Rwandan passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the High Commission in Kigali, 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 Rwandan citizens
India requires a valid yellow-fever vaccination certificate from travellers arriving from Rwanda. Without one you can be quarantined on arrival for up to six days, whatever visa you hold. The certificate is only valid from ten days after vaccination, so it cannot be arranged at the airport.
Overview
Rwanda has built one of Africa's better-connected aviation networks around RwandAir, and Kigali has direct service to Mumbai — which makes India unusually accessible for a landlocked country of Rwanda's size. That connectivity underpins a fast-growing relationship in medical travel, education and technology.
India's private hospitals treat significant numbers of Rwandan patients, and Rwanda's push into ICT has created a steady flow of technology training and business travel to Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Every Rwandan 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. Rwandan 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. Rwandan citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and RwandAir or your carrier will verify it at the gate in Kigali.
Choose the category by purpose. Treatment at an Indian hospital requires the medical eVisa, which allows accompanying family to travel as medical attendants. Business meetings, trade fairs, technology partnerships and supplier visits require the business eVisa. Tourism and visiting friends fall under the tourist eVisa. Employment, journalism, academic research and long-term study — including the university places many Rwandan students take in India — are outside the eVisa scheme and need a regular visa from the High Commission in Kigali.
The student route is well used and worth being clear about: an eVisa cannot be used for study and cannot be converted into a student visa once you are in India.
Stay & validity
Rwandan 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 technology training or project work.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Rwandan passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Rwanda
Requirements
Everything Rwandan 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 ten days before departure. The yellow-fever certificate needs ten days to become valid and is the real long lead item, so start that first. For medical travel, request the hospital letter as soon as your appointment is confirmed and run both processes in parallel.
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
Kigali has direct service to Mumbai with RwandAir, which is unusual for a landlocked country of Rwanda's size and makes India considerably more accessible. Gulf and Nairobi connections reach a wider set of Indian cities.
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 medical travel the Indian hospital calendar matters as much as the weather. Diwali and Holi affect staffing and elective scheduling at private hospitals. Confirm dates directly with the hospital's international patient office.
For Bengaluru and Hyderabad, note that South India 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. India is 3.5 hours ahead of Rwandan 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 Rwanda — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The most consequential error on this route. India requires proof of yellow-fever vaccination from travellers arriving from Rwanda, and without it you can be quarantined on arrival for up to six days regardless of your visa. The certificate is only valid from ten days after vaccination, so it cannot be arranged at the airport and no visa substitutes for it.
A well-used route from Rwanda and a common error. An eVisa cannot be used for study and cannot be converted into a student visa once you are in India. A student visa must be arranged through the High Commission in Kigali before travel, with your admission letter.
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.
Partnership meetings, technical training and supplier work are commercial activities requiring the business eVisa — which is also more generous, at 180 days per visit against 90.
The government fee is charged in US dollars and needs a card enabled for international transactions. The card does not have to belong to the traveller, so a family member or business contact abroad can complete it.
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 Kigali is not involved in eVisa applications, which are handled entirely online. It covers what the eVisa cannot: student visas for study at Indian universities — a significant route from Rwanda — plus employment, journalism and research visas, regular medical visas for extended treatment, and OCI matters.
FAQs
The questions Rwandan passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Yes. India requires proof of yellow-fever vaccination from travellers arriving from Rwanda, and without a valid certificate you can be quarantined on arrival for up to six days regardless of your visa. The certificate only becomes valid ten days after vaccination, so arrange it before anything else — it is the requirement most likely to disrupt your trip.
Yes — RwandAir flies direct from Kigali to Mumbai at around eight hours, which is unusual for a landlocked country of Rwanda's size and makes India considerably more accessible. Verify current schedules when booking. For Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai or Kochi you would connect via Mumbai, Dubai, Doha or Nairobi.
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.
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.
No. Study at an Indian university requires a student visa arranged through the High Commission in Kigali before you travel, with your admission letter, and an eVisa cannot be converted into one once you are in India.
The business eVisa. Partnership meetings, technical training, supplier work and trade events 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.
Yes. The government fee is charged in US dollars and needs a card able to process international transactions. The payment card does not have to belong to the traveller, so a family member or business contact abroad can complete the payment on your behalf.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Rwandan 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 Rwanda. 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.
