Indian Tourist Visa

[TheOrigRights]

Has anyone been through the application for a tourist visa for India recently?
From the UK.

No... but if you're having problems, travel journalist Simon Calder has been wilting about this very recently. His Twitter feed has links to his articles, or just Googling will bring them up. Apologies if you already knew this.

Hi we are about to do this and omg it’s expensive isn’t it!!!
we’ve decided to use someone to organise ours as we only have 6 weeks due overseas work trips and has been difficult to get an appt there which suits us.

I’ve just read this article www.thetimes.co.uk/article/visa-rule-change-ruins-india-holiday-plans-for-thousands-wrjwn5z20

what a nightmare! Am hoping it’s a glitch as we need to pay the final amount for our holiday next week and I’m loathe to if it means we need to go to the embassy in person!

They stopped Brits getting an online visa because were limited Indian immigration during their park of covid, it happened to Canada too. I took two visits to get a visa recently their system isn’t very user friendly but the serving time I was in and out in 30 mins.

I've been to India a few times, but not for a while. I'd never used the eVisa system, but also never had to visit the embassy, we filled out a hard copy form and sent it off with our passports.

This time, I filled in my form a month ago, but it just says "being processed" when I check the status. And now (thank you Trees) I see that the whole process might take a long time and then I might struggle to get an embassy appointment, or even worse that we'll just get no where at all.

It's me and my 2 sons going in Dec and I can't be doing this 3 times in such uncertainty. With this in mind, I've decided not to go. It's meant to be a great holiday and to see family, but I can't book ticket until we have Visas so it's just not worth the stress and potential loss of money.

Peru is looking good at the moment

I really don't want to be caught in the middle of Indian-UK politics!

@TheOrigRights we have just cancelled too- so annoying😩. Thankfully Virgin had moved our flight, only by an hour and a half but enough to get a full refund! Now on the hunt for somewhere else to go!
we’re off to Peru in 2 weeks so will let you know how that is.

We're just starting the process for travel early next year. My parents had to do it a couple of months ago (this has been going on longer than that article suggests). I've heard that appointments are released at 7.30pm each day so it might be a case of going online constantly every evening.

Just bumping this thread as we are considering booking a tour of India fit next year. Does anyone know how easy it is to get a tourist visa now for India? Can you get it online now? Any idea of the cost?

All information here
indianvisaonline.gov.in

make sure you look at the sample form and have all required info to hand before you start the process or you’ll get timed out !

Uk seems to be on e visa list now. DD wants to go in December. Friend needs work visa and as she has been to Pakistan, that's become an issue! DD has had an Indian visa before but won't go if friend cannot get in. Hopefully it will get resolved as friend is applying in person now.

Thank you. I've had a look at the website and can see we should be able to get a tourist visa but I can't seem to find the cost. Do you have any idea?

Following

I think it was £25

Tourist visa is £127. We paid £90 years ago. £25 it isn't.

did it last year brit passport - they asked so many questions - got it 3/4 working day - august last year

Just back from India. Did the 1 year multiple entry tourist e-visa: $40 USD so converted to about £33.

can do a shorter single entry one which is slightly cheaper I think but you can only do this a month in advance I think I remember, we wanted to get sorted and approved sooner so did the 1 year.

make sure you take a printed copy of the actual e-visa document once approved - it doesn’t tell you to do this but a friend tipped us off and we did need this on arrival!

Thank you. That's really helpful. Can I ask you about your holiday? Did you organise it yourself or book a tour? We are thinking of booking a tour with Exodus as we've never travelled in Asia before.

According to this, it’s £21 https://www.atlys.com/en-GB/post/visa-for-india-from-uk

No worries! Of course, we booked a trip with Pioneer Personalised Holidays, an Indian tour company. The service and value was actually miles better than the likes of trailfinders/audley. Haven’t used exodus so can’t compare to them but would highly recommend pioneer!

Also the actual visa costs are on the official website here: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/images/Etourist_fee_final.pdf
As you can see the 30 day visas are cheaper but you can only apply a short amount of time before.

Atlys mentioned above is a visa service who do it for you so will charge a markup

Just do E- visa. Way easier. Only thing is when you get the confirmation email make sure you go back into the link they give you and print a copy of the visa approval and take to the airport. Don’t just take the email confirming the approval.

Thanks I'll look into Pioneer as I haven't heard of them before. I'd be interested to hear about anyone else's trip to India.

This is the visa fee structure for uk citizens.

Those prices are for a regular visa. The etourist visa is much cheaper as several of us have mentioned.