Saudi passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the Embassy of India in Riyadh or the consulate in Jeddah. 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 Saudi citizens
If you live in Saudi Arabia but hold a passport from another country, you must apply as a citizen of that country — not as Saudi Arabia. Your Iqama has no bearing on Indian visa eligibility, fees or stay limits. This is the most common error on this route, given the size of the expatriate workforce in the Kingdom.
Overview
Saudi Arabia and India are linked by one of the largest labour corridors in the world and by a substantial energy and trade relationship. Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam all have dense nonstop service to Indian cities at four to five and a half hours. For Saudi nationals specifically, India has become a significant destination for medical treatment, leisure travel to Kerala and Kashmir, and business.
Every Saudi citizen needs a visa granted before departure. There is no visa-free entry and no visa on arrival — Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. 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.
Saudi passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, and the five-year multiple-entry version is available. The medical eVisa is heavily used on this route into the private hospital networks in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kochi, and allows accompanying family members to travel as medical attendants.
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. Saudi citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and Saudia, flynas or your carrier will verify it at the gate.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, visiting friends and wellness travel fall under the tourist eVisa. Meetings, trade fairs, supplier visits and contract negotiation require the business eVisa. Treatment at an Indian hospital requires the medical eVisa, with medical attendant visas available for accompanying family. Employment, journalism, research and long-term study are outside the eVisa scheme and need a regular visa from an Indian mission in the Kingdom.
Residents of Saudi Arabia who are not Saudi citizens apply on the nationality of their passport, with that country's fees, entitlements and stay limits — the Iqama is not relevant to the application.
Stay & validity
Saudi 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, with validity starting on the date the Indian government grants the application.
For medical travel the medical eVisa is usually the better instrument than a tourist visa: 60 days from first entry with triple entry, structured around treatment plus follow-up consultations. Accompanying family can apply for medical attendant visas linked to the patient's application.
The business eVisa allows up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window — double the tourist allowance, and the right category for extended commercial engagements.
The eVisa is bound to a single passport number, so renewing your passport during a multi-year visa's term invalidates it, with no transfer process.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Saudi passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Saudi Arabia
Requirements
Everything Saudi 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. For medical travel, start earlier: the hospital letter is a prerequisite for the medical eVisa and obtaining it from the Indian hospital usually takes longer than the visa itself. Coordinate the two rather than sequencing them.
Note that the Saudi weekend is Friday and Saturday while India's is Saturday and Sunday, so a Thursday application effectively loses more time than you might expect on both sides.
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
Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam all have nonstop service to multiple Indian cities at four to five and a half hours, with particularly heavy frequency into Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad. All are designated eVisa ports.
Best time to go
October to March is India's best weather overall and the most comfortable window for the classic circuits. It also aligns with the cooler part of the Saudi year, so it is the busier season on this corridor.
The Saudi summer is a strong period for travel to cooler parts of India — Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Ladakh are all at their best from June to September, and Srinagar in particular is a well-established Gulf summer destination. Kerala's monsoon is also the traditional Ayurveda season.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C. For South India, note that Tamil Nadu and Kerala receive the north-east monsoon from October to December, so January to March is the driest window there. India is 2.5 hours ahead of Saudi time, so jet lag is negligible.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Saudi Arabia — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The most consequential error on this route. Indian visa eligibility follows citizenship, not residence. If you hold an Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Filipino, Egyptian or any other passport, you apply as a national of that country, with that country's fees, entitlements and stay limits. An Iqama is not relevant to the application, and selecting Saudi Arabia because you live there produces an application that does not match your travel document.
Saudi passports often carry a given name, father's name, grandfather's name and family name. All of them belong on the application, in the printed order, exactly as the Latin-character name line shows. Entering the short form used in daily life creates a mismatch that Indian immigration will pick up.
If you are travelling for treatment, the medical eVisa is the correct category. It gives 60 days with triple entry for follow-ups and allows accompanying family to apply as medical attendants — structure a tourist visa simply does not provide. Indian hospitals increasingly ask which visa you hold.
The medical eVisa requires a letter from a recognised Indian hospital, and obtaining it takes longer than the visa. Request it as soon as your treatment is scheduled rather than after you have started the visa application, or the letter becomes the bottleneck.
The Saudi weekend is Friday and Saturday; India's is Saturday and Sunday. Only Sunday to Wednesday are full working days in both countries. This affects both visa processing timelines and any business meetings you are scheduling.
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
Neither mission is involved in an eVisa application, which is handled entirely online. They cover what the eVisa cannot: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards and Surrender Certificates, and the very substantial consular workload of India's community in the Kingdom.
FAQs
The questions Saudi passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Apply as a citizen of the country that issued your passport. Your Iqama has no bearing on Indian visa eligibility, fees or stay limits — selecting Saudi Arabia because you live there produces an application that does not match your travel document. This is the most common mistake on this route, given the size of the expatriate workforce in the Kingdom.
Up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows 30 days with double entry. The business eVisa permits up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window, and the medical eVisa 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
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 that letter as soon as treatment is scheduled, because it usually takes longer to obtain than the visa.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals — the UAE is included but Saudi Arabia is not. Saudi citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and your airline will verify it at the gate.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Saudi 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.
Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam collectively serve Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Kozhikode, Hyderabad, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram nonstop, at four to five and a half hours. Kerala has particularly heavy frequency. Every one of these airports is a designated eVisa port. For Kashmir, connect from Delhi to Srinagar.
Exactly as printed on the Latin-character name line of your passport, with every element in the printed order. Saudi passports often carry a given name, father's name, grandfather's name and family name — all belong on the application. Do not use the shortened everyday form, and make sure your airline booking matches.
October to March for the classic circuits and for South India's driest months from January. In the Saudi summer, June to September, the better options are Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Ladakh, which are at their best then — Srinagar in particular is a well-established Gulf summer destination. Kerala's monsoon is also the traditional Ayurveda season.
Your nationality is already set to Saudi Arabia. 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.
