Norwegian passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the Embassy of India in Oslo, 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
Norwegian travel to India divides fairly cleanly into two streams. One is the winter escape — Goa, Kerala and increasingly Sri Lanka combined with South India — running from November to April. The other is business, and it is more specific than most: Norwegian shipping, offshore, maritime services and renewable energy all have deep Indian links, including the ship-recycling yards of Alang in Gujarat and the growing offshore-wind supply chain.
Every Norwegian 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: an electronic authorisation issued by the Government of India, linked to your passport number, with no stamp and no consular appointment.
Norwegian passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, and the five-year multiple-entry version is available. For repeat winter travellers and for maritime and energy staff making several trips a year, the multi-year visa is the sensible default.
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. Norwegian citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and because every routing involves a connection, the check often happens at Oslo.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, trekking, sightseeing, visiting friends and wellness travel fall under the tourist eVisa. Meetings, trade fairs, supplier audits, yard inspections 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 the embassy in Oslo.
A note relevant to the maritime sector: joining a vessel as crew is not covered by a tourist or business eVisa. Signing on or off a ship in an Indian port involves seafarer documentation and, depending on the circumstances, a different visa category. Sort that out with your operator before travelling rather than assuming an eVisa will do.
Stay & validity
Norwegian 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.
That grant-date rule is the common waste here: Norwegians book winter trips early, and applying in May for a January departure spends most of a one-year visa before you leave. Apply two to three weeks before you fly.
The business eVisa allows up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window — double the tourist allowance, and the right instrument for extended yard or project work in Gujarat, Mumbai or Chennai.
The eVisa is bound to one passport number, so a Norwegian passport renewal during a multi-year visa's term invalidates it. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Norwegian passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Norway
Requirements
Everything Norwegian 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. Gujarat's regional holidays around Diwali affect Alang and the wider industrial belt.
Apply at least ten days before departure. Norwegian itineraries always involve a connection, sometimes across separate tickets, so a late visa problem is more expensive to unwind than for a nonstop traveller. For recurring business travel, a five-year multiple-entry business eVisa removes the pressure permanently.
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 is no nonstop service between Norway and India, so every routing involves at least one connection. Total journey times run 12 to 18 hours. Your eVisa is checked at your Indian arrival airport rather than in transit.
Best time to go
November to March is the core Norwegian season for India and coincides with the country's best weather. Christmas and New Year are the fare peak on Gulf routings out of Oslo; January and February offer the same conditions with better value.
The Norwegian summer holidays fall in the monsoon. That rules out Rajasthan, but July and August are the best months of the year for Ladakh, the Spiti Valley and Sikkim, and Kerala's monsoon is the traditional Ayurveda season.
For maritime and industrial travel to Gujarat, avoid May and June — Ahmedabad and the Saurashtra coast regularly exceed 43°C and outdoor yard work is genuinely difficult. November to February is far more workable. India is 3.5 to 4.5 hours ahead of Norwegian time depending on the season.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Norway — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Your passport's machine-readable zone renders Ø as O, Æ as AE and Å as A or AA, so Bjørn becomes BJORN and Håkon becomes HAKON. The printed name line shows the Norwegian form. Match the printed line and keep your airline booking consistent with it.
Specific to Norway's maritime sector and genuinely important. Joining or leaving a ship in an Indian port is not tourism or business visiting — it involves seafarer documentation and possibly a different visa category. Confirm the position with your operator or agent before you book, because this is not something that can be fixed at the port.
Norwegian citizens receive 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, not the 180 days granted to American, British, Canadian and Japanese nationals. The business eVisa does give 180 days per visit, which is often the answer for extended project work.
On one-year and five-year visas, validity runs from the grant date rather than arrival. Norwegians book long-haul winter trips early, so applying at the same time as booking can consume most of the visa before departure.
Inspecting vessels, auditing suppliers or attending technical discussions is commercial activity requiring the business eVisa. It is also more generous — 180 days per visit against 90 — so there is nothing to gain from using the tourist category.
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 Oslo 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, seafarer and crew matters, OCI cards, and consular services for Indian nationals in Norway.
FAQs
The questions Norwegian 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.
No. Signing on or off a vessel in India is not tourism or business visiting — it involves seafarer documentation and, depending on circumstances, a different visa category altogether. Confirm the requirements with your operator or shipping agent well before travel, because this cannot be resolved at the port.
Match the printed name line on your passport data page. The machine-readable zone will show a transliterated form — BJORN for Bjørn, HAKON for Håkon — and either version is generally accepted, but consistency across your visa, passport and airline ticket is what matters. Pick the printed version and use it everywhere.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Norwegian 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. Every routing involves at least one connection — commonly Doha, Dubai or Abu Dhabi, or Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Helsinki or Istanbul. Total journey time is 12 to 18 hours. For Gujarat, fly into Ahmedabad via a Gulf hub; for Kerala, into Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram.
The business eVisa. Inspections, audits, technical discussions and supplier meetings are all commercial activities the tourist eVisa does not cover. You will need an invitation letter from the Indian entity on its letterhead. It also permits 180 days per visit against the tourist visa's 90, so it is the better instrument in every respect.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Norwegian citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and because every routing starts with a connection, your airline may check it at Oslo.
May and June, when Ahmedabad and the Saurashtra coast regularly exceed 43°C and outdoor industrial work becomes genuinely difficult. Also avoid the Diwali period, when Gujarat's trade and industry close for several days. November to February is the most workable window.
Your nationality is already set to Norway. 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.
