Italian passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the Embassy of India in Rome or the consulate in Milan. 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
Italy is one of India's larger European visitor markets, with a travel pattern weighted towards cultural itineraries — Rajasthan, Varanasi, the temple circuits of Tamil Nadu — and a strong niche in yoga and spiritual travel to Rishikesh and Kerala. Italian machinery, textiles, luxury goods and food processing firms also generate consistent business travel to Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru.
Every Italian 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 online: an electronic authorisation issued by the Government of India, linked to your passport number, with no stamp and no consular appointment.
Italian passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, and the five-year multiple-entry version is available. Both Rome and Milan have nonstop service to Delhi, so access is straightforward.
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. Italian citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and your carrier will verify it at the gate in Rome or Milan.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, visiting friends, and yoga, meditation or wellness retreats fall under the tourist eVisa. Business meetings, trade fairs, supplier visits and technical discussions require the business eVisa. 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 an Indian mission in Italy.
One point that comes up frequently in the Italian yoga market: a teacher-training course or ashram stay is tourism, and the tourist eVisa is correct. Formal enrolment at an Indian educational institution is not, and requires a student visa.
Stay & validity
Italian 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 starts on the date the Indian government grants the application rather than the date you land.
That distinction matters for anyone booking well ahead. Applying in March for a December trip consumes nine months of a one-year eVisa before departure. For a one-year visa, apply two to three weeks before you fly.
Ninety days per visit covers the long cultural itineraries and the four- to six-week yoga courses that draw Italian travellers to Rishikesh and Kerala. The eVisa cannot be extended from inside India, so a longer stay per visit requires a regular visa.
The business eVisa allows up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window — double the tourist allowance. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Italian passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Italy
Requirements
Everything Italian 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 — frequent and often regional — will extend them.
Apply at least a week before departure, ideally two, so a rejected photograph can be replaced without paying twice for express handling. Applications open 120 days ahead, but on one-year and five-year visas that is far too early — you would be spending validity before you travel.
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
Rome and Milan both have nonstop service to Delhi, and both Indian arrival points are designated eVisa ports. From elsewhere in Italy you will connect via Rome, Milan, a European hub or the Gulf, which has no bearing on your eVisa.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the best window for Italian travellers. The Christmas and New Year weeks are the fare peak, and Pasqua in March or April falls at the warm end of the season — good for Rajasthan, though already hot by late April.
Ferragosto and the Italian August holiday are the awkward part of the calendar. August is deep monsoon: heavy rain across most of India, unreliable regional flights and trains, and poor conditions for the cultural circuits. Ladakh and the Spiti Valley are excellent in August, and Kerala's monsoon is the traditional Ayurveda season, so the answer is to change the destination rather than abandon the trip.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures pass 45°C. India is 3.5 to 4.5 hours ahead of Italian time depending on the season, so jet lag on an 8-hour nonstop from Milan or Rome is mild — most travellers are functional the following morning.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Italy — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Your passport's machine-readable zone strips accents — Niccolò becomes NICCOLO, D'Angelo may appear as DANGELO. Match the printed name line on the data page and keep your airline booking consistent with it. An apostrophe handled three different ways across visa, ticket and passport is what causes questions at check-in.
Italian citizens receive 90 days per visit, not the 180 days granted to American, British, Canadian and Japanese nationals. Much of the English-language guidance online is written for those markets, and the eVisa cannot be extended from inside India.
A short course or ashram stay is tourism and the tourist eVisa is correct — this covers the great majority of Italian yoga travel to Rishikesh and Kerala. But formal enrolment at a registered Indian educational institution requires a student visa, which the eVisa scheme cannot provide. If your course issues a formal academic qualification, check the position before you apply.
Ferragosto sits in the worst month for the Golden Triangle and Rajasthan. If August is your only window, redirect to Ladakh, Spiti, Sikkim or Kerala rather than pushing ahead with the classic route in monsoon conditions.
Eligibility follows citizenship, not residence. A permesso di soggiorno holder applies on their passport nationality, with that country's fees, entitlements and stay limits.
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
Neither mission plays a part in an eVisa application, which is handled entirely online. They cover what the eVisa cannot: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards and Surrender Certificates, and consular services for Indian nationals in Italy.
FAQs
The questions Italian 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.
The tourist eVisa covers yoga courses, meditation retreats and ashram stays, including the popular four- to six-week teacher-training programmes — 90 days per visit is comfortably enough. The exception is formal enrolment at a registered Indian educational institution awarding an academic qualification, which needs a student visa from an Indian mission in Italy.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Italian 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. The eVisa is applied for and issued entirely online, your passport stays with you, and there is no appointment to book. The embassy in Rome and consulate in Milan are only relevant for categories the eVisa does not cover, such as employment, journalism, research and long-term study.
Yes — both Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino have nonstop service to Delhi with Air India, at around eight hours. From Venice, Bologna, Naples, Florence or Catania you will connect via Rome, Milan, Istanbul or a Gulf hub. For Kerala, a Gulf routing into Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram is often faster than connecting inside India.
Not for the classic cultural circuits. August is the height of the monsoon, with heavy rain and unreliable regional transport, which makes Rajasthan, Varanasi and the Golden Triangle a poor choice. If Ferragosto is your only window, Ladakh and the Spiti Valley are at their best in August, and Kerala's monsoon is the traditional Ayurveda season.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Italian citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and your carrier will verify it at the gate.
No. The eVisa cannot be extended or converted from inside India. If your itinerary needs longer than 90 days per visit, either split it across two entries on a multiple-entry visa or apply for a regular visa through an Indian mission in Italy before you travel.
Your nationality is already set to Italy. 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.
