US citizens need a visa for India and the practical route is the electronic tourist e-Visa: apply online on the Indian government's official portal, pay by card, and receive an electronic travel authorization by email, typically within 72 hours — often faster — per the e-visa program's published terms as of early 2026. Three tourist variants cover most trips: a 30-day e-tourist visa with double entry, a one-year multiple-entry e-visa at $40 for US citizens, and a five-year multiple-entry version at roughly $84. Apply only at the government site — a thriving industry of lookalike third-party sites charges several times the government fee for the same form.
Rules change — verify at the official portal before booking. This is information, not immigration advice.
Which e-Visa should you choose?
Match the variant to the trip shape. The 30-day double-entry e-tourist visa suits one fixed trip; note its window is measured from first arrival, not from issue, and its fee varies by travel season under India's published seasonal pricing. The one-year multiple-entry e-visa is the default for flexibility — stays of up to 180 days per visit for US nationals on tourist e-visas, per the program's country-list terms. The five-year version at roughly $84 makes sense for repeat visitors; it is the same terms with a longer life. All e-visas are non-extendable and non-convertible in country — if plans stretch, the traveler exits and applies anew, which is exactly when the one-year version earns its $40.
How does the application work?
One form, roughly ten minutes, entirely online at indianvisaonline.gov.in: passport details, a digital photo and passport scan uploaded to spec, itinerary and references, card payment, then the emailed electronic travel authorization to print. Entry on an e-visa is permitted only through designated international airports and seaports — essentially every major gateway — so land crossings from Nepal or Bangladesh require a regular sticker visa from an embassy or consulate instead. Processing runs around 72 hours in normal cases; urgent categories exist at higher fees. Apply two to four weeks out to leave room for a resubmission if the photo or scan is rejected — the commonest delay cause.
What are the entry requirements at the airport?
- Passport valid at least six months from arrival, with at least two blank pages.
- Printed copy of the electronic travel authorization.
- Onward or return ticket, which immigration can ask to see.
- Biometrics: fingerprints are taken on first entry for foreign nationals.
Keep the printed authorization with the passport throughout the trip; hotels and domestic checkpoints occasionally ask for it alongside the passport itself.
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What else should US travelers plan for on arrival in India?
A few practicalities sit outside the visa but shape the first day. Immigration queues at Delhi and Mumbai peak with the late-evening European banks, so a midnight arrival can mean an hour at passport control with the printed authorization and fingerprints. SIM cards at airport counters require passport registration and can take hours to activate; eSIM options activated before departure save that stop. Cash still matters outside city centers despite widespread UPI adoption, and foreign cards work unevenly at street level. Finally, keep the departure record: exit immigration stamps the passport, and the e-visa system matches entries to it — a missing exit stamp from a previous trip is a solvable but slow problem to explain at the counter.
When is the regular visa the better option?
Three cases. Land arrivals — the e-visa is invalid at border crossings. Long single stays — travelers wanting more than 180 continuous days apply for a regular sticker tourist visa through the outsourced consular centers, with in-person submission. And employment, study, or journalism purposes — e-visas explicitly exclude work and paid activity, and journalists have a separate visa category regardless of trip length. The regular route costs more and takes one to two weeks with an appointment, but it covers what the e-visa cannot.
What trips travelers up most?
The scam sites first: search results for the application are saturated with third-party agents charging $100 or more for the same $40 government process — bookmark the official domain directly. Then the photo spec: India's upload requirements are strict about size and background, and rejection for format reasons is the leading cause of delay. Then the port rule — a traveler flying into one airport and departing overland is fine, but arriving overland on an e-visa is not. And finally, the weather calendar: India's best travel months, October through March, are also when application volumes peak, so the two-to-four-week buffer matters most exactly when most people apply.
Fees and terms above checked as of January 2026 against the official e-visa portal's published schedule; verify current pricing at the government site before applying, since fees vary by nationality and season — and bookmark the official domain rather than trusting search results, which remain saturated with paid lookalikes.