This information is correct as of October 2023.

There are 2 types of Indian visa for tourists: The e-visa and the “paper” visa.

E-Visa

This can only be used if you are flying into the country. You cannot enter India overland on an e-visa. The cost of it fluctuates, but it’s around £100 and it’s pay up front. If your application is refused then you lose that money. It takes 4-5 days for the visa to be approved (or rejected.) As the name suggests, you apply for it online, which means you have to deal with the Indian visa website which is out there imitating a mid 2000s Myspace page.

“Paper” Visa

This visa allows you to enter India by land or air. So if you intend to cycle across the border then this is the one you have to have. You need to apply in person at an Indian Embassy (or the Indian Visa Service Centre in the case of Kathmandu.) The forms for applying can be found on the exciting Indian visa website, here: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/

The photo they require is not the standard-sized passport photo. The number one reason that this type of Indian visa application is rejected is submitting the wrong sized photo. You also need a photocopy of your passport and a photocopy of your visa for the country you’re applying from. You pay for this visa if and when you get it, not upfront. You don’t hand your passport over at the initial application stage.

Make sure you note the application number at the top of your form (by the barcode.) You will need that and your passport number to check online on the status of your application, which you can do here: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/StatusEnquiry

You will be contacted via email to let you know when you need to visit the Embassy for the second stage of the application process. Reports differ as to whether that is an interview at the Embassy, or just taking your passport and leaving it at the Embassy. Either way you will leave you passport overnight. You pay for your visa at this stage. You must pay in cash. The following day you pick up your passport and visa.

Applying in Kathmandu

Documents must be handed in at the Indian Visa Service Centre, which is right next to the Embassy. The Centre is open from 9:30 to 12:30 on weekdays and closed at weekends and on public holidays. Staff here don’t actually work for the Embassy but act as middle (wo)men, so while they might give your application a cursory check and make sure you’ve submitted all the documents, they don’t process the application and can’t really answer questions about it.

There are a number of visa agents in the area of the Service Centre who will complete your application for you for a fee. We went to “Quick Service,” which is right next door. We paid 1500NPR (just under £10) for both of us. That included the photocopies of passports/Nepalese visas and crucially, the correct sized photo for the application. It took about 40 minutes for the 2 of us. You need an address for a hotel in India, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a booking. You’ll also be asked for details of past trips to India including visa numbers and dates, though how long ago the visit was will matter. If you went a couple of years ago, but on a previous passport, and don’t have the details then that is likely to be a problem. If you went 10 years ago on an old passport, then providing the month and year of your visit should be enough.

Following the border closures during the Covid pandemic, only 2 crossings from Nepal to India have since re-opened for use by foreigners (the others can still be used by Indian and Nepalese citizens.) Those are Birgunj/Raxaul and Siddhathanagar/Sonauli. This information is really quite critical if you want to cross the border, so it’s bafflingly difficult to find, but it is buried somewhere in the depths of the Indian visa website extravaganza.

Our experience

We arrived at the Visa Service Centre when it opened and there was only one other person there, despite this being after a long weekend. If it is busy there’s the facility to take a ticket and wait till your number is called, but this was unnecessary for us. At the counter we handed over the documents and passports and, when asked why we weren’t applying for an e-visa, confirmed that we needed a visa to enter by land as we’re travelling by bike.

We waited for nearly 4 weeks and did not hear anything. Our visa status was still “under process” on the online portal. We ended up having to fly out of Kathmandu because we couldn’t exit by land.

Update: Over 6 weeks after we submitted our applications they still had not been processed.

Further update: Over a year later and our visas are still being processed!!

Other Information

Worth noting that you cannot have two visas running concurrently. If you have an e-visa and decide you want to travel by land, then tough shit. You have to wait to apply until after your e visa runs out. Or just fly. It also means that if you wait for weeks to get the paper visa, and it’s not forthcoming, then making a decision to fly instead puts you in a dilemma. If the paper visa is approved before the e visa then your e visa will be rejected and you lose the £100 you paid up front for it.

Also of huge importance in factoring in how to get to India is the enormous fee some airlines in this part of the world charge to carry a bike. It’s US$200 per bike on Air India.