Tourist Visa for India

To visit in India, all foreign nationals except neighboring country Bhutan and Nepal must have a valid visa obtained from an Indian Mission or Post abroad. A tourist visa only allows tourists for see sighting or non-business related purposes. The only purpose of the tourists should be casual meeting with friends, exploring different places of India, attending wedding or function of any friend or to join any short term Indian Program. It is not possible for a tourist to obtain a tourist visa with any other reason to come in India. If any foreigner is working with a Non- profit organization, then he should apply for Employment Visa or apply for any other visa as per motive to visit India.

It's not possible to stay in India for more than six months at a time, because foreigners can misuse this authority in India, People used to come India and then visit some other neighboring countries without getting any official permission, then again come back to India as per their convenience. To maintain integrity of India, it became very important to restrict this tourist visa with some terms and conditions.

Moreover, And if an individual wants to stay in India for a longer period, then he/she must obtain a visa before arriving in India. In this case, individual has to apply for another tourist visa within a month of expiration of old visa then an approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs needs to be taken and the whole procedure may take time up to 45 days.

The length of the Tourist visa depends on nationality of the applicant. Citizens of U.S., Japan, and Canada can apply for minimum 6 months and maximum 10 year tourist visa under a bilateral agreement. Other than these countries individual is eligible for up to 6 months tourist visa and these visas are usually multiple entry visas. But a tourist is not allowed to remain in India for more than 6 months at a time.

The cost of Tourist Visa varies for all the countries. Since July 2018, the fee for U.S. citizens is $160 for 5 or 10 years with an extra fee of $19.90 as processing fee. But some of the countries such as Japan and Mangolia has special agreement with the Indian Government that allows them to pay less amount as visa fee.