Bulgarian passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the Embassy of India in Sofia, no courier, no passport handed over. Approval typically arrives by email in 24 to 72 hours.
90 days
Maximum stay per visit
24–72 hrs
Typical processing time
Up to 5 years
Longest validity offered
Not eligible
Visa on Arrival
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Bulgarian travel to India is independent and value-driven — longer trips, overland transport, and a mix of the classic Rajasthan and Kerala circuits with a notable yoga and spiritual strand centred on Rishikesh. Sofia has no nonstop service to India, so every routing connects, most often through Istanbul or the Gulf.
Every Bulgarian citizen needs a visa granted before departure. There is no visa-free entry and no visa on arrival. For tourism, business and medical travel the eVisa handles it entirely online: an electronic authorisation issued by the Government of India, linked to your passport number, with no stamp and no consular appointment.
Bulgarian passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, and the five-year multiple-entry version is available. Ninety days suits the slower itineraries this market favours, but it is a genuine ceiling — the eVisa cannot be extended once you are in India.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. India extends visa-free entry only to Nepal and Bhutan, and Visa on Arrival only to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Bulgarian citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and because Bulgarian routings involve a connection, the check often happens at Sofia.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, visiting friends, and yoga or meditation retreats fall under the tourist eVisa. Meetings, trade fairs, supplier audits and technical discussions require the business eVisa — increasingly relevant as Bulgaria's IT and outsourcing sector builds Indian relationships. Hospital treatment requires the medical eVisa. Employment, journalism, academic research and long-term study are outside the eVisa scheme and need a regular visa from the embassy in Sofia.
Stay & validity
Bulgarian citizens are permitted up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows double entry, with its 30 days counted from your arrival date. The one-year and five-year versions are multiple-entry, and their validity begins on the date the Indian government grants the application.
Applying too early wastes validity — booking in March for a November trip and applying immediately spends eight months of a one-year eVisa before departure. Apply two to three weeks before you fly.
The eVisa cannot be extended or converted from inside India, so 90 days is a hard per-visit ceiling. It is also valid only at designated airports and authorised seaports, which rules out an overland crossing from Nepal — a common assumption on long Himalayan routes.
The business eVisa allows up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Bulgarian passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Bulgaria
Requirements
Everything Bulgarian passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality or visa type.
Passport bio-data page — a clear colour scan or photo showing your photograph, full name, date of birth, passport number and expiry date
Recent passport-style photograph — square format, plain white background, full face visible, no shadows and no headwear other than for religious reasons
A valid credit or debit card to pay the government fee and service charge
Your return or onward ticket details, or at minimum your intended departure date
The address where you will be staying for your first night in India
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches the Indian authorities.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, choose your visa type and duration, and upload your photo and passport data page.
Our team checks your photo dimensions, passport scan clarity, name spelling and date formats before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to the Government of India on your behalf, and we keep you posted at every status change.
Print it or keep it on your phone, and we explain exactly how to present it at your port of entry in India.
Standard processing takes 48 to 72 hours and express handling 24 to 48 hours. Both are business-day estimates, and Indian public holidays — numerous and often state-specific — extend them.
Apply at least ten days before departure. Bulgarian itineraries always involve a connection, sometimes across separate low-cost tickets, so a late visa problem is more awkward and costly to fix than for a nonstop traveller.
Separate from your eVisa, every foreign national entering India must complete the digital e-Arrival Card before boarding. It replaces the old paper disembarkation form and is required on every single visit, whatever visa you hold.
Getting there
There is no nonstop service between Bulgaria and India, so every routing involves at least one connection. Total journey times run 10 to 16 hours. Your eVisa is checked at your Indian arrival airport rather than in transit.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the best window for the classic circuits. The Christmas and New Year weeks are the fare peak; February and March offer the same weather at better prices.
The Bulgarian summer holidays fall in the monsoon — poor for Rajasthan and the Golden Triangle, but the best months of the year for Ladakh, the Spiti Valley and Sikkim. Rishikesh, a focus for the yoga strand in this market, is best from September to November and again from February to April; the summer is hot and the monsoon makes the Ganges unsafe for rafting.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C. India is 2.5 to 3.5 hours ahead of Bulgarian time depending on the season, so the shift is mild — most of the fatigue comes from the connection.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Bulgaria — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The defining Bulgarian-specific problem. Bulgarian names have several valid Latin transliterations — Georgi or Gheorghi, Dimitar or Dimitr, Tsvetan or Cvetan, Zhivkov or Jivkov. Your passport uses one specific form under the official transliteration rules, and the eVisa must match it exactly, as must your airline ticket. Using an older or informal spelling creates a mismatch Indian immigration will query.
