Indian e-Visa from Canada if you don’t have an OCI card

Checked against official pages on 7 Oct 2026.

Canadian passport holders without an OCI card can usually visit India on an e-Visa. Permanent residents who hold another country’s passport follow that country’s eligibility. This is what the official pages say, with the day we read each one.

Which e-Visa, and what it costs

• The portal also lists e-Student and e-Family (365 days each), e-Transit (30 days from first arrival), e-Miscellaneous (3 months from first entry) and e-Production Investment (6 months). The two fee tables read do not show fees for them.
• Card payments carry a 3% bank charge on top of the fee, and PayPal 4%.
• The fee is non-refundable, even if the application is refused or you cancel the trip.
• The business, medical and attendant table does not print a currency in the text we could read, and the conference visa has no column of its own. Check the table on the portal for both.
• The tourist table does not say whether its April to June column follows the application date or the arrival date.

Who can use the e-Visa

• Canada is on the e-Visa portal’s list of countries whose passport holders can apply.
• Eligibility follows the passport you hold, not where you live. A permanent resident of Canada who travels on another country’s passport checks the portal’s list for that country.
• It covers sightseeing, a casual visit to friends and relatives, a short yoga programme, short informal courses (up to 6 months, no diploma), unpaid voluntary work of up to 1 month, medical treatment, business, and attending a conference.
• You need a return or onward ticket and enough money for your stay.
• The e-visa cannot be used for employment, NGO work or journalism, and it cannot be extended or converted into another visa.
• People of Pakistani origin, or with a Pakistani passport, are not eligible, and neither are people whose parents or grandparents were born in or lived permanently in Pakistan. They apply for a regular visa at an Indian mission.
• Anyone with a defence, military, security or police background (serving or retired) is not eligible for an e-visa and must apply for a regular visa; hiding it can lead to being refused entry and sent back.
• Each traveller needs their own passport. A child written into a parent’s or spouse’s passport cannot get an e-visa, and neither can holders of diplomatic, official or other travel documents.

When to apply and how long it takes

• Apply at least 4 days before you arrive. The portal accepts an application up to 120 days before your travel date.
• The fee must be paid at least 4 days before your travel date, or the application will not be processed.
• The portal does not publish a processing time. It says that if a document or photo has to be uploaded again you should get an email, normally within 24 hours, and that the government charges nothing extra for an express or emergency e-visa.
• The decision (granted or rejected) is sent to the email address on the application, and you can check the status on the portal. The portal asks you to wait for the ETA to show as granted before you travel.
• Wait about 2 hours for a payment to show before paying again, so you do not pay twice.

Passport, photo and documents

• Your passport needs at least 6 months of validity when you apply and at least 2 blank pages for the immigration stamp.
• Photo: a JPEG of 10 KB to 1 MB, square (height equal to width), full face looking straight at the camera, eyes open, no glasses, plain light or white background, no shadows and no border.
• Passport page: a PDF of the page with your photo and details, 10 KB to 300 KB. Business and medical applications add one more PDF of the same size (a business card or invitation letter, or the hospital letter).
• All documents must be in English, and the form takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Fill it in yourself and check every detail, because you are responsible for mistakes in the name, nationality, passport number or date of birth.
• For a regular (paper) visa the missions ask for more than 190 days of passport validity and 2 blank pages, while the portal asks for 6 months when you apply. If you are unsure, aim for the longer requirement.

Where you can arrive

• Arrive at one of the designated airports or seaports on the portal’s entry list; the list includes Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Lucknow. You can leave through any immigration checkpost.
• The portal’s entry list shows 36 airports and 38 seaports, but its FAQ names 33 airports and 19 seaports, so check the list on the portal when you apply.
• The entry list also names land checkposts such as Attari, yet an FAQ says you can enter only through the airports and seaports listed. Confirm before you plan a land crossing.

