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Sometimes, you should take two flights to travel to a country. If you do so, and your first destination is in India, then you should apply for an India transit visa.

India transit visa is given to people who do not tend to stay in India for a long time and are destined to another zone. They will remain for a short time at the airport. However, they can’t leave the transit zone.

In this article, we have provided you with the details of the India transit visa, including eligibility criteria, requirements, processing time, etc.

Do you need an India transit visa?

There are some cases in which you have to hold an India transit visa. Sometimes you need to leave the transit zone for various reasons. For instance, your connecting flight leaves on another day, or you have to recheck your luggage as the airpost does not do it for you. Thus, not necessarily all the people who intend to stay more than 2 hours need to apply for a transit visa.

How to apply for an India transit visa

It’s best recommended that you apply for a transit visa if you have booked your flights separately. In this case, you will have to reclaim your luggage because your luggage may not be transferred to the other airplane. To do so, you need to leave the transit zone. If you have booked both flights on one ticket, that won’t be necessary, as you will change flights immediately and your luggage will be transferred.

India transit visa eligibility

You need to apply for an India transit visa if you need to go outside of the restricted area in the airport, even for a short lapse. Those who will remain less than 72 hours in India, waiting for a connecting flight to another country, having altered the airport or not, are eligible to receive an India transit visa.

An India transit visa is required and checked if you will change from an international airport to a domestic one, or even if you will stay in the hotel of the airport even for a few hours.

It’s worth knowing that you won’t need an India transit visa if you:

  • Don’t leave the airport’s limitation area(no need for rechecking luggage)
  • Will leave the country within 24 hours
  • Have confirmed plane tickets to another country

India transit visa requirements

  • Application form
  • Last page of the passport

The passport validity should be six months further than the validity of the Indian tourist visa, should at least have two blank pages for the visa stamp, and should not be torn or separated.

  • Photo of the applicant

You should upload your photo in the application form. The image should meet the following criteria:

  • The format should be JPEG
  • It would be best if you had taken it free months before the application process.
  • You should stand in front of a blank background.
  • You should not wear glasses or headwear unless for religious purposes
  • The size should be at least 10 KB and at most 300 KB
  • The height and width should be the same
  • Application photo
  • It should indicate the entire face, from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin
  • Eyes open, with the absence of shadows or anything covering it
  • It should be frameless

For babies under a year old:

  • Open eyes are not necessary
  • Facial expressions can have some relaxation
  • It should be frontal and explicit

In the case of children under 10:

  • The eyes should be open
  • The mouth closed
  • The child should be alone in the picture without any other person or toys
  • Self-declaration form
  • Driver’s license

You should make a copy of your driver’s license. Your license’s mentioned address should be the exact address that you have written on the application form.

India transit visa validity

The India transit visa is only valid for three days. If you intend to stay more, you have to apply for an appropriate visa.

The visa will be valid within 15 days of issuing with single or double entry. Note that the duration begins from the days of issuing, not the day of arrival.

India transit visa exception

Japanese residents can apply for a visa-on-arrival instead. It counts as an actual visa, although you can apply for it on the day of arrival. Original visas shall be granted before the entrance.

India transit visa extension

There is no way your visa will be extended. You should leave India and apply again for another visa if you wish to stay more.

India transit visa fees

Like other types of visas, the visa fee depends on the country of residency. You can check it on the India visa site or call the Indian embassy for more detailed information.

Let’s recap!

The India transit visa provides you with the ability to travel to India and stay there for more than 24 hours if your main destination is another country and you have booked a double ticket. On the Visa Library website, you can learn about other Indian visitor visas like (film visas, group tourist visas, medical visas, tourist visas, emergency visas, and medical attendant visas) as well as ways to immigrate to other countries.

This way you can leave the restricted zone and have a little adventure for a short time before you get to your destination.

If you are interested in knowing more about other types of visas worldwide, you can check out the website menu or scroll through the sidebar to read the blogs.

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8 Comments

  1. Donalsd Mundell says:

    I am a Canadian living in Canada. I have a Russian wife of 15 years. She gave up her permanent residence status in Canada to look after her aging mother. With the current conflict in Ukraine, there is not many options to fly from Canada to Russia.
    The safest way there that I can find is to transit through India to Moscow. There is recently a new flight twice a week between New Delhi and Moscow.
    The problem is going to get the correct arrival and departure dates to match as the flight leave New Delhi to Moscow only once a day twice a week on Monday and Friday and return on Thursdays and Sundays. This makes it nearly impossible to ensure that I will be able to connect to the required flight within the allowed time frame and I will need to go the the Aeroflot booking desk , past the customes check, to obtain that flight because from Canada I can not transfer any money electronically to pay for that flight from Canada.

    • B Rajabali says:

      Dear Donalsd Mundell
      Your question is a bit ambiguous and we did not understand what it is to answer it.

  2. Carl says:

    Hello

    Where do we currently apply for a India transit visa please? There doesn’t appear to be an option at e-visa online

  3. thomas says:

    What if I have a connecting flight in india Dheli to Hyperbad before leaving the country?

    Do I need a transit visa?

    • B Rajabali says:

      The processing time is up to your nationality and case. But you can expect the same duration.