American passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no consulate appointment, no courier, no passport out of your hands. Approval typically arrives by email in 24 to 72 hours.
180 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
India is one of the few major destinations where an American passport does not open the door on arrival. Every US citizen travelling to India needs a visa granted before departure, and for the overwhelming majority of trips that means the eVisa — an electronic authorisation issued by the Government of India and linked digitally to your passport. There is no sticker, no stamp and no consulate visit involved.
US citizens sit in the most generous tier of the eVisa scheme. Alongside British, Canadian and Japanese nationals, Americans may remain in India for up to 180 days per visit on the long-validity tourist eVisa, where most other nationalities are capped at 90 days. Americans are also offered the five-year multiple-entry tourist eVisa, which is the single best-value option if you expect to return.
The United States is consistently among the largest source markets for Indian tourism, and the volume shows in the process: the application form is written with American document formats in mind, US-issued cards are accepted for payment, and the processing queue for US applications is well established. What trips people up is almost never eligibility — it is a mismatched middle name or a rejected photograph.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. There is no visa-free entry and no visa-on-arrival facility for US citizens travelling to India. India extends Visa on Arrival only to nationals of Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, and visa-free entry only to citizens of Nepal and Bhutan. An American arriving in Delhi or Mumbai without a pre-approved visa will be denied boarding long before immigration — airlines are fined for carrying improperly documented passengers, so the check happens at your departure gate in the US.
The practical question is not whether you need a visa but which one. For holidays, sightseeing, visiting friends and family, yoga retreats and short recreational courses, the tourist eVisa is correct. For meetings, trade fairs, supplier visits and contract negotiation, you need the business eVisa. For treatment at an Indian hospital, the medical eVisa. Journalism, research, employment, long-term study and missionary work all fall outside the eVisa scheme entirely and require a regular visa from an Indian consulate.
Stay & validity
The 180-day allowance for US citizens applies per visit, not per year, and only on the one-year and five-year multiple-entry tourist eVisas. The 30-day tourist eVisa is a different product: it permits double entry and its validity is counted from your date of arrival rather than the date of issue, so a late arrival does not cost you days.
On the one-year and five-year eVisas, validity runs from the date of grant — the clock starts when the Indian government approves the application, not when you land. Applying six weeks early therefore burns six weeks of a one-year visa. Because your eVisa is tied electronically to the passport number on the application, renewing your US passport mid-validity invalidates it; carry the old passport or apply again on the new one.
The business eVisa gives US citizens up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window. The medical eVisa runs 60 days from first arrival with triple entry, designed around a treatment-and-follow-up pattern.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for US passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as United States
Requirements
Everything US 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 for US applications runs 48 to 72 hours; the express option compresses this to 24 to 48 hours. Those windows are business-day estimates and do not stop for Indian public holidays, which are numerous and regional — Diwali, Holi and Republic Day all slow the queue.
Apply at least seven days before you fly. That is not because processing takes seven days, but because it leaves room to fix a rejected photo without paying for express handling twice. Applications can be submitted up to 120 days before travel, though for one-year and five-year visas you are trading away validity by applying too early. The practical sweet spot for most American travellers is two to three weeks out.
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
Nonstop service between the United States and India is now extensive, with Air India, United and Delhi-hub carriers connecting both coasts and the interior directly to North India. Every one of these arrival airports is a designated eVisa port, so you can fly nonstop and clear immigration on your eVisa without complication.
Best time to go
October through March is India's high season and it aligns almost perfectly with the American holiday calendar. Thanksgiving week, the Christmas–New Year break and spring break in March all land inside the comfortable-weather window, which is why fares from US gateways spike hardest in exactly those weeks.
For Americans, the awkward months are May through September. The pre-monsoon heat in North India routinely passes 45°C, and the summer school break — the natural time for a family trip — is the worst weather of the year in Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra. If summer is your only option, redirect to Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim or the Western Ghats, where the season is genuinely pleasant.
