India e-visa

Having heard how ‘difficult’ it was and how so many people were rejected and had to re-apply (= pay again), I was dreading this part of my very first India trip. After a short moment of panic (for absolutely no reason), however, I realised that it was all about preparation. Yes, it sure is time consuming and tedious, but as long as you have correct documents and answers to some of slightly overly personal questions such as your parents’ cities of birth, the form is relatively straightforward to fill in. Give yourself plenty time and consider completing in stages for peaceful and hopefully successful Indian e-visa application.

Step 1: Understand the overall picture

Go to the official Indian e-visa website and read all instructions and document requirements. It’s always good to read about other travellers’ experiences through blogs and websites, but do go to the official website first as regulations can change. One Tripadvisor member created this very helpful visa guide (link). I think the guide was written in 2015 and was still relevant and helpful for my 2018 application. The step by step guide helps you to understand the application process and prepares you for some nosy questions such as ’employer’s details’.

Step 2: Prepare your documents

This could be the most time consuming and troublesome part for many people as a copy of your passport and photograph must meet the very specific guidelines. With Mac laptop which I use, it was pretty simple to resize and crop. Here is how I created my documents with my laptop (Mac):

Scanned Bio Page of the passport (PDF)

This needs to be clear, but within 300kb which just sounds impossible as a high resolution scan would easily be over 1MB. I scanned my passport with the highest dpi (600) as JPG. Preview the image (just double click and open the file), then go to tool – change size (200kb) – file – print (this gives you an option to save the file as PDF), done.

Photo of your face (JPG)

This is to be uploaded along with your visa application and must be taken with a white or light background, the height and width of the photograph should be equal and no shadows on the face or the background. Because I live in a small, old and generally dark flat, I struggled to find the right spot for the no-shadows-photos. I used my good camera and took many test photos to find the right spot and time (you’ll need good day light) in my cramped flat. I’ve also played with different camera settings and found that selfie mode was good for getting rid of shadows from the face. For the background, I used the back of a large poster and that came out nicely. I then cropped the photo with iPhoto which has a square crop option. Then changed the size (preview-tool-change size) to 350 pixels (height) X 350 pixels (width).

I could also take a square photo directly with my iPod touch, but I wasn’t happy with the photo quality.

Step 3: Start your application process

You can now start your application process from https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html. As long as you have your document and photo ready, one should be able to finish the whole process in one go, but make sure you take a note of the temporary application ID at the beginning, you will need it when you want to go back to your form later. It’s very easy to save and go back to, so try not to rush.

In terms of a web browser, I used Firefox and did not have any problem with PDF document preview or the payment. Both C and myself received our visa just a little after 24 hours. Make sure to print out and take a copy of the granted e-Visa notification (Electronic Travel Authorisation = ETA) with you.

Disclaimer: This is a personal weblog and only represents my personal experience and opinions. I am not a visa expert and have no association with Government of India, Indian Visa Online.