As soon as my friend announced that she was getting married in India, I was immediately jumped online to look at airline tickets. Shortly after I purchased my airline tickets, my friend mentioned that I’d need a visa to travel to India. This was my first time travelling outside the United States to a country that required a visa to enter! I always thought, ehh, I’m American, I should get into any country easily to visit, but now it’s my first time I’d had to feel the pain that other people have to deal with when they visit the USA.

India’s visa process isn’t very intuitive. There’s fake websites everywhere, and you don’t know what’s official. If you’re using a travel agency to book your travel for you, you might not have to worry about this process. They even have several official websites because they have several consulates in the US (I used the Indian Consulate website in San Francisco because that’s nearest to me) https://www.cgisf.gov.in/page/visa

On this page there’s more links information which is still not very helpful, like it redirects to Cox&Kings or ElectronicVISAs, so which one do you use?! So after several hours, and nights getting the run around gathering all the necessary information, photos visas taken, and reading every little detail here’s a summary:

Visiting India for an extended period of time: 60 days+

• WRITE DOWN EVERY SINGLE TEMP ID THEY GIVE YOU!
• Apply here: https://www.in.ckgs.us/
• Print out the checklist
• You’ll need to send in your passport to the consulate and can take up to 2 weeks processing time depending on how far the consulate is from you.
• Make a photocopy of your passport
• There are photo requirements: https://www.in.ckgs.us/resources/pdf/photo-specifications.pdf (glossy printed one and a digital copy)
• Address verification: A bill statement with your name and address
• Obtain a cashier/bank check for the final fee and complete the application by typing in the cashiers check info. (~$180-200, but find out the exact value before getting the check)
  • Make it out to “Cox and Kings Global Services USA LLC”
• Pre-pay for their shipping labels (because your passport is in this application, you don’t want to lose it)
  • If you have multiple people travelling, each person has to have their own application packet and the shipping has to be paid separately for each individual person.
• Questions they asked which where tricky:
  • Citizenship/National ID No: Put “NA”
  • Visible identification marks: find 1 permanent birthmark, mole, or scar on your hand, or face and describe it
  • Passport place of issue: Put “USDOS” for United States Department of State
  • Need to know the address of where you’re staying in India.
  • Supply 10 years of history of which countries you’ve been to.

Tourist Visa Visiting for less than 60 days

• https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html
• If your country is on their eligibility list then you can do the eVisa.
• Same photo requirements, but you only need a digital copy: https://www.in.ckgs.us/resources/pdf/photo-specifications.pdf .
• Application fee is ~$25-60 (depends on the duration you selected)
  • If you selected a year, it doesn’t mean you can stay in India continuously for a year, but each visit should not exceed 180 days.
• Questions they asked which where tricky:
  • Citizenship/National ID No: Put “NA”
  • Visible identification marks: find 1 permanent birthmark, mole, or scar on your hand, or face and describe it
  • Passport place of issue: Put “USDOS” for United States Department of State
  • Need to know the address of where you’re staying in India.
  • Supply 10 years of history of which countries you’ve been to.

Visas upon arrival: https://boi.gov.in/visa-on-arrival (for Korean and Japanese Nationals only)

I was freaking out about having to submit my passport and not getting it back on time, but luckily I re-ran through this website and I found out that I can just do the eVisa, which is way easier (and more affordable!). I submitted my application for the eVisa, and 2 days later I got approved! Way easier than going through Cox&Kings. Just print out the email you’ll get of the approval and show them at immigration when you arrive. They’ll take Bio metrics fingerprints of you, probably on arrival.

Will update again on my journey to India if this visa thing works out when I travel in January.