Portuguese passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the Embassy of India in Lisbon, 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 Portuguese citizens
If you hold a Portuguese passport obtained through Goan, Daman or Diu descent, read the Goan-origin section below carefully before applying. India does not recognise dual citizenship, and applicants in this position frequently need a Surrender Certificate or renunciation documentation — or are better served by an OCI card. This is the single most common complication on Portuguese applications.
Overview
Portugal's relationship with India is unlike any other European country's, and it changes what a visa application involves. Goa, Daman and Diu were Portuguese territory until 1961, and Portuguese law allows people born there before that date — and their descendants — to register as Portuguese citizens. Tens of thousands have done so, which means a substantial share of Portuguese passport holders travelling to India have Indian origins, Indian family, and often a live question about their Indian nationality status.
That question matters because India does not permit dual citizenship. A Portuguese passport acquired through Goan descent does not remove any Indian nationality you may hold or have held, and Indian authorities take the point seriously. Getting this right before you apply saves considerable trouble later.
Setting that aside, the mechanics are straightforward. Every Portuguese citizen needs a visa granted before departure — there is no visa-free entry and no visa on arrival — and for tourism, business and medical travel the eVisa handles it entirely online. Portuguese passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, and the five-year multiple-entry version is available.
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. Portuguese citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and your carrier will verify it at the gate in Lisbon or Porto.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, visiting family in Goa, and wellness travel fall under the tourist eVisa — and visiting relatives is explicitly a tourist purpose. Business meetings, trade fairs and supplier visits 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 Lisbon.
If you hold a Portuguese passport through Goan, Daman or Diu descent, the eVisa route may still be open to you, but you must declare any current or former Indian nationality and will generally need documentation of its renunciation. In many cases an OCI card is the better long-term instrument — see the FAQ below.
Stay & validity
Portuguese 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 rather than the date you land.
For travellers with family in Goa the five-year multiple-entry visa is usually the better value, since it allows unlimited entries at up to 90 days each across the term. The caveat is the passport link: the eVisa is bound to a single passport number, and a Portuguese passport renewal during the five years invalidates it.
If your circumstances point towards an OCI card instead, note that OCI is not a visa at all — it is a lifelong multiple-entry status for people of Indian origin and their spouses, and it removes the need to apply for anything before each trip. It is issued by Indian missions, not 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. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Portuguese passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Portugal
Requirements
Everything Portuguese 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. Goa has its own regional holidays on top of the national calendar.
Apply at least ten days before departure. If your case involves Goan-origin nationality or a Surrender Certificate, start considerably earlier: renunciation documentation is issued by Indian missions and takes far longer than the visa itself, and it cannot be rushed at the last minute.
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 Portugal 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
For Goa specifically — the destination for most Portuguese travel to India — November to March is the season. It is dry, warm and comfortable, and it coincides with Goa's charter and festival calendar. The Christmas and New Year weeks are the peak in every sense: prices, crowds and atmosphere.
Goa's monsoon runs June to September and is genuinely heavy. Beaches close to swimming, many shacks and businesses shut for the season, and the state changes character entirely. Some travellers prefer it — the landscape is spectacularly green and prices collapse — but it is not the trip most people are picturing.
If you are combining Goa with North India, October to March works for both. Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C. India is 4.5 to 5.5 hours ahead of Portuguese 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 Portugal — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The defining Portuguese-specific problem, and a serious one. India does not recognise dual citizenship. If you were born in Goa, Daman or Diu, or previously held an Indian passport, you must declare it, and you will generally need a Surrender Certificate or renunciation documentation. Applying without declaring it risks refusal and worse — questions on arrival about your nationality status are far harder to answer at an Indian airport than in advance.
If you have Indian origins and visit family in Goa regularly, an OCI card gives lifelong multiple-entry rights and removes the need to apply before each trip. It takes longer to obtain and goes through an Indian mission rather than the eVisa system, but for frequent visitors it is the better instrument by a wide margin.
Portuguese passports frequently carry two, three or four surnames, and Indian immigration expects all of them, in the printed order. Applicants who shorten their name in daily life often shorten it on the application too, producing a mismatch between the eVisa and the passport.
Portuguese 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, so an extended stay with family needs either two entries on a multiple-entry visa or an OCI card.
A Surrender Certificate comes from an Indian mission and takes far longer than a visa. If your case needs one, start it as soon as you know you are travelling — not once the flights are booked.
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 Lisbon is not involved in eVisa applications, which are handled entirely online — but for Portuguese passport holders it is unusually relevant. It issues Surrender Certificates documenting renunciation of Indian citizenship, and it handles OCI cards, which is the route most Goan-origin travellers should be investigating. It also covers employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas.
FAQs
The questions Portuguese passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Possibly, but you must declare any current or former Indian nationality, and you will generally need a Surrender Certificate or renunciation documentation — India does not recognise dual citizenship. A Portuguese passport obtained through Goan, Daman or Diu descent does not by itself resolve your Indian nationality status. Get this checked before you apply, because it is far easier to sort out in Lisbon than at an Indian airport.
If you have Indian origins and visit family in Goa regularly, very probably yes. An OCI card is a lifelong multiple-entry status for people of Indian origin and their spouses. It removes the need to apply for a visa before every trip and has no 90-day cap. It takes considerably longer to obtain and goes through the embassy in Lisbon rather than the eVisa system, so it is a decision to make ahead of time rather than for an imminent trip.
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.
All of them, exactly as printed on your passport and in the printed order. Portuguese passports commonly show multiple surnames, and Indian immigration compares the eVisa against the passport character by character. Do not shorten, merge or reorder them, and do not leave one out because you rarely use it.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Portuguese 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.
There is no nonstop service. The fastest routings connect through Doha, Dubai or Abu Dhabi directly into Goa — either Dabolim or the newer Mopa airport, which has expanded international service considerably. That avoids a domestic connection inside India. Total journey time is 12 to 18 hours, and both Goan airports are designated eVisa ports.
November to March. It is dry and warm, and it coincides with Goa's charter and festival season — Christmas and New Year being the absolute peak for prices, crowds and atmosphere. Goa's monsoon runs June to September and is heavy: beaches close to swimming and many businesses shut for the season, though the landscape is spectacular and prices collapse.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Portuguese citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and your airline will verify it at the gate.
Your nationality is already set to Portugal. 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.
