Travellers can apply for different kinds of visa for India, depending on their travel purpose. Those who travel to India to work or do business in the country need a different visa than tourists. On this page you will find what visa you need to apply for if you are travelling to India for work or business.

E-visa for business trips to India

Just like tourists, business travellers can also apply for their visa for India online. This digitally available business visa is also known as an e-visa, or electronic visa. There are various e-visas for India. The most popular type is the e-Tourist visa, meant for tourist travels. In turn, business travellers can make use of the e-Business visa. This visa cannot be applied for at the embassy. Instead, you need to apply for the e-Business visa using a digital form that can be filled out on a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Open the application form of the e-Business visa

Street view of Delhi, India

The business visa - India e-Business

The application [rocedure for the business e-vsa runs ots course completely online. This brings along many advantages for travellers:

1. The application can easily be completed from home.
2. The required documents can therefore also be submitted online and do not need to be sent by post.
3. The visa gets delivered via e-mail.
4. The form can be completed within 10–15 minutes.
5. Thanks to the easy application procedure, the costs of an online visa application can be kept lower than those of an application with the embassy. The costs of the e-Business visa are £139.95.
6. The e-visa gets delivered faster than a physical visa and can even be applied for with urgency.

Validity period

The e-Business visa has a validity period of 1 year, during which multiple trips can be made to India with the same e-visa. Each separate stay can last a maximum of 180 consecutive days. If you wish to stay in India longer than 180 consecutive days, you apply for a prolongation of the maximum duration of stay at the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO), or Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FFRO) in India. If you already know beforehand that you will want to stay in India for a longer period of time, you could also apply for a visa at the embassy for a longer stay. In this case, you would need to consider the longer application procedure and higher costs.

Permitted activities

The activities permitted by the e-Business visa are:

• participating in business visits, negotiations, meetings, trade fairs and other business events;
• providing services (whilst not employed by an Indian organization);
• supplying, installing and maintaining products;
• recruiting personnel;
• giving lectures under the Global Initiative for Academic Networks program.

Additional requirements

There are several conditions to the use of the e-Business visa. You can check these conditions for each type of e-visa on the page about the requirements of the India e-visa. To apply for a business visa, it is necessary to meet all the standard requirements, as well as provide a business card with the contact details of the company the applicant works for and an invitation letter from the organisation that the applicant will be visiting in India.

Working in India

The e-Business visa for India allows you to travel to India for business, but not to get employed at an Indian organisation. If you want the latter, you need to apply for a physical visa. India has a specific work visa, called the Employment visa. To apply for this visa, a few documents need to be submitted, among which a letter from the future Indian employer. The application itself can be presented online through a website from the Indian immigration services, but must then be processed manually by the Indian embassy. In this case, a longer delivery time must be anticipated, as well as higher costs for the work visa compared to the e-Business visa.

Visa for volunteer work

India counts numerous NGOs actively dedicated to improving living conditions and other social objectives. That is why India strongly values the dedication of foreign volunteers. Despite this, volunteers need a special work visa to travel to the country to perform volunteer work. Volunteers cannot make use of the electronic visa, but need to apply for an Employment visa for volunteer work at the embassy.