes for our own guests because of this, more than once.
This guide covers the three types of e-Tourist visa and what each really costs, how to apply step by step without paying a middleman, the photo and passport rules that get applications stuck, the airports and seaports you can arrive at, and the 11 land borders where the India e-Visa works, including the three that connect India with Nepal. We also explain how the border looks on the day, what to do if you need a normal paper visa, and the Nepal visa you will need on the other side.
“I have an Indian e-Visa. Can I cross from Nepal into India by road, or do I have to fly?”
Quick answer
Yes, you can cross by road, but only at the land borders the e-Visa accepts. From Nepal, that means Birgunj–Raxaul, Nepalgunj–Rupaidiha or Biratnagar–Jogbani. Sunauli–Bhairahawa, the crossing near Lumbini, does not accept the e-Visa for entry into India. Leaving India is easier: e-Visa holders can exit through any official checkpost, Sunauli included. Apply only on the official site, 2 to 4 weeks before you travel, and carry a printout of your approval (the ETA). If your route must use Sunauli, apply for a regular paper visa at an Indian embassy instead.
The India e-Visa is an electronic travel authorisation, called an ETA, that India emails to you after you apply online. Nothing is stamped in your passport before you travel. The visa itself is given at immigration when you land or arrive at an approved border.
It replaced the old paper process for most tourists. You no longer need to visit an embassy, post your passport or wait weeks. For a normal holiday, such as a Golden Triangle tour or two weeks in Rajasthan, the India e-Visa is the right choice for almost everyone.
Insider tip: Print the ETA twice. Keep one copy in your hand luggage and give the second to your driver or travel partner. Airline staff in some countries still ask for paper.
There are several kinds of e-Visa (business, medical, conference), but tourists choose between three versions of the e-Tourist visa. All three allow more than one entry.
| e-Tourist visa | How long it is valid | Stay limit | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-day | 30 days from your first arrival | 30 days in total, cannot be extended | One trip of up to 30 days |
| 1-year | 365 days from the date it is granted | Up to 180 days in a calendar year | A trip plus a side trip to Nepal, or two trips in a year |
| 5-year | 5 years from the date it is granted | Up to 180 days in a calendar year | Regular visitors, or people who will come back |
The 30-day clock starts the day you enter India, not the day the visa is approved. The 1-year and 5-year clocks start on the day the visa is granted.
Insider tip: If your trip goes India, then Nepal, then back into India, check the dates carefully. A 30-day visa counts every day from your first entry, including the days you spend in Nepal. For India and Nepal trips we usually suggest the 1-year visa.
The fee depends on your passport and the visa you choose. India publishes the exact amount for each country on the official site, and you see it before you pay. These are the usual fees in 2026:
| e-Tourist visa | Usual government fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 30-day | US$25 for USA, UK, Canada, Australia and most of Europe | Some nationalities pay US$10, and a lower fee has applied in April to June |
| 1-year | US$40 | Same for most nationalities |
| 5-year | US$80 | Same for most nationalities |
| Bank charge | About 3% of the fee | Added by the payment gateway (card 3%, PayPal 4%) |
The fee is not refundable, even if your visa is refused. That is one more reason to check every field before you pay.
Insider tip: If you see a price of US$100 or more for a tourist e-Visa, you are not on the government site. Close the page.
Citizens of more than 160 countries can apply, including the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and all EU countries. Your passport must be an ordinary passport. Diplomatic and official passports cannot use the India e-Visa.
A few groups must apply for a regular paper visa at an Indian embassy instead. If you were born in Pakistan, hold Pakistani nationality, or have Pakistani parents or grandparents, the online form will not work for you. Each traveller, including children, needs their own passport and their own application.
Insider tip: If your passport runs out in the next year, renew it first. A 5-year visa is tied to the passport number you used.
The whole form takes 20 to 30 minutes if your photo and passport scan are ready. Do it on a laptop, not a phone.
| Step | What you do | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open indianvisaonline.gov.in and click “eVisa Application” | 1 minute |
| 2 | Choose your nationality, port of arrival, date of arrival and visa type (e-Tourist) | 2 minutes |
| 3 | Note your Application ID and save it | 1 minute |
| 4 | Fill in personal, passport, address and family details | 10 to 15 minutes |
| 5 | Add your first hotel in India and a reference in India and at home | 3 minutes |
| 6 | Upload your photo and the passport bio page | 3 minutes |
| 7 | Check every field, then pay the fee online | 3 minutes |
| 8 | Wait for the ETA email, then print it | usually within 72 hours |
For the reference in India, you can give the hotel or your tour company. When our guests book with us, we give them our office details for this field.
Insider tip: Type your name exactly as it is printed in your passport, including middle names. A name that does not match your ticket or passport is the most common reason people are stopped at check-in.
