Polish passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the Embassy of India in Warsaw, 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
Polish outbound travel to India has grown quickly over the past decade, helped considerably by LOT's nonstop Warsaw–Delhi service. The market skews independent and budget-conscious: longer trips, more overland travel by train and bus, and a strong appetite for the Himalaya as well as the standard Rajasthan and Kerala circuits.
Every Polish 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.
Polish passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, and the five-year multiple-entry version is available. Ninety days suits the longer, slower itineraries Polish travellers tend to plan — though it is a genuine ceiling, and the eVisa cannot be extended once you are in India.
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. Polish citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and LOT or your carrier will verify it at the gate in Warsaw.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, trekking, sightseeing, visiting friends and wellness travel fall under the tourist eVisa. Business meetings, trade fairs, supplier audits and technical discussions require the business eVisa — increasingly relevant as Polish manufacturing and IT firms build Indian operations. 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 Warsaw.
Stay & validity
Polish 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 rather than the grant date. The one-year and five-year versions are multiple-entry, and their validity begins on the date the Indian government approves the application.
That grant-date rule is worth planning around for anyone booking a cheap fare far ahead. Applying in March for a November trip consumes eight months of a one-year eVisa before departure. For a one-year visa, apply two to three weeks before you fly.
Because Polish travellers often plan long overland itineraries, two conditions deserve attention. The eVisa cannot be extended from inside India, so 90 days is a hard ceiling per visit. And the eVisa is valid only at designated airports and authorised seaports — it cannot be used to cross a land border, which rules out an overland re-entry from Nepal.
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 Polish passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Poland
Requirements
Everything Polish 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 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 applying that early wastes validity you have paid for.
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
Warsaw has nonstop service to Delhi with LOT, and Delhi is a designated eVisa port. From Kraków, Gdańsk, Wrocław, Katowice or Poznań you will connect via Warsaw, Frankfurt, Istanbul or a Gulf hub, which has no bearing on your eVisa.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the best window for the classic circuits — and the contrast with a Polish winter is the main draw. The Christmas and New Year weeks are the fare peak on Warsaw–Delhi; February and March offer the same weather with better prices and fewer crowds.
The Polish summer holidays in July and August fall in the monsoon. That is poor for Rajasthan and the Golden Triangle but excellent for Ladakh, the Spiti Valley and Sikkim, which sit in the monsoon's rain shadow and are at their best in exactly those months — a good fit for the Himalayan interest in this market.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C. India is 3.5 to 4.5 hours ahead of Polish time depending on the season, so jet lag on a 7-hour nonstop is minimal — one of the easier long-haul adjustments in Europe.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Poland — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The defining Polish-specific problem. Many Polish surnames change with gender — Kowalski and Kowalska, Nowicki and Nowicka. Your passport shows one specific form, and the eVisa must match it exactly, as must your airline ticket. Applicants who enter a spouse's or family's form, or default to the masculine, create a mismatch that Indian immigration will query.
Your passport's machine-readable zone strips diacritics — Łukasz becomes LUKASZ, Wałęsa becomes WALESA. Match the printed name line on the data page and keep your airline booking consistent with it.
Common on long budget itineraries through the Himalaya. The eVisa is valid only at designated airports and authorised seaports, so any re-entry must be by air. Fly Kathmandu to Delhi rather than crossing at Sunauli, or you will be refused entry.
Polish citizens receive 90 days per visit, not the 180 days granted to American, British, Canadian and Japanese nationals. Since Polish itineraries are often long and the eVisa cannot be extended from inside India, this is worth confirming before you book.
On one-year and five-year visas, validity runs from the grant date rather than arrival. Booking a bargain fare eight months out 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 embassy in Warsaw is not involved in eVisa applications, which are handled entirely online — relevant given that it is the only Indian mission in Poland. It covers what the eVisa cannot: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards, and consular services for Indian nationals in Poland.
FAQs
The questions Polish 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.
Whichever form is printed on your passport — exactly as printed, character for character. Polish surnames are gendered, and only the version on your own travel document is correct for the visa. Do not use a spouse's or parent's form, and make sure your airline ticket matches, because Indian immigration compares the eVisa against the passport.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Polish 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.
Yes — LOT flies nonstop from Warsaw to Delhi in around seven hours, and Delhi is a designated eVisa airport. From Kraków, Gdańsk, Wrocław, Katowice or Poznań you will connect, most often via Warsaw, Frankfurt, Munich or Istanbul. Gulf routings open up Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram for Kerala.
No, and this catches out long Himalayan itineraries. The eVisa is accepted only at India's designated eVisa airports and authorised seaports, so any re-entry must be by air. If you want a land crossing you need a regular visa from the embassy in Warsaw, arranged before you leave Poland.
October to March for the classic circuits, with February and March offering the best combination of weather and price. The Polish summer holidays fall in the monsoon, which rules out Rajasthan — but July and August are the best months of the year for Ladakh, Spiti and Sikkim, which sit in the monsoon's rain shadow.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Polish citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and LOT or your carrier will verify it at the gate in Warsaw.
No. The eVisa cannot be extended or converted from inside India. If your itinerary needs longer, either split it across two entries on a multiple-entry visa — leaving India by air and returning — or apply for a regular visa through the embassy in Warsaw before you travel.
Your nationality is already set to Poland. 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.
