India 1-Year and 5-Year e-Tourist Visa: UK Fees and Stay

TL;DR

India's 1-year and 5-year e-Tourist visas run from the date the ETA is granted, allow multiple entries and cap you at 180 days in India in a calendar year. For a UK passport they cost USD 40 and USD 484 on indianvisaonline.gov.in, the only official portal. The 1-year visa suits most repeat visitors; the 5-year suits frequent travellers with a long-dated passport. Apply yourself for the fee alone, or we prepare and submit it for £35 per applicant.

The two visas side by side

Both are issued only through indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa. The portal's FAQ says it is the only official website for e-Visa services, and that no agent or intermediary is needed.

The 180-day rule explained

The portal's wording is the same for both visas: the maximum stay in India during one calendar year should not exceed 180 days. A calendar year means January to December, so a long winter trip that straddles New Year draws on two years' allowances. The limit is on days in India, not on the number of trips; with multiple entries you could spend six separate months there in a year, or one stretch of six months.

The portal no longer publishes a separate per-visit limit for British citizens on these visas. Older guides quote 180 days per visit for UK nationals and 90 days for others; that distinction is not on the official page today, and we do not repeat it. What is on the page is the calendar-year cap, and that is the figure to plan around.

Nothing extends an e-Visa. If you need longer than 180 days in a year, or want to work or study, you need a regular visa through the High Commission of India in London, which is outside what we do.

Which to choose

Start with the arithmetic. At USD 40 a year against USD 484 for five years, you would need to buy a 1-year visa every year for twelve years before the 5-year visa was cheaper. So price is not the reason to take it.

The reason is convenience. A frequent visitor, someone with family in India who goes two or three times a year, avoids a fresh application every twelve months and the risk that a trip is booked before a new ETA arrives. For that person the 5-year visa is worth the premium.

Then check your passport. The visa is tied to the passport you apply with, and the portal says you must travel on it. If your passport has two years left, a 5-year visa buys you two useful years and a passport transfer to arrange later; the portal allows entry on a new passport if you carry the old one too, and it now offers an ETA transfer service, but a 1-year visa on a fresh passport is simpler.

Then check the dates. Validity runs from the grant of the ETA, not from your first arrival. Applying 120 days early uses four months of a 1-year visa before you land. Apply close to the trip, inside the 4-day minimum, and the full year is yours.

For a single fixed trip of under a month, neither of these is the best buy: the 30-day visa is USD 10 or USD 25 depending on the season.

What the e-Tourist visa covers and does not

The category covers recreation and sightseeing, casual visits to meet friends and relatives, short-term yoga programmes, short courses in local languages, music, dance, arts and crafts, cooking or medicine that are not formal or structured (no qualifying certificate, under six months), and voluntary work of up to one month with no payment of any kind.

It does not cover employment, journalism or NGO activity, which the portal rules out for every e-Visa, and it does not cover formal study. Business meetings need the e-Business visa; treatment needs the e-Medical visa. Protected, restricted and cantonment areas need separate permission from the civil authority.

Fees and the bank charge

The official fee is paid on the portal by card, plus a bank charge of 3 percent (4 percent through PayPal) shown on the payment page. It is a processing fee and is not refunded if the application is rejected or the trip is cancelled. The portal says it must be paid at least 4 days before your travel date or the application is not processed, and that nothing more is paid at the airport. Any site quoting a different fee for the same visa is adding its own mark-up.

When to apply, and what you upload

Apply between 4 and 120 days before your arrival date. The portal publishes no processing time; it emails you if a photo or document needs re-uploading, normally within 24 hours, and emails the decision. Do not fly until the status reads GRANTED.

Your passport needs six months' validity at the time of applying and two blank pages. You upload a square JPEG photo between 10 KB and 1 MB, full face, eyes open, no spectacles, plain light background, no shadows, no borders, and the passport bio page as a PDF between 10 KB and 300 KB. Our photo and passport scan guide covers the common faults, and the compressor gets the PDF under the limit. Previous visa details are a mandatory field; "NA" is accepted if you do not have the number.

Who cannot use these visas

The portal excludes anyone of Pakistani origin or holding a Pakistani passport, and anyone whose parents or grandparents on either side were born in or permanently resident in Pakistan; they apply for a regular visa at an Indian mission. It excludes diplomatic and official passport holders and anyone with a serving or retired defence, military, security or police background. OCI cardholders do not need a visa at all; see our OCI card guide. The plan step checks all of this before you pay.

Apply yourself, or £35 prepared and submitted

You can apply yourself on indianvisaonline.gov.in for the official fee alone. If you would rather have the form done for you, our desk prepares the application in your own portal account from your details and documents, checks the uploads against the specification, sends you the completed form to check and submits it: £35 per applicant, each additional applicant £35, up to five on one order. You pay the USD 40 or USD 484 on the portal yourself by your own card; we never take or enter card details. Submitted on the official portal within 24 hours of your complete details and documents, or your service fee back. Full refund if you cancel before work starts. The Government of India decides. WayaNerd Ltd, company 16269713.