Most delays are caused by the uploads, not by the answers. The system is strict about file sizes and the shape of the photo.
| Upload | Format | Size | Rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photo | JPEG | 10 KB to 1 MB | Square (same height and width), full face, eyes open, no glasses, plain white or light background, no shadows |
| Passport bio page | 10 KB to 300 KB | Clear scan of the page with your photo and details |
A phone photo against a white wall works well. Crop it to a square, keep your face in the centre and remove your glasses. A blurry passport scan or a photo with a shadow behind your head is the usual reason for an email asking you to upload again.
Insider tip: If your file is too big, use any free online “compress JPEG” or “compress PDF” tool before you upload. Do not take a screenshot of your passport. Scan it or use a scanning app.
The official site says you can apply up to 120 days before arrival and no later than 4 days before. In practice, most approvals arrive within 72 hours, often on the same day. Some take longer, especially around Christmas and in the busy winter season.
| When you apply | What usually happens |
|---|---|
| 3 to 4 weeks before travel | Relaxed. Plenty of time to fix a photo or a typing mistake |
| 1 to 2 weeks before | Fine for most people |
| 4 to 6 days before | Risky. One upload problem and you may miss your flight |
| Less than 4 days before | Not allowed |
You can check your status on the official site with your Application ID and passport number. The status changes from “Under process” to “Granted”, and the ETA arrives by email.
Insider tip: Apply before you book non-refundable internal flights or trains. Once the ETA is granted, you can book the rest of your trip with peace of mind.
If you fly in, you will almost certainly be fine. The e-Visa is accepted at all of India’s main international airports. As of August 2026, the official portal lists 36 airports and 38 seaports for e-Visa arrivals.
The airports our guests use most are below. All of them accept the India e-Visa. For ideas on what to see once you land, the official Incredible India site is a good start.
| Airport | Good for |
|---|---|
| Delhi (DEL) | Golden Triangle, Rajasthan, Agra, the start of most tours |
| Jaipur (JAI) | Rajasthan tours starting in the Pink City |
| Mumbai (BOM) | Western India, Udaipur by connecting flight |
| Varanasi (VNS) | The Ganges, Sarnath and Buddhist circuit trips |
| Lucknow (LKO) | Varanasi, Kushinagar, and the end of many India and Nepal tours |
| Amritsar (ATQ) | Golden Temple and Punjab |
| Bagdogra (IXB) | Darjeeling, Sikkim (with permit) and east Nepal |
The form asks for your port of arrival. Choose the airport you plan to use, but in practice you can arrive at any designated e-Visa airport or seaport.
Insider tip: Cruise passengers can use the India e-Visa only at five ports: Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Goa and Mangalore.
This is the part most guides skip. You cannot enter India by road at just any border with an India e-Visa. Only 11 land crossings accept it, according to the official portal as of August 2026.
| Land border (India side) | Neighbouring country | Nearest town on the other side |
|---|---|---|
| Raxaul | Nepal | Birgunj |
| Rupaidiha | Nepal | Nepalgunj |
| Jogbani | Nepal | Biratnagar |
| Jaigaon | Bhutan | Phuentsholing |
| Darranga | Bhutan | Samdrup Jongkhar |
| Gede | Bangladesh | Darshana |
| Ghojadanga | Bangladesh | Bhomra |
| Haridaspur | Bangladesh | Benapole |
| Agartala | Bangladesh | Akhaura |
| Dawki | Bangladesh | Tamabil |
| Moreh | Myanmar | Tamu |
The Attari–Wagah crossing with Pakistan was on older lists, but it has been closed to travellers since April 2025. India’s Bureau of Immigration manages all these checkposts.
Insider tip: The official website is not always consistent about land ports. Before you travel, open the India e-Visa page and check the “Authorized Checkposts” list again. If your border is not there, do not risk it.
India and Nepal share a long, open border with many crossings. Indian and Nepali citizens can use almost any of them. Foreign tourists are different: you must use an official immigration checkpost, and with an India e-Visa you must use one of only three.
| Border (Nepal – India) | Good for | Driving times we use |
|---|---|---|
| Birgunj – Raxaul | Chitwan, Kathmandu, then Bodh Gaya, Kushinagar or Varanasi | Chitwan to Birgunj about 3.5 to 4 hours; Raxaul to Kushinagar about 5 hours |
| Nepalgunj – Rupaidiha | Bardia National Park, west Nepal, then Lucknow | Rupaidiha to Lucknow about 4 to 5 hours |
| Biratnagar – Jogbani | East Nepal, then Darjeeling or Bihar | Jogbani area to Siliguri about 4 hours |
On the day, the crossing itself has four stops: Nepal exit stamp, a short walk or drive across, Indian immigration (where your India e-Visa is checked and your biometrics are taken), and customs. With a good driver who knows the routine, it usually takes one to two hours. Trucks and traffic at Birgunj can add more.
