India Visa Fees Explained: What You Actually Pay (and to Whom)

Why There's No Single Answer to "How Much?"

India sets visa fees along three axes — your nationality (fees are country-wise, partly on reciprocity), the visa category, and the validity you choose. So the honest answer to "how much is an India visa?" is: look up your country's row in the official schedule. This guide shows you how the structure works and what to watch for — with the official sources to check your exact figure.

e-Visa Fees: The Official Structure

e-Visa fees are published country-wise by the government — the official schedule for e-Tourist visas is on the Indian Visa Online portal. For US citizens (a common reference band), the e-Tourist figures are:

Three structural points that apply regardless of nationality:

1. A bank transaction charge of 2.5% is added to the e-Visa fee at payment
2. The fee is non-refundable — it pays for processing the application, not the outcome. A rejection does not return your money
3. The seasonal 30-day discount (April–June) exists because it's India's low tourism season — if your dates straddle it, the arrival date decides the band

Other e-Visa categories (e-Business, e-Medical, e-Conference) have their own country-wise schedules on the same portal — check the current figure at the point of application rather than relying on any third-party table, including a cached one.

Regular (Sticker) Visa Fees: A Different System

Regular visas from Indian missions — Employment, longer Business visas, Transit, Student, X and the rest — are priced per mission, per nationality, per category, and usually collected through the outsourced centre (VFS/BLS). Expect the total to stack up from:

• The government visa fee for your nationality and category
• The outsourced centre's service fee
• At many missions, a small ICWF (Indian Community Welfare Fund) charge
• Optional extras you choose (courier return, SMS updates, premium lounges)

Your mission's (or its VFS/BLS portal's) fee page is the only current source — schedules change, and missions in different countries charge differently for the same category.

The Fee You Should Never Pay: Lookalike-Site Markups

Search results for India visas are crowded with unofficial sites that file the same e-Visa application for 2–5× the government fee, dressed up as a "service charge." Some are outright scams; most are just expensive middlemen. The official application site is indianvisaonline.gov.in — anything else charging you for an e-Visa is a reseller. Our official portals directory lists every genuine government channel.

After Arrival: The Fees People Forget to Budget

For anyone staying long-term, the visa fee is the small one. The costs that actually accumulate come after you land, and almost all of them run through the e-FRRO portal rather than a mission.

What triggers a fee once you're in India

The number that actually varies is the penalty, not the fee

This is the part worth understanding, because it's where budgets break.

The base service fees are modest and reasonably stable. Penalties are neither. Late registration, overstay, and lapsed-status regularisation are assessed on the specifics of the case — how long the gap ran, whether it was disclosed or discovered, and the view the officer takes. Two people filing the same service in the same week can pay very different totals.

Which produces the only budgeting rule that reliably holds: the cost of doing something on time is knowable; the cost of doing it late is not. If you are weighing whether a deadline is worth the trouble, that asymmetry is the answer.

We deliberately don't publish penalty figures here. They are case-assessed, they are revised, and a stale number in a blog post is exactly the kind of thing people budget against and then get caught by. Check the current schedule on e-FRRO at the time you file, or ask us to price your specific situation.

Fees you should not be paying

Notice what is not on the list above: there is no fee for checking your own status, no fee for the portal itself, and no government charge for creating an e-FRRO account. If something is charging you for access to a government portal, it is not the government. See the section above on lookalike sites.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is an India e-Visa for US citizens?

For the e-Tourist Visa: US$25 for the 30-day visa (US$10 for April–June arrivals), US$40 for the 1-year, US$80 for the 5-year — plus a 2.5% bank charge. Other categories and nationalities differ; the official portal's country-wise schedule has your exact figure.

Do I get a refund if my India visa is rejected?

No. The fee pays for processing the application and is explicitly non-refundable whether the ETA is granted or refused — one more reason to get the application right the first time.

Why is the fee different for my friend from another country?

Fees are set country-wise, partly on reciprocity — what India charges your nationality reflects, in part, what your country charges Indians. Same category, different passport, different fee is normal.

Is it cheaper to apply through an agency?

Never for the government fee — that's fixed. Third-party filing sites charge the same government fee plus their margin. Paying a professional makes sense for advice on complex or previously refused cases, not as a checkout for a routine e-Tourist application.

Where do I check the current official fee?

For e-Visas: the fee tables on indianvisaonline.gov.in shown during application. For regular visas: your Indian mission's or its VFS/BLS centre's published schedule. Check at the time of application — schedules change.

Disclaimer

India Visa Experts is an independent private consulting firm, not affiliated with the Government of India or any mission. Visa fees are set by the authorities, differ by nationality, category and mission, and change — the figures above were verified against official sources in July 2026, but the schedule shown at your point of application always governs. General guidance, not legal advice.