India Visa from Canada: e-Visa Fees, Paper Visas and How to Apply

India sends the approval, called an ETA, by email, and the e-Arrival card is filed online in the 72 hours before you land. HelloRoam, the travel eSIM company behind this guide, sells data plans for India and has no part in visa applications.

Not every Canadian can use the e-Visa. Canadians of Pakistani origin, anyone with a serving or retired military, police or security background, and people going to India to work need a paper visa from a BLS International centre. Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders don't need a visa at all. We checked the rules below on Indian and Canadian government pages and BLS's own pages, most recently on October 28, 2026. Rules and fees change, so check the official pages again before you book.

Indian visa rules for Canadians at a glance

Most Canadian tourists qualify for the e-Visa

Canada is on India's e-Visa list. The e-Tourist Visa covers sightseeing, visits to friends and family, short yoga, language, music or cooking courses that give no diploma, and unpaid volunteer work of up to one month. Separate e-Visas cover business trips, conferences and medical treatment. India's e-Visa rules add these conditions:

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• Your passport is valid for at least six months when you apply and has two blank pages. The Government of Canada counts the six months from the day you enter India, so check both dates.
• You hold a return or onward ticket and enough money for your stay.
• Each traveller applies separately on their own passport, children included.
• You enter through a checkpoint on the e-Visa site's list of authorized entry points, which covers the main international airports such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Amritsar and Goa. The site also publishes a list of exit points for e-Visa holders, so check that your departure airport or port is on it.
• You don't visit protected, restricted or cantonment areas without a separate permit.

e-Visa fees change with the season and the type of visa

India sets e-Visa fees by nationality and charges them in US dollars. These are the rows for Canada in the portal's e-Tourist Visa fee table, dated September 8, 2026, and in its table for other e-Visas:

The fee table adds a 3% bank charge on top. The portal says there is no other fee, and nothing to pay at the airport.

The High Commission of India in Ottawa's e-Visa page still quotes US$80 for Canadian citizens and a 2.5% bank charge. The two sources disagree. The fee table is the portal's own document and the portal is where you pay, so the amount it shows at checkout is the one that counts.

A 30-day e-Visa starts on arrival, while longer ones start on approval

Canada's travel advice for India adds that a tourist visa allows at most 180 consecutive days in India, even when it is valid for longer. Anyone staying more than 180 days must register with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) within 14 days of arrival. Overstaying can bring fines, detention and a future travel ban.

The e-Visa application takes about 15 minutes online

The portal says the form and payment take 10 to 15 minutes if your files are ready. The High Commission in Ottawa puts the average e-Visa decision at about 4 days and says it can vary.

1. Prepare two files. The first is the photo page of your passport as a PDF of 10 KB to 300 KB. The second is a square JPEG photo of 10 KB to 1 MB: full face, eyes open, no glasses, on a plain white or light background.
2. Apply on the e-Visa portal between 120 and 4 days before you arrive. Short courses and volunteer trips need a letter from the organizer, and business trips need a business card or an invitation from the Indian company.
3. Pay the fee online. If the payment doesn't show as received, wait 2 hours before you try again.
4. Watch your email. If a photo or document isn't clear, India asks you to upload it again, usually within 24 hours.
5. Before you fly, check that your status shows GRANTED and print the ETA to show at immigration.
6. In the 72 hours before you land, complete the e-Arrival card on the Bureau of Immigration site, the visa portal or the official Indian Visa Su-Swagatam app. The portal says the card is for arrival information and isn't a visa.
7. At the immigration counter, officers record your biometrics and stamp the e-Visa in your passport.

Only India's government portal issues the e-Visa

India's e-Visa FAQ names one official site for applications, indianvisaonline.gov.in, and says no agent or travel company is needed. The Government of India does not authorize any agent to charge for an express or emergency e-Visa, or for the e-Arrival card. Search results for this topic mix the official pages with paid form-filling services, so check the address bar before you type in passport details.

BLS also warns about people outside its centres who claim to be staff. If a granted ETA has a mistake in your name, passport number or date of birth, contact the e-Visa support centre at indian-evisa@gov.in at least 24 hours before your journey.

