Chilean passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the Embassy of India in Santiago, 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
Chile is about as far from India as it is possible to be, and that geography shapes everything about the trip. Uniquely among South American countries, Chileans have a genuine choice of direction: eastwards through Europe or the Gulf, or westwards across the Pacific via Auckland, Sydney or Santiago's Oceania routes and onward through Asia. Both take roughly the same time, and the westbound option is worth pricing.
The travel itself divides between long leisure itineraries — Chileans tend to travel for three weeks or more given the journey — and a substantial mining and minerals business relationship, with India a major buyer of Chilean copper.
Every Chilean 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, and Chilean passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa.
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. Chilean citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and because every routing involves at least one connection, the check can happen at Santiago, at a hub, or both.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, visiting friends and wellness travel fall under the tourist eVisa. Meetings, trade fairs, supplier visits and commodity negotiation require the business eVisa — the relevant category for the copper and minerals trade. 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 Santiago.
Residents of Chile who are not Chilean citizens apply on the nationality of their passport, with that country's fees, entitlements and stay limits.
Stay & validity
Chilean 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.
Ninety days is ample for the kind of trip that justifies a 30-hour journey — North India, Rajasthan, Goa and Kerala in one itinerary fits easily. The eVisa cannot be extended from inside India, so build the full plan before you submit.
The grant-date rule matters given how far ahead a trip of this length is booked. Applying six months out spends half a one-year eVisa before departure; apply three to four weeks before you fly.
The business eVisa allows up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window — double the tourist allowance, and the right instrument for extended commercial engagements at Indian smelters and ports. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Chilean passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Chile
Requirements
Everything Chilean 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 two weeks before departure. Chilean itineraries are the longest of any market and frequently ticketed across separate carriers, so a visa problem discovered late is expensive and awkward to unwind. Two weeks gives comfortable room for a photo re-upload.
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
Chile is unusual in having a genuine choice of direction. Eastbound routings go through Europe, the Gulf or São Paulo; westbound routings cross the Pacific via Auckland or Sydney and connect through Asia. Both run 28 to 34 hours in total, so price and comfort decide it. Your eVisa is checked at your Indian arrival airport either way.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and it aligns with the Chilean summer holidays in December, January and February — the natural window for a trip long enough to justify the journey, and consequently the fare peak.
Semana Santa in March or April falls at the warm end of India's season: fine in the south and the hills, already hot in Rajasthan. The Chilean winter, June to August, coincides with the Indian monsoon and the pre-monsoon heat, though July and August are the best months for Ladakh and the Spiti Valley.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C. India is 9.5 to 11.5 hours ahead of Chilean time depending on daylight saving — close to the maximum possible displacement. Combined with 30 hours in transit, plan a genuine rest day on arrival.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Chile — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The defining Chilean-specific problem. Chilean passports carry a paternal and a maternal surname, and both belong in the surname field, in the printed order, without merging or hyphenating. Applicants who use only the apellido paterno — as they would in everyday life — create a mismatch that Indian immigration will pick up.
Practical rather than procedural, but genuinely useful. Chile is one of the few countries where flying west across the Pacific to India takes roughly the same time as flying east. Travellers reflexively look only at European and Gulf routings and sometimes miss a cheaper option via Auckland, Sydney, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. Price both.
Your India eVisa governs entry to India and nothing else. A routing via the United States requires a US visa or ESTA even for a connection; Australia and New Zealand have their own transit rules on the westbound option. On a three-connection journey this is the part most likely to go wrong.
Chilean citizens receive 90 days per visit, not the 180 days granted to American, British, Canadian and Japanese nationals. The eVisa cannot be extended from inside India, so build the itinerary around 90 days.
On one-year and five-year visas, validity runs from the grant date. A trip of this length is booked many months ahead; applying at the same time 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 Santiago is not involved in eVisa applications, which are handled entirely online — relevant given that it is the only Indian mission in Chile. It covers what the eVisa cannot: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards, and consular services for Indian nationals in Chile.
FAQs
The questions Chilean passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa — ample for the long itineraries that justify the journey. The 30-day version allows 30 days with double entry. 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.
Roughly the same, which makes Chile unusual. Eastbound routings go via Europe, the Gulf or São Paulo; westbound routings cross the Pacific via Auckland or Sydney and connect through Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. Both run 28 to 34 hours. The westbound option is frequently overlooked and sometimes cheaper, so it is worth pricing both — but check the Australian or New Zealand transit rules if you go west.
Both of them, exactly as printed on your passport's name line and in the printed order, in the surname field. If your passport shows GONZÁLEZ ROJAS, that whole string is your surname as far as Indian immigration is concerned. Do not shorten it to the apellido paterno, do not hyphenate, and do not swap the order.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Chilean 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.
The business eVisa. Negotiating contracts, visiting smelters and ports, and attending trade events are commercial activities the tourist eVisa does not cover. You will need an invitation letter from the Indian company on its letterhead. It permits up to 180 days per visit within a one-year window, twice the Chilean tourist allowance.
December to February, the Chilean summer holidays, which fall squarely inside India's dry season. Semana Santa in March or April works for the south and the hills but is already hot in Rajasthan. If you travel in the Chilean winter, July and August are the best months for Ladakh and Spiti, though poor for the plains.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Chilean citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and it will be checked before you are allowed to fly.
No. The eVisa cannot be extended or converted from inside India. Given the journey involved, most Chilean travellers plan a single long trip within 90 days. If you need more, either split it across two entries on a multiple-entry visa or apply for a regular visa through the embassy in Santiago.
Your nationality is already set to Chile. 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.