Insider tip: Indian and Nepali vehicles need permits to cross. Ask your tour company who arranges the vehicle permit and whether you change cars at the border. We arrange it for our guests, as explained in our guide to car and driver costs in India.
Sunauli–Bhairahawa is the crossing most travellers want to use. It is only about 30 minutes from Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, and it is the quickest way from Pokhara or Lumbini to Varanasi. But Sunauli is not on the India e-Visa list for entering India.
This catches people out every year. This season, a guest of ours planned to cross at Sunauli with an India e-Visa. He even went to the Indian consulate to ask for a paper visa, but they would not issue one while his e-Visa was still valid. So we changed his route: Lumbini, then Chitwan, then across at Birgunj–Raxaul, with one extra night in Kushinagar on the Indian side. He kept his flight home and lost nothing.
| Your plan | With an e-Visa | With a paper (regular) visa |
|---|---|---|
| Lumbini to Varanasi via Sunauli | Not possible | Possible, the fastest route |
| Lumbini to Varanasi via Birgunj–Raxaul | Possible, adds about one day | Possible |
| Pokhara to Lucknow via Nepalgunj–Rupaidiha | Possible, a long drive | Possible |
Insider tip: If Lumbini and Varanasi are both on your list, tell us before you apply for your visa. We can plan the route around your visa, or tell you early if a paper visa would save you a day. Our 14-day India and Nepal itinerary shows both route options.
Here is the good news. The rule for leaving India is much softer than the rule for entering. e-Visa holders may depart from any official immigration checkpost, including Sunauli.
That means a trip that starts in India and ends in Nepal is easy. For example, you can fly into Delhi, travel to Varanasi, and cross into Nepal at Sunauli to visit Lumbini. It is only the direction Nepal into India that needs one of the three e-Visa borders.
Insider tip: If you can choose the direction of your trip, start in India and finish in Nepal. It gives you the most freedom with an India e-Visa. Our guide to planning India and Nepal together explains how.
For most trips the India e-Visa is cheaper, faster and easier. A regular paper visa, applied for through an Indian embassy or its visa centre, only makes sense in a few cases.
| Your situation | Best choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Flying into India for a holiday | e-Visa | Online, fast, cheap |
| India first, then Nepal by road | e-Visa | You can leave by any border |
| Nepal first, entering India at Raxaul, Rupaidiha or Jogbani | e-Visa | These three borders accept it |
| Nepal first, entering India at Sunauli or Kakarbhitta | Paper visa | The e-Visa is not accepted there |
| Pakistani birth, nationality or ancestry | Paper visa | The e-Visa form is not open to you |
| Staying more than 180 days in a year, or working | Other visa types | The e-Tourist visa does not cover it |
A paper visa takes longer, often one to three weeks, and usually needs an appointment at a visa centre. If you already hold a valid e-Visa, an embassy may refuse to issue a second visa, as our guest found. Decide which one you need before you apply.
Insider tip: If you are unsure, send us your route first. It takes us five minutes to tell you whether the India e-Visa will work for it.
At the airport, follow the signs for e-Visa or Visa on Arrival counters. They are separate from the queues for other visa holders. At a land border, there is usually just one immigration office.
At Delhi airport this takes anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour, depending on how many flights land together. Late-night arrivals are often quicker.
Insider tip: Keep your first hotel’s address and phone number on paper. Officers sometimes ask for it, and your phone may have no signal or no battery after a long flight. For more on arriving calmly, read our guide: Is India safe for tourists?
Search for “India visa” and the first results are often private companies that look like the government. They charge US$100 to US$350 for the same US$25 visa and simply fill in the official form for you. Some take your money and passport details and deliver nothing.
At the border itself, ignore anyone who offers to “speed up” your stamp for cash. Immigration is free.
Insider tip: Bookmark the official page the first time you open it. Use that bookmark every time you check your status.
After 30 years of meeting guests at airports and borders, these are the problems we see again and again:
| Mistake | What happens | How to avoid it |
|---|---|---|
| Applying on a fake site | You pay 5 to 10 times more | Use only indianvisaonline.gov.in |
| Name not matching the passport | Airline refuses boarding | Copy the name exactly, letter by letter |
| Planning to enter at Sunauli on an e-Visa | Turned back at the border | Use Raxaul, Rupaidiha or Jogbani, or get a paper visa |
| 30-day visa for an India–Nepal–India trip | Visa runs out while you are in Nepal | Choose the 1-year visa |
| Applying 4 or 5 days before the flight | No time to fix a rejected photo | Apply 2 to 4 weeks before |
| Wrong passport number | ETA not valid | Check twice before paying |
| New passport after applying | e-Visa no longer matches | Apply again with the new passport |
Insider tip: Before you pay, read the preview page slowly, out loud. It sounds silly, but it is how most typing mistakes are caught.