Some Canadians must apply for a paper visa

India's e-Visa rules exclude anyone who holds or held Pakistani citizenship, and anyone whose parents or grandparents were born in or lived permanently in Pakistan. The High Commission's page for applicants of Pakistani origin says Canadian passport holders in this group must give two Indian references and should expect at least 6 weeks, usually about 2 months. The visa is usually short, around 3 months, and can limit where you go. The Government of Canada also notes different registration rules in India for Canadian-Pakistani citizens.

The e-Visa portal also carries an advisory for Canadian nationals. Anyone with a defence, military, security or police background, serving or retired, can't use the e-Visa and must apply for a regular visa. The portal warns that hiding that background may mean being denied entry and sent back.

Work, journalism and NGO projects also need a regular visa, and so do official and diplomatic passports. An old 10-year paper tourist visa won't get you in for now: the Vancouver consulate's visa FAQ says previously issued 10-year paper tourist visas are currently not valid for travel to India. BLS says its fees and processing charge are non-refundable and non-transferable.

Permanent residents of Canada apply on the passport they hold. The e-Visa depends on that passport's country, and the High Commission says a paper visa's fee and processing time can be quite different on a non-Canadian passport.

Paper visas are filed in person at BLS centres in three districts

Regular visas start with an online form, then go to a BLS International centre in your district. The consulates in Toronto and Vancouver and the High Commission in Ottawa take biometrics for every visa, so applications are handed in person and none are accepted by post. Applicants aged 12 to 70 must attend themselves.

The paper tourist visa may not be open to you. The High Commission's latest guideline on paper visas for Canadian nationals, a notice dated October 25, 2023, reopened only Entry, Business, Medical and Conference visas, and BLS's home page lists Entry, Business, Medical, Student and Conference visas as the only types it accepts. BLS's tourist visa pages still show fees, so confirm the category with BLS before you pay.

An Entry visa, now listed as a Miscellaneous visa, is for people of Indian origin and the spouses and children of Indian citizens or people of Indian origin. The High Commission's fee schedule lists C$113 for up to 6 months, C$167 for 6 months to 1 year and C$275 for 1 to 5 years, including the welfare fund fee, plus BLS charges. Centres take debit or cash.

Plan for at least 30 days. BLS's district pages give that figure for visa requests and say there is no fixed timeline. The Consulate General of India in Vancouver also counts 30 days from the day BLS accepts your application, says some cases take longer and advises you not to buy tickets until the visa is issued. Once it is, our guide to Toronto to Delhi flights covers airlines, fares and the cheapest months to fly.

If you once held an Indian passport, BLS posts an affidavit for people who became Canadian before June 2010 and can't produce a surrender certificate or their old Indian passport.

OCI cardholders don't need a visa

The High Commission of India in Ottawa describes the Overseas Citizen of India card as a lifetime visa for India, issued to eligible people of Indian origin under Ministry of Home Affairs rules. The Government of Canada says to show the OCI card when you enter and leave India. With an electronic e-OCI, you don't need to carry a physical card.

A new OCI registration costs C$376 under the High Commission's current fee schedule, including the welfare fund fee, plus BLS charges. Applications in Canada are now taken in person for biometrics. OCI holders still complete the e-Arrival card before each trip.

Getting online in India starts before you board

Your ETA email and your bookings sit on your phone, and taxi apps and maps need data once you leave the airport. As of October 28, 2026, HelloRoam's India plans run on the Airtel network, with 5G listed, and you can set up your eSIM at home over Wi-Fi before you fly. Your phone must be unlocked and able to use eSIM, so check that your phone supports eSIM before you buy.

Leave any satellite phone at home. Canada's travel advice says carrying or using satellite phones and GPS devices in India without a licence is illegal, even in transit. Regular cell phones are fine.

If you're staying with family and spend most days on home Wi-Fi, you may need far less data than on a touring trip. You can estimate how much data you need before you choose a plan.

Relatives visiting from India need a Canadian visitor visa

Many families in Canada host relatives from India, and that trip works differently. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada lists India among the countries whose citizens need a visitor visa to visit or transit through Canada. Your relatives apply online through IRCC, pay a C$100 processing fee and a C$85 biometrics fee as a single applicant, then book a biometrics appointment. If their phone is unlocked and eSIM-ready, a Canada eSIM for visitors keeps them online during their stay.