Canadian passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa online from anywhere in Canada — no High Commission appointment, no courier, no waiting weeks. Approval typically lands by email within 24 to 72 hours.
180 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
Canada and India are joined by one of the world's larger diaspora corridors — well over a million Canadians trace their roots to India — and a very high share of Canada-to-India travel is family visits rather than sightseeing. That shapes what matters in the application. Canadians are less likely to be caught out by the tourism rules and far more likely to run into the citizenship-renunciation question or the difference between an eVisa and an OCI card.
Every Canadian citizen needs a visa granted before departure. For the great majority of trips the eVisa is the right instrument: an electronic authorisation from the Government of India, tied digitally to your passport number, with no stamp and no visit to a High Commission or consulate.
Canadians sit in India's most favourable eVisa tier. Along with US, British and Japanese nationals, Canadian passport holders may stay up to 180 days per visit on the long-validity tourist eVisa, where most nationalities are limited to 90. The five-year multiple-entry tourist eVisa is also available, and for anyone visiting family regularly it is comfortably the most economical route.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes — there is no visa-free entry and no visa on arrival for Canadians. India grants Visa on Arrival only to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals, and visa-free access only to Nepal and Bhutan. Air Canada and Air India will check your visa at the gate in Toronto or Vancouver, because carriers are penalised for boarding improperly documented passengers. No visa means no boarding pass.
Match the visa to the purpose of the trip. Holidays, sightseeing, weddings and visiting relatives all fall under the tourist eVisa — and visiting family is explicitly a tourist purpose, which surprises some applicants. Business meetings, trade shows and supplier visits need the business eVisa. Hospital treatment needs the medical eVisa. Employment, journalism, research and long-term study sit outside the eVisa scheme and require a regular visa from an Indian mission in Canada.
Stay & validity
The 180-day per-visit allowance for Canadians applies to the one-year and five-year multiple-entry tourist eVisas. It is per visit rather than per year, so a Canadian on a five-year visa can make repeated six-month trips across the full term.
The 30-day tourist eVisa works differently: 30 days, double entry, counted from your arrival date rather than the grant date. On the one-year and five-year versions, validity begins the moment the Indian government approves the application — so applying two months early costs you two months of a one-year visa.
Because the eVisa is linked to a specific passport number, a Canadian passport renewal between grant and travel invalidates it. This bites more often than you would expect, given the five-year term: if you renew in year three of a five-year eVisa, that visa effectively ends with the old passport.
The business eVisa allows Canadians 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window. The medical eVisa runs 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Canadian passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Canada
Requirements
Everything Canadian 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 for Canadian applications takes 48 to 72 hours, with express handling at 24 to 48 hours. Those are business-day figures and Indian public holidays extend them — the Diwali and Holi periods are the two most reliable slowdowns each year.
Give yourself at least a week before departure. The reason is not processing speed but the possibility of a photo re-upload, which is the most common hitch and costs a day. Applications open 120 days ahead of travel, but on one-year and five-year visas applying at the very edge of that window simply wastes validity. Two to three weeks out is the practical target.
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
Toronto and Vancouver both have nonstop service to Delhi, and both arrival points are designated eVisa airports. From elsewhere in Canada you will connect — commonly through Toronto, or through a European or Gulf hub, which makes no difference to your eVisa.
Best time to go
October to March is both India's best weather and the strongest pull for Canadians — escaping a Canadian winter for Rajasthan or Kerala is the classic trip, and the Christmas–New Year window is the single busiest period on the Toronto–Delhi route. Book fares and seats months out for that stretch.
Punjab and Haryana, the destination for a large share of Canadian visitors, are worth timing deliberately. November brings crop-burning haze and heavy air pollution across the northern plains, and December and January bring genuine cold and fog that regularly disrupts flights into Delhi and Amritsar. February and March are the sweet spot: warm, clear and ahead of the heat.
Avoid May and June in the north, where temperatures pass 45°C. If you are travelling in the Canadian summer, aim for Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Uttarakhand or Sikkim, all of which are at their best exactly then. India is 9.5 to 13.5 hours ahead of Canadian time zones — plan on writing off your arrival day.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Canada — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Your eVisa is determined by citizenship, not residence. A PR card holder living in Toronto on an Indian, Filipino or Nigerian passport applies as a national of that country, with that country's fees, entitlements and stay limits. Selecting Canada because you live here produces an application that does not match your travel document.
India does not recognise dual citizenship, and this affects Canadians more than almost any other nationality given the size of the diaspora. If you were born in India or once held an Indian passport, you must declare it and will generally need a Surrender Certificate. If you travel to India regularly to see family, an OCI card is usually the better long-term answer than repeat eVisas.
A five-year eVisa outlives many passport cycles. Renewing your Canadian passport invalidates the eVisa attached to the old number, and there is no transfer process. Plan renewals and visa applications together.
Canadians combining India with Nepal — a common pairing — often assume they can re-enter overland. The eVisa is valid at designated airports and authorised seaports only. Any land border crossing needs a regular visa from an Indian mission in Canada, arranged before you leave.
The specification calls for plain white, square, full face, no shadow. A photo against cream drywall under a ceiling light fails often enough that it is the leading cause of delay across all nationalities. Use a proper white background in daylight.
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
None of these are involved in an eVisa application — that process is entirely online. They handle what the eVisa cannot: OCI cards, Surrender Certificates, employment and student visas, and consular services for Indian nationals in Canada. If you are of Indian origin and travel frequently, the OCI desk is worth a conversation.
FAQs
The questions Canadian passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Up to 180 days per visit on the one-year or five-year multiple-entry tourist eVisa — Canada is in the small group of nationalities granted the extended allowance, alongside the US, UK and Japan. The 30-day tourist eVisa allows 30 days with double entry. The business eVisa gives 180 days per visit within a one-year window, and the medical eVisa 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Government fees vary by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads current live figures specifically for Canadian passport holders. The amount shown is the complete cost including our service fee, and it covers 30-day, one-year and five-year options side by side so you can compare before choosing.
Apply as a citizen of the country that issued your passport. Your Canadian permanent residence is not relevant to Indian visa eligibility, and it does not give you the 180-day allowance that Canadian citizens receive. Select your passport nationality and the correct fees and entitlements will apply automatically.
Usually yes, but you must declare your former Indian nationality, and you will generally need a Surrender Certificate or renunciation documentation — India does not permit dual citizenship. If you visit family in India regularly, look seriously at an OCI card instead: it gives lifelong multiple-entry rights and removes the need to apply again each trip.
No. Only Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals are eligible for Indian Visa on Arrival. Canadians must hold an approved visa before boarding, and the airline will verify it at the gate in Canada.
Toronto and Vancouver both fly nonstop to Delhi. From Montréal, Calgary, Edmonton or Ottawa you will connect, most often via Toronto or a European or Gulf hub. Connections have no bearing on your eVisa — it is checked when you arrive in India, not in transit.
Yes. Visiting friends and relatives is an accepted tourist purpose under the eVisa scheme, and you may give a relative's home as your address in India. You do not need an invitation letter for a family visit — that requirement applies to the business eVisa.
No. The eVisa is accepted only at India's designated eVisa airports and authorised seaports. If your route includes an overland entry from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, you need a regular visa issued by an Indian mission in Canada — arrange it before you travel.
Your nationality is already set to Canada. 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.