If your trip includes Nepal, you will also need a Nepal visa. Good news: most nationalities can get it on arrival, at Kathmandu airport and at the main land borders, including Birgunj, Belahiya (Bhairahawa, by Sunauli), Kakarbhitta and Nepalgunj.
| Nepal tourist visa | Fee on arrival |
|---|---|
| 15 days | US$30 |
| 30 days | US$50 |
| 90 days | US$125 |
Pay in cash, in US dollars if you can, and bring a passport photo. Children under 10 get the visa free. Indian citizens do not need a visa for Nepal at all; they show a passport or voter ID. A few nationalities must apply at a Nepal embassy before travel, so check the Nepal Department of Immigration site if you are not sure. For ideas on where to go, see our 15 best places to visit in Nepal.
Insider tip: Nepal visas are multiple entry. If you leave Nepal for India and come back, check that your Nepal visa still has days left, or buy a new one at the border.
We are a family company, and we have been driving guests across India and Nepal since 1996. Every tour has a private car and an English-speaking driver, and we plan the border crossing around your visa, not the other way round.
| Reise | Tage | Price | Visa notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Triangle Tour: Delhi, Agra & Jaipur | 4 to 6 | Fixed price on request | Fly into Delhi on an e-Visa |
| Rajasthan Royal Odyssey | 12+ | Fixed price on request | e-Visa via Delhi or Jaipur |
| India–Nepal Grand Odyssey: From the Taj to Buddha’s Birthplace | 21 | From US$1,869 | India first, Nepal last: any border works |
| Nepal Cultural Odyssey | 12 | US$1,068 | Nepal visa on arrival |
Tell us your dates, your route and your passport country. We will send you a day-by-day itinerary with one fixed price, and we will tell you which visa you need and which border to use. No obligation, and a reply within 24 hours. WhatsApp us on +91 98109 09368 or write to [email protected].
If you fly into India, the India e-Visa is simple: apply on the official site, pay about US$25, print the ETA. If you come into India by road, the e-Visa decides your route. From Nepal, it means Birgunj–Raxaul, Nepalgunj–Rupaidiha or Biratnagar–Jogbani, never Sunauli. Plan the border first, then book everything else.
The only official website is indianvisaonline.gov.in. Any other site is a private agency that charges extra. The government fee for a 30-day tourist e-Visa is usually US$25 for Western passports.
For most Western passports, the 30-day e-Tourist visa costs about US$25, the 1-year visa US$40 and the 5-year visa US$80. A bank charge of about 3% is added. The fee is not refundable.
You can apply up to 120 days before arrival and no later than 4 days before. We recommend 2 to 4 weeks before, so you have time to fix any photo or typing problem.
Most e-Visas are granted within 72 hours, and many on the same day. In the busy winter season it can take longer, so do not leave it to the last week.
Yes, but only at Birgunj–Raxaul, Nepalgunj–Rupaidiha or Biratnagar–Jogbani. Other crossings, including Sunauli and Kakarbhitta, do not accept the e-Visa for entry into India.
No. Sunauli–Bhairahawa is not on the e-Visa list for entering India. You can leave India through Sunauli with an e-Visa, but to enter India there you need a regular paper visa.
Yes. e-Visa holders can depart from any official immigration checkpost, including Sunauli, Raxaul and Kakarbhitta. The strict list only applies to entering India.
Yes. All three e-Tourist visas allow more than one entry while they are valid. Remember that the 30-day visa counts every day from your first arrival, including days you spend outside India.
If you go India, Nepal and back to India, choose the 1-year e-Visa. It costs US$40 instead of US$25 and gives you far more flexibility with dates.
A square JPEG between 10 KB and 1 MB, showing your full face with eyes open, no glasses and a plain white or light background without shadows.
The 30-day e-Tourist visa cannot be extended or converted. If you think you may stay longer, apply for the 1-year visa from the start.
People with Pakistani birth, nationality or ancestry must apply for a regular visa at an Indian mission. Holders of diplomatic or official passports also cannot use the e-Visa.
No. Indian citizens can enter Nepal with a passport or voter ID. Most other nationalities can get a Nepal visa on arrival for US$30 (15 days), US$50 (30 days) or US$125 (90 days).
The India e-Visa is one of the easiest visas in the world to get, as long as you use the right website and choose the right border. Most of the stress we see comes from one thing: planning a road trip first and checking the visa rules last.
Do it the other way round. Decide how you will enter India, apply for the right visa, and then let us build the rest of the journey around it. After 30 years on these roads, we know which border will be slow on a Monday morning and how long each crossing really takes.
The border is just the start of the story.
Planning India and Nepal together?
Send us your dates on WhatsApp +91 98109 09368 and we will tell you, the same day, which visa and which border fit your trip. Or send us an enquiry.