One scheduling note specific to long-haul travellers from the US: with a 9.5- to 12.5-hour time difference and a 15-hour flight, plan on losing your arrival day entirely. Book your first night's accommodation for the day you land, not the day you depart.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from United States — we check for every one of them before submitting.
This is the single most common cause of trouble for American applicants. US passports frequently carry a full middle name and sometimes a suffix — Jr, III — and the eVisa must match the passport character for character. A traveller who habitually writes 'John Smith' when the passport reads 'John Michael Smith Jr' has a mismatch that can cause a refusal at the gate even with a granted visa.
The passport card is valid for land and sea travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, and for nothing else. India's eVisa requires a book passport with a machine-readable bio-data page. Every year travellers discover this a week before departure.
It is 180 days per visit, and only on the one- and five-year eVisas. On the 30-day eVisa you get 30 days, full stop. Travellers who read '180 days' in a summary and book a four-month itinerary on a 30-day visa create an overstay problem that carries fines and a future entry ban.
India does not permit dual citizenship. If you were born in India or previously held an Indian passport, you must declare it, and you will normally need a Surrender Certificate or renunciation documentation. Many naturalised Americans of Indian origin are better served by an OCI card, which grants lifelong multiple entry, than by repeatedly applying for eVisas.
Your eVisa is bound to a specific passport number. A routine renewal between approval and departure silently invalidates it. If this happens, apply again on the new document — do not try to travel on the old one plus the new one.
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
You do not need to contact any of these missions to obtain an eVisa — the entire process is online. They matter for the categories the eVisa cannot cover: employment, journalism, research, long-term study and OCI cards. They are also where to turn if you need a Surrender Certificate to document renunciation of Indian citizenship.
FAQs
The questions US passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Up to 180 days per visit on the one-year or five-year multiple-entry tourist eVisa — an allowance India extends to only a handful of nationalities, including Americans. On the 30-day tourist eVisa the limit is 30 days with double entry. The business eVisa also permits 180 days per visit within a one-year window, and the medical eVisa allows 60 days from first arrival with triple entry.
The total depends on the duration and processing speed you choose, and government fees are set by nationality. The pricing panel on this page pulls live figures for US passport holders across all available durations, so what you see is the current all-in cost including our service fee — no separate government charge appears later.
No. India offers Visa on Arrival only to nationals of Japan, South Korea and the UAE. US citizens must have an approved visa before boarding, and your airline will verify it at the departure gate in the United States. Without one you will not be allowed to fly.
If there is any chance you will return, yes. The five-year multiple-entry tourist eVisa costs meaningfully less than two separate one-year visas and permits unlimited entries at up to 180 days each. It suits Americans with family in India, recurring business trips that stay within tourist purposes, or anyone who has visited once and expects to go back.
No. The India eVisa is fully electronic. You upload a scan of the bio-data page and your passport never leaves your possession — a practical advantage over the old consular process, particularly if you have other travel planned before your India trip.
Newark, JFK, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and San Francisco all have nonstop service to Delhi, with Newark, JFK and San Francisco also serving Mumbai or Bengaluru directly. Every one of these Indian arrival airports is a designated eVisa entry point. From other US cities you will connect through a Gulf or European hub, which is equally fine — the eVisa is checked at your Indian port of entry, not at the connection.
No, and this catches out Americans combining India with a Himalayan trek. The eVisa is valid only at designated airports and authorised seaports. An overland crossing from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh or Pakistan requires a regular paper visa from an Indian consulate. If your itinerary includes a land border, sort that out before you leave the US.
Refusals are rare and usually technical rather than substantive — a photograph that fails the specification, an unreadable passport scan, or a name that does not match the travel document. We check all of those before submitting, which is most of the value in applying through us. If the Indian authorities do decline an application, you can reapply, and we will tell you specifically what needs to change.
Your nationality is already set to United States. 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.
