Swiss passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment in Bern or Geneva, 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
Switzerland punches above its size in travel to India, with a strong Himalayan trekking market, a well-established yoga and Ayurveda clientele, and a dense corporate relationship built on pharmaceuticals, precision engineering and financial services. Zurich has nonstop service to both Delhi and Mumbai, so access is easy despite the country's size.
Every Swiss 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 covers it online: an electronic authorisation issued by the Government of India and linked to your passport number, with no stamp and no consular appointment.
Swiss passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, and the five-year multiple-entry version is available. For the Swiss trekking market the 90 days is more than sufficient; for frequent business travellers to Mumbai, Hyderabad or Bengaluru, the multi-year business eVisa is usually the better buy.
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. Swiss citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and SWISS or Air India will verify it at the gate in Zurich.
Select the category by purpose. Tourism, trekking, sightseeing, visiting friends, and yoga or Ayurveda retreats fall under the tourist eVisa. Business meetings, trade fairs, supplier audits and technical discussions 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 an Indian mission in Switzerland.
Swiss residents who are not Swiss citizens — including C and B permit holders — apply on their passport nationality, with that country's fees and entitlements.
Stay & validity
Swiss citizens are permitted up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows double entry, 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.
Because Swiss travellers tend to plan well ahead, the grant-date rule matters. Applying in May for a December trekking trip spends seven months of a one-year eVisa before departure. For a one-year visa, apply two to three weeks before you fly.
There is one trekking-specific point worth flagging: the eVisa does not grant access to Protected or Restricted Areas. Parts of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and the Nagaland–Mizoram belt require a Protected Area Permit or Restricted Area Permit in addition to your visa, and those are arranged separately, often through a licensed Indian trekking operator.
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 Swiss passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Switzerland
Requirements
Everything Swiss 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 — many of them regional — will extend them.
Apply at least a week before departure, ideally two, so that 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. If your trip involves a Protected Area Permit, start that process earlier still — permits are arranged inside India and take longer than the visa.
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
Zurich has nonstop service to Delhi and Mumbai with SWISS and Air India, and both are designated eVisa ports. From Geneva and Basel you will connect via Zurich, Frankfurt, Paris 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 itineraries — Rajasthan, Kerala, Goa and the Golden Triangle. The Christmas and New Year weeks are the fare peak out of Zurich; February and March offer the same weather with better availability.
For the Swiss trekking market the calendar inverts. The high Himalaya — Ladakh, Zanskar, Spiti — is only genuinely accessible from June to September, which is exactly when the plains are unbearable and the monsoon covers most of the country. Those regions sit in the rain shadow, so July and August are the peak trekking months there. Plan the visa around the trek, not around the general high season.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures pass 45°C. India is 3.5 to 4.5 hours ahead of Swiss time depending on the season, so jet lag on a 9-hour nonstop from Zurich is mild.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Switzerland — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The most consequential Swiss-specific error, given how much Swiss travel to India is trekking. An eVisa does not grant access to Protected or Restricted Areas. Parts of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Nagaland and Mizoram, plus the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, need a separate permit. Arrange it through your Indian operator well before you travel.
Swiss passports may carry German, French or Italian forms with umlauts or accents, and the machine-readable zone strips them — Müller becomes MUELLER or MULLER depending on the document. Match the printed name line and keep the same version on your airline booking. Three variants of one name across visa, ticket and passport is what triggers questions.
Swiss 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 build the itinerary around 90 days.
Eligibility follows citizenship. A C or B permit holder living in Zurich on a German, Indian or Portuguese passport applies as a national of that country, with that country's fees and stay limits.
Very common in the trekking market. The eVisa is valid only at designated airports and authorised seaports — a land crossing from Nepal needs a regular visa from an Indian mission in Switzerland, arranged before you leave.
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 consular services for Indian nationals in Switzerland. The Geneva consulate also serves the international organisations based there.
FAQs
The questions Swiss 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.
Not by itself. The eVisa gets you into India, but Protected Areas and Restricted Areas — including parts of Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram — require a separate Protected Area Permit or Restricted Area Permit. These are arranged inside India, usually through a licensed trekking operator, and take longer than the visa. Start that process well before you travel.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Swiss passport holders across all available options. You can compare 30-day, one-year and five-year prices side by side, and the amount shown includes our service fee.
No. The eVisa is applied for and issued entirely online, your passport stays with you, and there is no appointment. The missions matter only for categories the eVisa cannot cover — employment, journalism, research, long-term study and OCI cards.
Zurich serves Delhi and Mumbai nonstop with SWISS and Air India. From Geneva or Basel you will connect, most often via Zurich, Frankfurt, Paris or a Gulf hub. Connections have no effect on your eVisa, which is checked at your Indian arrival airport.
June to September for the high Himalaya — Ladakh, Zanskar and Spiti sit in the monsoon's rain shadow, so they are at their best precisely when the rest of India is wet. That is the opposite of India's general tourist season. For the classic cultural circuits — Rajasthan, Kerala, the Golden Triangle — October to March is far better.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Swiss citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and SWISS or your carrier will verify it at the gate in Zurich.
No. The eVisa cannot be extended or converted from inside India. If you need longer than 90 days per visit, either split the trip across two entries on a multiple-entry visa or apply for a regular visa through an Indian mission in Switzerland before you travel.
Your nationality is already set to Switzerland. 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.