Bulgarian surnames change with gender — Ivanov and Ivanova, Petrov and Petrova, Dimitrov and Dimitrova. Your passport shows one specific form. Do not use a husband's or father's ending; use exactly what is printed on your own travel document.
Common on long Himalayan itineraries. The eVisa is accepted only at designated airports and authorised seaports, so entry and re-entry must be by air. A land crossing needs a regular visa from the embassy in Sofia, arranged before you leave.
Bulgarian citizens receive 90 days per visit, not the 180 days granted to American, British, Canadian and Japanese nationals. Since Bulgarian trips are often long and the eVisa cannot be extended, confirm this before booking.
On one-year and five-year visas, validity runs from the grant date rather than arrival. Booking a bargain fare far ahead and applying the same week throws away most of the visa.
Photo rejected on technical grounds
By far the most common cause of delay. The photograph must be square, on a plain white background, with your full face visible and no shadow behind your head. Cropped selfies and phone photos taken against a cream wall are routinely bounced back.
Passport scan unreadable
Glare across the machine-readable zone, a cut-off corner, or a scan where the passport number is blurred will stall the application. Photograph the page flat, in daylight, with no flash.
Applying too close to departure
The eVisa must be granted before you fly, and airlines check it at the gate. Applications submitted the night before a flight leave no room for a document re-upload.
Conditions
These conditions are set by the Government of India and do not vary by nationality. They are worth reading before you book, because two of them — the port-of-entry rule and the restricted-areas rule — catch out a lot of otherwise well-planned trips.
Validity is measured from your date of arrival in India, not from the date you apply. You also need at least two blank pages for immigration stamps.
The India eVisa is accepted at India's designated eVisa airports and authorised seaports. It cannot be used to cross a land border, so overland arrivals from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh or Pakistan need a different visa.
Every person travelling needs their own eVisa and their own passport, including infants and children. Children cannot be added to a parent's application.
An eVisa does not grant access to Protected Areas, Restricted Areas or Cantonment Areas. Parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Ladakh, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep require a Protected Area Permit or Restricted Area Permit in addition to your visa.
You cannot extend an eVisa from inside India or convert it into another visa category. If your plans change, you must leave and apply again.
Diplomatic, official and service passports are not eligible for the eVisa route, and neither are international travel documents or refugee travel documents.
Consular services
The embassy in Sofia is not involved in eVisa applications, which are handled entirely online — relevant given that it is the only Indian mission in Bulgaria. It covers what the eVisa cannot: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards, and consular services for Indian nationals in Bulgaria.
FAQs
The questions Bulgarian passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows 30 days with double entry; the one-year and five-year versions are multiple-entry with a 90-day cap per visit. The business eVisa permits up to 180 days per visit within a one-year window, and the medical eVisa 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Exactly as it is transliterated on your current passport, character for character. Bulgarian names have several valid Latin forms — Georgi and Gheorghi, Zhivkov and Jivkov — and only the passport version is correct for the visa. Note too that Bulgarian surnames are gendered, so use your own printed form rather than a spouse's. Make sure your airline ticket matches.
Whichever is printed on your own passport. Bulgarian surnames are gendered — Ivanov for a man, Ivanova for a woman — and only the version on your own travel document is correct for the visa. Do not use a husband's or father's form, because Indian immigration compares the eVisa against the passport character by character.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Bulgarian passport holders across all available options. You can compare 30-day, one-year and five-year prices side by side, and the amount shown is the full cost including our service fee.
No. Every routing involves at least one connection — most commonly Istanbul, which is frequently both the shortest and the best value, or Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Total journey time is 10 to 16 hours. From Varna, Burgas or Plovdiv you will connect via Sofia or Istanbul.
September to November, or February to April. The summer is hot, and during the monsoon the Ganges runs too high for rafting and many activities close. Those two shoulder windows give comfortable temperatures and full operations — and both fall inside India's broader dry season, so they combine well with a Rajasthan or Delhi leg.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Bulgarian citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and because every routing starts with a connection, your airline may check it at Sofia.
No. The eVisa cannot be extended or converted from inside India. If you need longer, either split the trip across two entries on a multiple-entry visa — leaving India by air and returning — or apply for a regular visa through the embassy in Sofia before you travel.
Your nationality is already set to Bulgaria. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches the Indian authorities.
Other nationalities
Stay limits, fees and requirements differ by passport. Here are the guides for other nationalities.
