India To Add Visa On Arrival And Electronic Travel Authorization

Published: February 6, 2014

Earlier today I posted about Turkey’s new electronic visa process. In the comments section, reader StargoldUA shared some really exciting news from India.

On Wednesday the Indian government cleared two initiatives which will make visiting India much easier.

Via The Times of India:

In a significant step towards liberalization of the visa regime, the government on Wednesday cleared two initiatives: visa on arrival and electronic travel authorization for all countries barring eight “prior reference” countries including Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and China.

ETA will allow foreign travelers to apply for a visa from home and receive an online confirmation in five working days.

“We have decided to extend visa-on-arrival to tourists from 180 nations. It will take 5-6 months to put the infrastructure in place. We hope to implement this from the next tourist session beginning October,” planning minister Rajiv Shukla said.

This new program will initially be available at nine Indian airports, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Goa and Trivandrum.

Electronic travel authorization and visa-on-arrival will be available for a 30-day period from the date of the tourist’s arrival in India.

Anyway, I’m very excited about this. I was in India a couple of years back and absolutely loved it, and can’t help but encourage others to visit as well. That being said I hate getting traditional visas. Either you have to queue at a consulate or use a passport service to get it done. While I don’t like queuing at a consulate, I also don’t like being without my passport for upwards of a week, so frankly countries with “traditional” visa policies have generally slipped to the bottom of my list of places to visit.

Electronic travel authorizations and visa-on-arrival are the way of the future, so I’m very excited to see India adopt this. It won’t benefit me personally all that much since I have a 10 year visa for India good through 2021, but I’m certainly happy that this will make it easier for others to visit India as well (especially so y’all can come visit me when I move to India). 😉

Conversations (23)

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Comment as a member

Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.

Loading comments…

Recent Comments

The latest from the OMAAT community.

Mike Guest

August 22, 2017, 6:43 am

I think the ETA is a really good idea and has made it easier for those who are working full time and want to visit India to apply for it on the internet! It must save a lot of time as well. Excellent idea and can imagine it has become extremely popular.

‼ 0

Oscar Vinson Guest

May 4, 2017, 5:57 pm

The Electronic Travel Authorization or ETA is indeed a good news to all those planning to travel to India. At least now they will be able to apply for their visa online at the comforts of their home. Thank you for sharing this news Ben.

Avery Guest

December 4, 2014, 10:14 am

How can you get a clear scan of a passport under 300KB. SERIOUSLY. Its like they are taunting us with a great service that no one can use. I've looked online and everyone is having problems with this system. Par for the course for a country that consistently seems to make it as hard as possible for people from the US to travel to them to spend their American Dollars.

Ram Guest

February 8, 2014, 9:42 am

What most people don't realize is that the visa process was put in place due to check the threat of terrorism from foreign nationals. It was further tightened after the Mumbai attacks in which a caucasian looking American with a Xitian name (but was the offspring of a Pakistani muslim father and an American mother) slipped in and out of India to plan the logistics for the Mumbai attack. Granted that it inconvenienced many tourists and their choice of BLS to process visas was a big blunder. BLS is known to have accepted kickbacks to put you on the fast track and I presume that they got the visa processing contract by bribing some of the embassy officials. Rethinking about and changing their policies is a step in the right direction and hopefully it will be implemented in a timely manner. Sometimes ad hoc measures taken in the aftermath of 9/11 or Mumbai type attacks seem valid at the time and are revisited long after the wounds from such calamities have healed. So, have patience folks, happy days are about to be ushered in.

Jonathan Guest

February 8, 2014, 7:56 am

Having just gone through the Indian Visa process with their outside contractor BLS in NYC, I can attest to what a great development this is. The process was far from smooth and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at various points in the process, but at least I now have a 10-yr visa though. :)

India To Add Visa On Arrival And Electronic Travel Authorization

Support OMAAT

Save posts to read later