Papua New Guinea 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
Papua New Guinea is by far the largest Pacific island nation, and its connection to India runs mainly through resources and medicine. Indian companies are active in PNG's mining and energy sectors, and Indian professionals — particularly doctors, engineers and teachers — have long worked in the country, which gives the relationship a two-way character.
For Papua New Guinean travellers, India has become a serious option for specialist medical treatment. The private hospital networks in Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai are considerably cheaper than the Australian care that PNG patients have traditionally relied on, and Singapore connects the two directly.
Every Papua New Guinea 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. PNG passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa.
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. Commonwealth membership makes no difference — PNG citizens must hold an approved Indian visa before boarding.
Choose the category by purpose. Treatment at an Indian hospital requires the medical eVisa, which allows accompanying family to travel as medical attendants. Mining, energy and resources meetings, supplier visits and trade fairs require the business eVisa. Tourism and visiting friends fall under the tourist eVisa. Employment, journalism, academic research and long-term study are outside the eVisa scheme and need a regular visa from an Indian mission.
Your India eVisa says nothing about transiting Singapore, Australia or the Philippines. Those have their own rules, and an Australian transit in particular requires checking — Singapore is usually the simpler routing.
Stay & validity
Papua New Guinea 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 medical travel the medical eVisa is the better instrument: 60 days from first entry with triple entry, structured around treatment plus follow-up consultations, with medical attendant visas available for accompanying family.
Sixty days covers most treatment episodes, but complex care can run longer and the eVisa cannot be extended from inside India. Establish the expected duration with the hospital before choosing a visa.
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 resources-sector work.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Papua New Guinea passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Papua New Guinea
Requirements
Everything Papua New Guinea 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 two weeks before departure. For medical travel, request the hospital letter as soon as your appointment is confirmed — it usually takes longer than the visa. If your routing transits Australia, check that requirement early too.
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
Port Moresby connects to Singapore, Brisbane, Manila and Hong Kong. Singapore is the natural choice for India — it opens the widest set of Indian arrival cities and avoids the Australian transit question. Total journey times run 14 to 20 hours.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the most comfortable window for both business and medical travel. Recovery in extreme heat is genuinely harder on a patient, so if treatment dates are flexible the cooler months are worth choosing.
For South India — Chennai and Bengaluru, the most convenient arrival points from Singapore and the main medical destinations — the pattern differs from the north: the north-east monsoon brings rain from October to December, so January to March is driest there.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C. For medical travel, note that Diwali and Holi affect staffing and elective scheduling at private hospitals. India is 4.5 hours behind PNG time.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Papua New Guinea — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The most consequential error on this route, given how much of PNG's India travel is medical. The medical eVisa allows triple entry for follow-up consultations and lets accompanying family apply as medical attendants — structure a tourist eVisa does not provide. Indian hospitals increasingly ask which visa you hold, and a mismatch can complicate admission and insurance.
Brisbane is a natural habit for PNG travellers, but Australian transit has its own requirements depending on your nationality and whether you clear immigration. Your India eVisa says nothing about it. Singapore is the simpler routing and gives better access to Indian cities anyway.
The medical eVisa requires a letter from a hospital on India's recognised list, and obtaining it takes longer than the visa. Request it as soon as your appointment is confirmed and run both processes in parallel.
Mining and energy meetings, supplier audits and technical discussions are commercial activities requiring the business eVisa — which is also more generous at 180 days per visit against 90.
It does not. PNG and India are both Commonwealth members, but that confers no visa advantage — an approved Indian visa is required before boarding exactly as for any other nationality.
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 Moresby is not involved in eVisa applications, which are handled entirely online. It covers what the eVisa cannot: student visas, employment, journalism and research visas, regular medical visas for extended treatment, and consular services for the Indian professional community working in PNG.
FAQs
The questions Papua New Guinea passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
The medical eVisa. It allows 60 days from first entry with triple entry — designed around treatment plus follow-up consultations — and accompanying family members can apply for medical attendant visas linked to your application. You will need a letter from the treating hospital, which must be on India's recognised list. Request it as soon as your appointment is confirmed, because it usually takes longer than the visa.
Via Singapore. Air Niugini connects Port Moresby to Changi, which has nonstop service to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi and more — the widest set of Indian arrival cities in the region. It also avoids the Australian transit question that a Brisbane routing raises. Total journey time is 14 to 20 hours.
Up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows 30 days with double entry. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry, and the business eVisa up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window.
Possibly. Australian transit has its own requirements depending on your nationality and whether you clear immigration, and your India eVisa says nothing about it. If you route via Brisbane, check that separately. Singapore avoids the question entirely and is the better routing for India anyway.
The business eVisa. Meetings, supplier audits, technical discussions and trade fairs are commercial activities the tourist eVisa does not cover. You will need an invitation letter from the Indian entity on its letterhead. It permits up to 180 days per visit within a one-year window — twice the tourist allowance.
January to March. Chennai and Bengaluru are the most convenient arrival points from Singapore and the main medical destinations, and South India differs from the north — the north-east monsoon brings rain from October to December, so January through March is driest. Also avoid Diwali and Holi, which affect hospital staffing and elective scheduling.
No. Papua New Guinea and India are both Commonwealth members, but that confers no visa advantage. An approved Indian visa is required before boarding, exactly as for any other nationality.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Papua New Guinea 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.
Your nationality is already set to Papua New Guinea. 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.
