Three ways to get your Indian tourist visa
Ask a travel agent to do it for you. This is the most simple and expensive way. It can cost anywhere from $250 to $500 AUD. They will need the same information as if you do it yourself online, you just won’t need to deal with quirky websites and couriers. This is all listed below. The visa will be printed into your passport.
Use a visa agent directly. I have used https://www.vfsglobal.com/india/australia/ many times. They will send off your passport for you. It takes about 5 few days, plus courier times if you can’t go in personally to their office. You need to fill out all the information online, print it out and take or send that form to the agent with your passport and passport photo. It is the same form as the e-Visa but this website seem to have less quirks.There are offices in Perth and other major cities in Australia. The visa will be printed into your passport.
The tourist visa is AUD$200 and then there are courier charges if you can’t personally go in yourself. The Perth office will take your passport photo for you.
If you live outside Australia please go to your travel agent or the e-visa below. If you find another source I would love to hear about it.
The e-Visa…. this is the cheapest at US$80 (about AUD$120)
With an e-Visa you apply online and then have the visa stamped into your passport when you arrive at the airport in India at passport control (when you hand in the approved online application).
There are many scam websites for e-Visas. But this one is fine. https://indianvisaonline.gov.in Make sure the website ends in gov.in.
I have just used it this year,because it is so much cheaper. It would have cost me AUD$400 for my business visa through the agent and this cost me AUD$120.
This websites has so many quirks, so I hope this helps make it easier for you. It is easy to not realise that you have not filled in all the boxes, as this website won’t necessarily always tell you that you have forgotten something. However if the next page won’t load, you have probably missed something. I put in OTHER for my religion, but the next blank box wants to know which kind of ‘OTHER’ you are, but it doesn’t ask you. Very Indian intuitive…. Just put ‘meditation’ or something like that.
I also tried filling in the form in Firefox instead of Safari and that helped.
I thought that their phone support had gone on holiday but one of our guests got email help instead.
Many people have problems with the payment going through. I found that when it came to putting in my credit card details in, if I just used my computer automated number, it would not upload, but if I hand typed it in, it would load. Also it may take a while to let you know it has received payment.
Make sure your photo is in Jpeg format and your passport in PDF format. The visa agent website vfsglobal is definitely much easier to navigate and for only an extra $80 it may be worth it.
https://www.vfsglobal.com/india/australia/
This is what you will need to apply for your Indian Tourist Visa
A square photo of you ( without borders) that shows your full face, front view, eyes open, without glasses, at least from the bottom of your chin to the top of you hair. It needs to have a plain light coloured or white background with no shadows. I took my last one at home with my phone. If you are uploading it for an E visa it should be in Jpeg format between 10KB and 1MB. If you are taking a physical photo, it needs to be 5cm square, but please check this measurement with your agent, who may take it for you anyway.
For you e-Visa a scan or photo of your Bio page of your passport showing the Photograph and details in PDF format between 10KB and 300KB. (Any other documents that maybe asked for should also be in PDF)
The address of where you are staying in India.
The address and phone number of a person who is inviting you to stay… it could be your Indian tour company. I will send you our details.
The number of your last Indian visa, if you had one.
https://www.vfsglobal.com/india/australia/ is a great resource for any of the questions you may have about your visa.
I hope it all goes very smoothly for you. If not, welcome to quirky India.
If you have found anything on this page to be inaccurate please let me know so that I can update it. Thank you so much.