Did you know that unless you’re a citizen of Nepal or Bhutan, you need a Visa to visit India? Since taking the DNA test with Ancestry, I’ve made it a mission to visit the countries listed in my DNA results. My cousin Krista will be traveling to India (aka our other motherland) solo and today she’s sharing my first guest post on how to obtain an eVisa in seven easy steps.
I was so excited to be going to India, so the first person I called was my travel buddy Cousin Joanna. ??? She was so excited on the phone and said, “My friend just came back and said it was easy to apply for an Indian visa in person”. Ladies and gentlemen, I didn’t know I needed a visa to travel from the U.S to India. Thank the travel Gods I had enough time before my trip and applied for an electronic or e-Visa. The Indian e-visa processing time was very quick. I filled out the online Indian visa form on Friday night and received an approved Indian visa application status (“Granted e-Visa”) by Sunday afternoon. It was super easy! Wanna know how? Follow the directions below for filling out an online Indian visa form for your trip to India.
How to Apply for an Indian e-Visa in 7 Easy Steps
1. Freak out that you were about to go to the other side of the world like a dummy with no Visa.??♀️
2. Calm down then go to the Indian Visa Online Website and select the e-Visa Application menu.
Things you need on hand to fill out an online Indian visa form are:
- a scanned pdf copy of your passport
- a scanned recent picture (this cannot be your passport picture and must be saved in JPEG minimum 10KB maximum 1MB)
- address of your contact in India including the phone number
- list of countries that you have visited in the past 10 years
- list of places you are going to visit in India
- your parents’ nationality status
- a credit card or banking information
3. When you finish the online Indian visa form, click “Pay Now”. The next step is using a third party called SBIe Pay for making payments. The Indian tourist visa price at the time of my visit was $75. It took me 3 times for the payment to actually go through. I recommend just waiting for 4 hours if it does not work for the first time. Do not try more than 3 times as you will be blocked and have to fill out the online Indian visa form again. You will receive a confirmation when payment is accepted. SBIePay is the Payment Aggregator service of State Bank of India which provides multiple payment options on a single payment page for the convenience of applicants. SBIePay has enabled Debit and Credit issued by MasterCard and VISA.
4. Once your Indian visa application status is ready, you will receive an email. It should say “Granted”.
5. Click the link in your email, enter your application ID, then print out your e-Visa in color. Be sure to make a few copies. This is needed when you enter India. Customs will review the e-Visa and stamp your passport.
6. Keep a copy of your tourist e-Visa with you at all times along with your passport.
7. Namaste and enjoy your trip ??
Have you been to India before?
