Latvian 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
Overview
Riga is the Baltic region's main air hub, which gives Latvian travellers better connectivity to India than the country's size suggests — airBaltic feeds a dense European and Middle Eastern network from which Indian routes are one connection away. Travel is mostly independent leisure, with a growing transport, logistics and pharmaceuticals business layer.
Every Latvian 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.
Latvian passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, and the five-year multiple-entry version is available. The one thing worth reading carefully before you apply is the naming section — Latvian orthography does something to names that no other country's does, and it is a frequent cause of mismatch.
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. Latvian citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and because every routing involves a connection, the check often happens at Riga.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, visiting friends and wellness travel fall under the tourist eVisa. Meetings, trade fairs, supplier audits 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.
A point specific to Latvia: holders of Latvian non-citizen passports — a distinct status held by some long-term residents — are in a different position from Latvian citizens. If your passport describes you as a non-citizen rather than a citizen, verify your eligibility before assuming the eVisa route is open to you.
Stay & validity
Latvian 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.
Applying too early wastes validity — booking in March for a November trip and applying immediately spends eight months of a one-year eVisa. Apply two to three weeks before you fly.
The eVisa cannot be extended or converted from inside India, so 90 days is a hard per-visit ceiling, and it is valid only at designated airports and authorised seaports.
The business eVisa allows up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Latvian passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Latvia
Requirements
Everything Latvian 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 ten days before departure. Latvian itineraries always involve a connection, sometimes across separate tickets, so a visa problem discovered late is more awkward to fix than for a nonstop traveller.
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
Riga is the Baltic hub, so Latvian travellers have good onward options despite no nonstop Indian service. Every routing involves at least one connection, with total journey times of 10 to 16 hours. Your eVisa is checked at your Indian arrival airport rather than in transit.
Best time to go
November to March is the natural Latvian window — India's dry season, and the strongest contrast with a Baltic winter. Christmas and New Year are the fare peak; January and February offer the same conditions at better prices.
The Latvian summer holidays fall in the monsoon, which rules out Rajasthan but makes July and August the best months for Ladakh, the Spiti Valley and Sikkim.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C. India is 2.5 to 3.5 hours ahead of Latvian time depending on the season, so the shift is small.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Latvia — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The defining Latvian-specific problem, and it is genuinely unusual. Latvian orthography declines names — including foreign ones — and adds grammatical endings, so a male surname typically takes -s and a female one -a or -e. If your passport shows the declined Latvian form, that is what belongs on the eVisa, character for character. Do not 'restore' a name to an original foreign spelling, and do not use a spouse's ending. Whatever the passport prints is what Indian immigration will compare against.
Your passport's machine-readable zone strips macrons and háčeks — Ļubova becomes LUBOVA, Šmits becomes SMITS. Match the printed name line and keep your airline booking consistent with it.
Latvia issues a distinct non-citizen passport to some long-term residents, which is not the same as citizenship. If your document describes you as a non-citizen, verify your position before applying rather than assuming the eVisa route is open.
Latvian 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.
On one-year and five-year visas, validity runs from the grant date rather than arrival. Booking far ahead and applying the same week 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 Indian mission serving Latvia is not involved in eVisa applications, which are handled entirely online. It covers what the eVisa cannot: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards, and consular services for Indian nationals in Latvia. Coverage for the Baltic states has been reorganised in recent years, so confirm which mission serves you if you need consular help.
FAQs
The questions Latvian passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Exactly the form printed on your passport, character for character. Latvian orthography declines names and adds grammatical endings — typically -s for male surnames and -a or -e for female ones — and this applies even to names of foreign origin. Do not try to restore an original spelling, and do not use a spouse's ending. Indian immigration compares the eVisa against the passport, so the passport form is the only correct one, and your airline ticket should match it too.
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.
That is a distinct status from Latvian citizenship and should be verified before you apply rather than assumed. If your passport describes you as a non-citizen rather than a citizen of Latvia, check your eligibility with us or with an Indian mission first — the eVisa scheme is built around citizenship.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Latvian 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, but Riga is the Baltic hub and airBaltic feeds good onward connections. Istanbul is frequently the shortest and best-value option, with Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi as alternatives, plus Helsinki, Frankfurt, Warsaw and Vienna. Total journey time is 10 to 16 hours.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Latvian citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and because every routing starts with a connection, your airline may check it at Riga.
November to March for the classic circuits, with January and February giving the best value. The Latvian summer holidays fall in the monsoon, which rules out Rajasthan but makes July and August ideal for Ladakh, Spiti and Sikkim.
No. The eVisa cannot be extended or converted from inside India. If you need longer, either split the trip across two entries on a multiple-entry visa — leaving India by air and returning — or apply for a regular visa through an Indian mission before you travel.
Your nationality is already set to Latvia. 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.