At the airport

• Carry a printout or copy of your ETA. The visa is stamped in your passport at the immigration checkpost when you arrive, and your biometrics are taken there.
• Travel on the same passport you applied with. If you got a new passport after the ETA was issued, you may enter on the new one only if you also carry the old passport.
• Foreigners can fill in the e-arrival card online within 72 hours before arrival at boi.gov.in or indianvisaonline.gov.in, or in the Indian Visa Su-Swagatam app. It is arrival information, not a visa.
• An e-visa is not valid for protected, restricted or cantonment areas, which need separate permission from the civil authority.

Children

• A child needs their own e-visa, and their own passport valid for at least 6 months from the arrival date.
• Regular visas are applied for in person at a BLS centre, because biometrics are taken for every category; applicants aged 12 to 70 must attend.

If you or your parents were Indian: OCI or a regular visa may fit better

• Without an OCI card, a short visit to India goes on an e-visa or a regular visa. If you were an Indian citizen, or a parent or grandparent was, look at OCI first.
• A former Indian citizen, and the child, grandchild or great-grandchild of an Indian citizen, can apply for OCI. People who, or whose parents, grandparents or great-grandparents, held Pakistani or Bangladeshi citizenship cannot.
• An OCI card is a lifelong, multiple-entry, multi-purpose visa and removes the need to register with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office, however long you stay.
• The Toronto jurisdiction page lists a fresh OCI card at CAD 376 to the Consulate (CAD 371 plus a CAD 5 welfare fund charge), plus a BLS charge of CAD 1.70 and courier. The OCI booklet takes 4 to 5 weeks.
• India does not allow dual citizenship. An Indian mission page says Indian nationals who take another citizenship must renounce Indian citizenship and surrender their Indian passport, and that holding an Indian passport as a foreign national is a cognisable offence.
• The portal also lists an e-Miscellaneous (entry) visa for people of Indian origin. Its document list asks for proof such as a parent’s or spouse’s Indian passport or voter ID, a surrendered Indian passport with its surrender certificate (surrendered in or after 2010), or a parent’s or spouse’s OCI card, plus a birth or marriage certificate.
• BLS says the regular entry visa for persons of Indian origin remains available, with a processing time of 45 days in the Toronto jurisdiction.
• BLS’s notice for regular (paper) visa applications in Canada lists entry, business, medical, student and conference visas, and not tourist, so a tourist visit normally goes through the tourist e-visa.
• For a regular visa the Consulate gives 30 days from the day BLS accepts the application, and says it can take longer.
• Ten-year paper tourist visas issued before are not currently valid for travel to India, according to the Vancouver Consulate General.

Common mistakes

• Paying on a look-alike website instead of the portal; the portal says to use only indianvisaonline.gov.in and not to share personal details with other sites.
• Applying fewer than 4 days before arrival, or booking travel before the ETA shows as granted.
• A passport with under 6 months left, or without 2 blank pages.
• A photo that is not square, has a coloured background, or is outside 10 KB to 1 MB.
• Wrong details on the form. The applicant is responsible for any mismatch; if the ETA shows a mismatch, contact the e-visa support centre at least 24 hours before you travel.
• Expecting a refund. The fee is not refunded if you are refused or cancel.
• Applying for a child who has no separate passport.
• Using a tourist e-visa for work, volunteering for pay, or journalism.
• Ten-year paper tourist visas issued before are not currently valid for travel to India, according to the Vancouver Consulate General.

What the official pages do not settle

• The portal shows an "Advisory for Canadian Nationals" heading, but its text did not load when we read the page, so anything specific to Canadians in it is not covered here.
• The portal does not publish a processing time.
• Its own pages differ on the number of entry airports and seaports and on the validity of the e-Medical visa (see above).

What Kist can and can’t say

• We can point you to the official page and say what it says, with the day we read it.
• We can’t apply for you, check whether you qualify, or say a visa will be granted. Only the Government of India decides.
• Where official pages disagree or say nothing, we say so instead of guessing.

Already have an OCI card? You don’t need an e-Visa. See the checklist for flying to India, how to update an OCI card after a new passport, Indian passport processing times by consulate and city.

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This is guidance only and isn’t guaranteed to be accurate. Deadlines and rules change from time to time, so check the official website for this document (use the link if there is one, or search for it on Google or ask an AI assistant) and your local municipality or ministry before you act.