Mauritian passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the High Commission in Port Louis, 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 Mauritian citizens
A large majority of Mauritians are of Indian descent, and many travel to India to visit ancestral districts in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. If you or your parents were born in India, or ever held an Indian passport, read the ancestry section below — you may need renunciation documentation, or be better served by an OCI card, which grants lifelong multiple-entry rights.
Overview
No country in the world has a closer demographic tie to India than Mauritius. Roughly two-thirds of the population traces its ancestry to Indian indentured labourers who arrived from the 1830s onwards, overwhelmingly from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Bhojpuri is still spoken, Hindu and Tamil festivals are national holidays, and the Ganga Talao pilgrimage draws hundreds of thousands each year.
That history shapes travel in a specific way: a great deal of Mauritian travel to India is ancestral. People visit the districts their great-grandparents left, often with the aid of the immigration records held at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute. It also means the nationality and OCI questions come up far more often than for most countries.
Every Mauritian 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 Mauritian passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. Air Mauritius operates nonstop service to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.
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. Mauritian citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and Air Mauritius or your carrier will verify it at the gate.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, pilgrimage, ancestral travel and visiting relatives all fall under the tourist eVisa. Business meetings, trade fairs and supplier visits require the business eVisa — relevant given the substantial financial-services relationship between the two countries. Treatment at an Indian hospital requires the medical eVisa. Employment, journalism, academic research and long-term study — including degree courses at Indian universities, a very well-established route from Mauritius — are outside the eVisa scheme and need a regular visa from the High Commission in Port Louis.
On ancestry: being of Indian descent does not by itself create any complication. What matters is whether you or a parent were born in India or held an Indian passport. If so, you must declare it and will generally need renunciation documentation, since India does not permit dual citizenship. For most Mauritians whose families arrived in the nineteenth century, none of this applies and a standard eVisa is all that is needed.
Stay & validity
Mauritian 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.
For anyone travelling to India regularly — and given the family and cultural ties, that describes many Mauritians — an OCI card is worth serious consideration instead. OCI is not a visa but a lifelong multiple-entry status available to people of Indian origin and their spouses, and it has no 90-day cap. Mauritians are among the largest groups of OCI holders anywhere. It is issued by the High Commission rather than through the eVisa system and takes considerably longer to obtain.
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.
The eVisa is bound to a single passport number, so a Mauritian passport renewal during a multi-year visa's term invalidates it.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Mauritian passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Mauritius
Requirements
Everything Mauritian 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. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the destinations for ancestral travel, have their own regional holidays.
Apply at least a week before departure. If your case involves renunciation documentation, start far earlier — a Surrender Certificate is issued by an Indian mission and takes considerably longer than a visa. If you are considering an OCI card instead, that is a months-long process and should be started well ahead of any specific trip.
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
Air Mauritius operates nonstop service to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, all designated eVisa ports. That gives Mauritians direct access to both North and South India without a connection — unusual for an island of this size.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the best window for travel generally. For ancestral travel to Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, November to February is the right window — cool, dry and comfortable for the road travel that district-level visits involve.
Avoid Bihar and the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures regularly exceed 45°C. For visitors from Mauritius, where temperatures rarely pass the low thirties, this is a genuinely severe adjustment and worth planning around rather than enduring.
The monsoon from June to September brings flooding to Bihar in particular, which disrupts road travel and makes rural district visits impractical. Note also that the Mauritian and Indian seasons are opposite — Mauritius is at its coolest from June to September, which is precisely when North India is worst. India is 1.5 hours behind Mauritian time, so there is no jet lag.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Mauritius — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The most common missed opportunity for Mauritian travellers. If you are of Indian origin and visit India regularly — for family, pilgrimage or ancestral travel — an OCI card gives lifelong multiple-entry rights with no 90-day cap and removes the need to apply before each trip. Mauritians are among the largest OCI-holding groups anywhere. It takes months to obtain and goes through the High Commission, so it is a decision to make ahead of time rather than for an imminent trip.
Being of Indian descent from the indenture era creates no complication at all. But if you or a parent were born in India or held an Indian passport, that must be declared, and renunciation documentation is generally required — India does not recognise dual citizenship. Applicants sometimes assume the question does not apply to them because the family connection feels historical.
May and June in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh exceed 45°C, and the monsoon floods rural districts from June to September. Ancestral travel involves road journeys to villages and district record offices, which is genuinely difficult in either condition. November to February is the only comfortable window.
Study at an Indian university requires a student visa arranged through the High Commission in Port Louis before travel, and an eVisa cannot be converted into one in India. Given how many Mauritians study in India, this is worth being clear about.
Mauritian citizens receive 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, not the 180 days granted to American, British, Canadian and Japanese nationals. For extended family stays, an OCI card is the real solution rather than trying to stretch an eVisa.
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 High Commission in Port Louis is not involved in eVisa applications, which are handled entirely online — but for Mauritians it is unusually relevant. It is the route for OCI cards, which many Mauritians of Indian origin should be considering instead of repeat eVisas, and for Surrender Certificates where renunciation documentation is required. It also handles student, employment, journalism and research visas.
FAQs
The questions Mauritian passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
If you are of Indian origin and travel to India regularly, very probably yes. An OCI card is a lifelong multiple-entry status for people of Indian origin and their spouses, with no 90-day cap and no need to apply before each trip. Mauritians are among the largest OCI-holding groups in the world. It takes months to obtain and goes through the High Commission in Port Louis rather than the eVisa system, so start it well ahead of any specific trip.
No. Descent from the indenture era creates no complication at all — a standard eVisa is what you need. The question only arises if you or a parent were born in India or held an Indian passport, in which case you must declare it and will generally need renunciation documentation, since India does not permit dual citizenship. For most Mauritian families that does not apply.
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.
Fly nonstop to Delhi or connect to Kolkata, then continue to Patna, Varanasi or Gaya — all designated eVisa airports — and travel by road from there. November to February is the right season: cool, dry and practical for the road journeys and district record-office visits that ancestral travel involves. The Mahatma Gandhi Institute in Mauritius holds indenture immigration records that many families use to identify their district first.
Yes — Air Mauritius flies nonstop to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, all designated eVisa airports, with Mumbai at around six to seven hours. Chennai is the natural arrival point for Mauritians of Tamil descent. For Bengaluru, Hyderabad or Kolkata you would connect via Mumbai, Delhi or a Gulf hub.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Mauritian 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. Study at an Indian university requires a student visa arranged through the High Commission in Port Louis before you travel, and an eVisa cannot be converted into one once you are in India. Given how many Mauritians study in India, this is worth planning properly rather than assuming it can be sorted out on arrival.
May and June, when Bihar and the northern plains exceed 45°C — a severe adjustment coming from Mauritius, where temperatures rarely pass the low thirties. Also avoid June to September, when monsoon flooding makes rural district travel in Bihar impractical. Note that the seasons are opposite: Mauritius is coolest from June to September, exactly when North India is worst.
Your nationality is already set to Mauritius. 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.
