Eritrean passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no consular appointment, 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
Important for Eritrean citizens
Your India eVisa authorises entry to India and nothing else. Eritrean travellers generally require an exit permit to leave the country, and that is a separate process entirely — it takes longer than the visa and is more often the constraint. Plan the whole chain before booking, and note that a routing via Addis Ababa or Nairobi may also trigger India's yellow-fever certificate requirement.
Overview
For Eritrean travellers the Indian visa is rarely the difficult part of the journey. Exit formalities are, and they operate on their own timeline. An entirely online visa process is genuinely useful in that context — there is no consulate appointment to schedule around everything else.
Asmara has limited international service, so routings go through Addis Ababa, Cairo, Dubai or Doha. Travel to India is predominantly medical, with a smaller education and trade flow.
Every Eritrean citizen needs a visa granted before departure. There is no visa-free entry and no visa on arrival. The eVisa is an electronic authorisation issued by the Government of India, linked to your passport number, with no stamp and no appointment. Eritrean 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. Eritrean citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and it will be checked at whichever airport you depart from.
Choose the category by purpose. Treatment at an Indian hospital requires the medical eVisa, which allows accompanying family to travel as medical attendants. Business meetings, trade fairs and sourcing trips require the business eVisa. Tourism and visiting relatives fall under the tourist eVisa. Employment, journalism, academic research and long-term study are outside the eVisa scheme and need a regular visa from an Indian mission.
The practical sequencing matters more here than the category. Your India eVisa says nothing about your ability to exit Eritrea or transit a third country, and those arrangements take longer. Resolve them first and treat the eVisa as the quick final step.
Stay & validity
Eritrean 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.
Because validity runs from the grant date rather than arrival, and because exit arrangements can delay a departure unpredictably, choose the duration with some margin. A one-year multiple-entry visa gives more flexibility than a 30-day one if your travel date may slip.
For medical travel the medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry, structured around treatment plus follow-up consultations, with medical attendant visas available for accompanying family.
The business eVisa allows up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window. The eVisa cannot be extended or converted from inside India.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Eritrean passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Eritrea
Requirements
Everything Eritrean 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.
The Indian visa is very unlikely to be your critical path. Exit formalities and third-country transit take considerably longer and are less predictable, so start those first and treat the eVisa as the quick final step. For medical travel, request the hospital letter as early as possible.
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
Asmara has limited international service. Every routing to India involves at least one connection, most commonly through Addis Ababa, Cairo, Dubai or Doha. Total journey times run 12 to 20 hours.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the most comfortable window for both leisure travel and medical treatment. Recovery in extreme heat is genuinely harder on a patient, so if treatment dates are flexible the cooler months are worth choosing.
For medical travel the Indian hospital calendar matters as much as the weather. Diwali and Holi affect staffing and elective scheduling at private hospitals. Confirm dates directly with the hospital's international patient office.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C. India is 2.5 hours ahead of Eritrean time.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Eritrea — we check for every one of them before submitting.
It almost never is. An Indian eVisa takes 24 to 72 hours; exit formalities and third-country transit arrangements take considerably longer and are less predictable. Start those first and treat the eVisa as the quick final step. Buying non-refundable tickets on the assumption of a 72-hour timeline is an expensive mistake here.
Eritrea is not itself on India's yellow-fever list, but a routing via Addis Ababa or Nairobi transits affected countries, and India applies the requirement on transit as well as origin. A Gulf routing via Dubai or Doha avoids the question. Without a valid certificate you can be quarantined for up to six days.
Validity runs from the grant date, and unpredictable exit arrangements mean a delayed departure can leave you re-applying. A one-year multiple-entry visa costs more but gives real flexibility if your travel date is not firm.
The medical eVisa allows triple entry for follow-up consultations and lets accompanying family apply as medical attendants. Indian hospitals increasingly ask which visa you hold.
The government fee is charged in US dollars and needs a card able to process international transactions, which can be a practical obstacle. The card does not have to belong to the traveller, so a family member abroad can complete it.
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
Eritrea may be served under concurrent accreditation by an Indian mission in a neighbouring country rather than by a resident post. That has no bearing on your eVisa, which is entirely online — and it is precisely why the eVisa is the practical route. Confirm coverage if you need a student, employment or research visa, or a regular medical visa, and allow considerably more time.
FAQs
The questions Eritrean passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
No. The eVisa authorises entry to India and nothing else. Eritrean travellers generally require an exit permit to leave the country, which is an entirely separate process on its own timeline — and it is usually the longer one. Plan the whole chain before booking, and do not treat the eVisa's 72-hour turnaround as representative of the overall timeline.
It depends on your routing. Eritrea is not on India's yellow-fever list, but India applies the requirement on transit as well as origin — so a routing via Addis Ababa or Nairobi can trigger it. A Gulf routing via Dubai or Doha avoids the question entirely. Without a valid certificate you can be quarantined on arrival for up to six days, and it takes ten days after vaccination to become valid.
Consider a one-year multiple-entry visa rather than the 30-day option. Validity runs from the grant date, and if exit arrangements delay your departure a short visa can expire before you travel. The extra flexibility is usually worth it on this route.
Up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows 30 days with double entry. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry, and the business eVisa up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window.
The medical eVisa. It allows 60 days from first entry with triple entry — designed around treatment plus follow-up consultations — and accompanying family members can apply for medical attendant visas linked to your application. You will need a letter from the treating hospital, which must be on India's recognised list. Request it as early as possible.
Asmara has limited international service, so every routing involves at least one connection — Dubai or Doha are the most useful and avoid yellow-fever affected transit, while Addis Ababa with Ethiopian and Cairo are alternatives. Total journey time is 12 to 20 hours.
Yes. The government fee is charged in US dollars and needs a card able to process international transactions. The payment card does not have to belong to the traveller, so a family member or contact abroad can complete the payment on your behalf.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Eritrean 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.
Your nationality is already set to Eritrea. 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.
