Indian Visa for UK Citizens: Fees, Documents and How to Apply

Yes. British citizens need a visa for every trip to India. For tourism, business meetings and medical treatment, the e-Visa is the usual route: you apply online, get the approval by email, and show it with your passport on arrival. Apply at least 4 days before you land. There is no embassy appointment and you never post your passport.

These are the Government of India fees for a UK passport. A 3% bank charge is added to each:

• 30-day e-Tourist: $10 for arrivals April–June, $25 for arrivals July–March
• 1-year e-Tourist: $40
• 5-year e-Tourist: $484, the highest 5-year fee on the government chart (most nationalities pay $200)
• e-Business: $242
• e-Medical: $129

Unless you visit India several times a year, the 1-year visa is usually better value than the 5-year one for a UK passport. You can pay only the government fee by applying on the Government of India e-Visa portal. If you use our service, the total including our document check starts at $97 for 30 days, $129 for 1 year and $551 for 5 years. Check your exact total with the fee calculator.

• 30-day e-Tourist: one holiday of up to a month. It allows two entries within the 30 days.
• 1-year e-Tourist: multiple entries for 12 months. UK passport holders may stay up to 180 days per visit; check the conditions printed on your approval.
• 5-year e-Tourist: the same rules over 5 years, but at $484 it only pays off for frequent visitors.
• e-Business: meetings, trade fairs and sales visits, with an invitation or business card from the Indian company. See what the invitation letter must include.
• e-Medical: treatment at a recognised Indian hospital, with the hospital's letter.

• Your British passport, valid for at least 6 months from the day you arrive, with at least 2 blank pages
• A scan of the passport bio page as a PDF between 10 KB and 300 KB, with the full machine-readable lines visible
• A recent photo: square JPEG, plain white background, 10 KB–1 MB, at least 350 × 350 px. Our free photo tool resizes it for you.
• For e-Business, a business card or the Indian company's invitation; for e-Medical, the hospital letter

The document upload guide shows how to fix blurry scans and upload errors.

Most complete applications are approved within 24 to 72 hours. Apply at least 4 days before your arrival date, and earlier if your trip falls in the busy October–March season. See India e-Visa processing times for what can slow an application down.

When we check UK applications, these are the details we look at first:

• Place of birth: enter the town or city shown in your passport, not just 'United Kingdom'
• Names: given names and surname exactly as printed, including middle names
• The passport scan: no glare, and the two lines of letters and numbers at the bottom fully visible
• The visa type: picking the 5-year visa out of habit costs $484 when a $40 1-year visa covers most trips
• Travelling on a different passport from the one on the application, which applies to dual nationals