Irish passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no trip to the Embassy of India in Dublin, no courier, no passport surrendered. 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
Ireland has no nonstop flights to India, which shapes both the trip and the paperwork. Irish travellers connect through London, Amsterdam, Paris or a Gulf hub, and because the journey already involves moving between carriers and terminals, having the visa settled well in advance matters more than it would for a single nonstop hop.
Every Irish 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 covers it entirely online: an electronic authorisation issued by the Government of India and linked to your passport number, with no stamp and no visit to the embassy in Dublin.
Irish passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. It is worth being explicit about this, because Irish travellers frequently read UK-focused guidance: the 180-day per-visit allowance granted to British, American, Canadian and Japanese nationals does not extend to Ireland. Ninety days is still ample for almost any itinerary, and the five-year multiple-entry option is available.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. India offers visa-free entry only to Nepal and Bhutan, and Visa on Arrival only to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Irish citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding. Because most Irish routings start with a short hop to London or Amsterdam, the visa check can happen at Dublin or Cork before you have even left Ireland.
Match the category to the purpose of your trip. Holidays, sightseeing, visiting friends and relatives, and yoga or wellness retreats fall under the tourist eVisa. Business meetings, trade fairs and supplier visits require the business eVisa — relevant given the number of Irish-headquartered technology, pharmaceutical and medical device firms with Indian operations. Hospital treatment requires the medical eVisa. Employment, journalism, research and long-term study need a regular visa from the embassy in Dublin.
Stay & validity
Irish 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 rather than the grant date. The one-year and five-year versions are multiple-entry, and their validity begins on the date the Indian government approves the application.
That grant-date rule is worth planning around. An Irish traveller who applies in August for a February trip has consumed half of a one-year visa before departure. If you are buying a one-year eVisa, apply two to three weeks before you fly rather than as soon as the flights are booked.
The eVisa is tied to a single passport number, so an Irish passport renewal between grant and travel invalidates it. With a five-year visa spanning much of a passport cycle, coordinate the two.
The business eVisa allows up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window — notably more generous than the tourist allowance. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Irish passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Ireland
Requirements
Everything Irish 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, with express handling at 24 to 48 hours. These are business-day estimates and Indian public holidays extend them, particularly around Diwali and Holi.
Apply at least ten days before you fly. Irish itineraries almost always involve a connection, and sometimes two separate tickets, so a visa problem discovered late is harder and costlier to fix than for a nonstop traveller. Ten days gives comfortable room for a photo re-upload. Applications open 120 days ahead, but on one-year and five-year visas two to three weeks out is the sensible compromise.
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 are no nonstop flights between Ireland and India, so every trip involves at least one connection and total journey times run 12 to 18 hours. Your eVisa is checked at your Indian arrival airport rather than at the connection, so the routing is purely a matter of price, timing and how much of a layover you want.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the natural window for Irish travellers escaping a wet Atlantic winter. Christmas and New Year are the peak, and fares on Gulf and Amsterdam routings out of Dublin rise sharply from late November. February and March are the quiet value months with genuinely excellent weather in Rajasthan, Kerala and Goa.
The Irish summer holidays fall inside the Indian monsoon, which rules out the standard Golden Triangle itinerary but opens up others: Ladakh and the Spiti Valley are at their best in July and August, and the Kerala monsoon is the traditional season for Ayurvedic treatment. May and June should be avoided in the northern plains, where temperatures pass 45°C.
India runs 4.5 to 5.5 hours ahead of Irish time depending on the season, so jet lag is modest. What actually costs you a day is the connection: a Dublin departure via Amsterdam or the Gulf typically means an overnight in transit and an early-morning Indian arrival. Book your first night's accommodation for the calendar day you land.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Ireland — we check for every one of them before submitting.
It does not. Irish citizens receive 90 days per visit, while British citizens receive 180. Because so much of the English-language guidance Irish travellers find is written for a UK audience, this is the single most common planning error — and since the eVisa cannot be extended from inside India, an itinerary built on 180 days is a real problem.
Eligibility follows citizenship, not residence. Someone living in Dublin on a Brazilian, Indian or Nigerian passport applies as a national of that country, with that country's fees and entitlements. Selecting Ireland because you live here produces an application that does not match your travel document.
Routing via London Heathrow is often the fastest option, but transit rules depend on your nationality and on whether you change terminals or re-check baggage. Irish citizens are fine, but family members travelling on other passports may need a UK transit visa. Your India eVisa says nothing about your right to pass through Britain.
The specification is square, plain white background, full face, no shadow. Irish homes and offices rarely have a pure white wall, and a photo taken against off-white paint under a ceiling light is the leading cause of application delay. Use a proper white sheet in daylight, or a photo booth.
On one-year and five-year visas, validity runs from the grant date. Booking in September for a February trip and applying the same week spends five months of the visa before you leave Ireland.
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 Dublin plays no part in an eVisa application, which is entirely online — worth knowing, since it is the only Indian mission in Ireland. It handles what the eVisa cannot cover: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards and Surrender Certificates, and consular services for Indian nationals in Ireland.
FAQs
The questions Irish passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. This is an important distinction from British citizens, who receive 180 days — the extended allowance applies to the US, UK, Canada and Japan only. 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.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Irish passport holders across all available options. You can compare 30-day, one-year and five-year prices directly, and the amount shown includes our service fee — there is nothing more to pay later.
No. The eVisa is applied for and issued entirely online. Your passport stays with you, there is no appointment to book and nothing is couriered. With the Dublin embassy being the only Indian mission in Ireland, this removes what would otherwise be a trip to the capital for applicants in Cork, Galway or Limerick.
No. Every routing requires at least one connection — most commonly London Heathrow, Amsterdam with KLM, or Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Total journey time is 12 to 18 hours. Your eVisa is checked at your Indian arrival airport, not in transit, though you should confirm the transit rules for whichever country you connect through.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Irish citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and because most routings begin with a short European leg, the check often happens at Dublin.
The business eVisa, covering meetings, trade fairs, supplier visits, technical discussions and contract negotiation. 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 multiple-entry window — twice the tourist allowance for Irish nationals, which makes using the correct category worthwhile for anyone travelling on company business.
No. The eVisa cannot be extended or converted into another visa category from inside India. If you need longer than 90 days you must leave and apply again. Build the full itinerary before you submit, and if you genuinely need an extended stay, discuss a regular visa with the embassy in Dublin instead.
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 from the Embassy of India in Dublin, arranged before you leave.
Your nationality is already set to Ireland. 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.
