India's AYUSH (Wellness) Visa Explained for UK Travellers (2026)

You have booked three weeks at a renowned Ayurveda centre in Kerala. The brochure promises a daily routine of consultations, panchakarma therapy, prescribed diet, and yoga at dawn. You fill in your usual India e-Tourist visa, pack your linen, and think nothing more of it — until the centre emails asking for your "AYUSH visa reference." Suddenly you realise the visa you have may be the wrong tool entirely.

This is a quietly common trap for UK travellers in 2026. India has created a dedicated visa for exactly this kind of structured wellness stay, and the old habit of defaulting to a tourist visa can put a booking — or even your entry — at risk.

What the AYUSH visa actually is#

The AYUSH visa is a relatively new, dedicated category. It was introduced on 27 July 2023 and operationalised through 2024 under India's "Heal in India" initiative, which aims to position the country as a destination for traditional-medicine and wellness travel.

"AYUSH" is an acronym for the recognised Indian systems of medicine and wellness:

• Ayurveda
• Yoga and Naturopathy
• Unani
• Siddha
• Homeopathy

The visa is intended for people travelling to India to receive treatment or undertake a wellness programme under these systems at a recognised AYUSH centre. That is the crucial framing: it is built around traditional wellness and therapy, not the hospital-and-surgery world that the allopathic e-Medical visa serves.

The four sub-types#

India splits the AYUSH route into four variants. Knowing which one applies to you saves a lot of back-and-forth:

• AYUSH Visa (AY-1) — the main visa for the person receiving treatment or wellness care.
• AYUSH Attendant Visa (AY-2) — for a family member or carer accompanying the patient.
• e-AYUSH — the online/electronic equivalent of AY-1 for eligible nationalities.
• e-AYUSH Attendant — the online attendant equivalent.

The attendant concept mirrors how India handles companions on its medical routes. If you have travelled (or read) about bringing a carer on a hospital trip, the same logic applies here — see our explainer on the medical attendant visa for how the accompanying-person idea works in practice.

Validity, entries and attendants#

Based on current guidance — which you should always reconfirm on the official portal — the headline conditions are:

• Validity: 60 days from the date of arrival.
• Entries: triple entry.
• Attendants: the AY-2 attendant visa is co-terminus with the patient's AY-1 (it expires when the patient's does), and a maximum of two attendants per patient is generally allowed.

These numbers tend to be stable, but visa parameters do shift. Treat the figures above as a planning baseline, not a guarantee, and verify them at the point of application.

The document that makes or breaks the application#

The single most important supporting document for an AYUSH application is a recommendation or booking letter from an accredited AYUSH institution or wellness centre in India. This letter is what tells the authorities your trip is a genuine, recognised wellness or treatment stay rather than general tourism.

A helpful nuance for wellness travellers: where the visit is for pure wellness — a yoga or rejuvenation programme rather than treatment of a specific ailment — detailed medical history can often be waived. That distinction matters, because it lowers the paperwork burden for healthy travellers doing a preventive or restorative programme.

The practical risk is the opposite case: travellers who book a therapeutic programme but arrive on a tourist visa with no AYUSH centre letter at all. That is precisely the mismatch that causes problems, and it is the part we exist to get right.

AYUSH visa vs e-Medical visa, at a glance#

It is worth seeing the two routes side by side so you do not conflate them:

	AYUSH visa	e-Medical visa
For	Ayurveda yoga wellness	Hospital treatment
Validity	60 days triple entry	Longer multi entry
Key letter	AYUSH centre	Hospital

If your itinerary is panchakarma, naturopathy, or a yoga retreat at a recognised centre, the left column is your route. If it is surgery, oncology, cardiology or any allopathic hospital pathway, you are looking at the right column — and our medical e-visa service handles that side too.

How a UK applicant applies#

There are two broad paths, and which one you use depends on the variant and your eligibility:

Applying from the UK

1. Confirm your route — decide between e-AYUSH (online, for eligible nationalities) and the regular AY-1/AY-2 lodged through VFS Global. Check current eligibility on indianvisaonline.gov.in.
2. Secure your centre letter — obtain the recommendation or booking letter from your accredited AYUSH institution in India. Nothing else can proceed cleanly without it.
3. Complete the online form — fill the application on the official portal, selecting the correct AYUSH sub-type and uploading your supporting documents.
4. Lodge correctly — for e-AYUSH, submit and pay online; for regular AY-1/AY-2, lodge the printed form and documents at UK VFS Global as directed.
5. File your e-Arrival Card — separately, before you fly, complete the e-Arrival Card requirement.

A note on the electronic variant: an expansion of e-AYUSH to 167-plus countries was announced around 5 January 2026. UK eligibility for the e- version can therefore change — reconfirm whether you can use e-AYUSH or whether you must lodge the regular AY-1/AY-2 through VFS Global at the time you apply. As for cost, public references point to a fee in the region of US$80, but we would not quote a firm GBP figure here; FX moves and government fees are revised, so check the live amount on the portal.

When a tourist visa is genuinely fine#

Let us be honest, because over-selling a visa category helps nobody: a casual spa weekend or a light leisure trip does not need an AYUSH visa. If you are visiting India broadly as a tourist and happen to book a massage or a couple of relaxation sessions, an e-Tourist visa is the right and proportionate tool.

The AYUSH visa earns its place when:

• you are enrolling in a structured therapeutic or wellness programme at a recognised centre;
• the centre requires an AYUSH visa as a condition of booking;
• your stay is built around AYUSH treatment rather than general sightseeing.

In short: spa-as-tourism, use the tourist visa; programme-at-a-recognised-centre, use AYUSH. The grey zone in the middle is exactly where it pays to ask before you book.

DIY vs using a service — an honest take#

Plenty of organised travellers will manage the AYUSH route themselves, especially the e-AYUSH variant where the centre has done this many times and hands you a clean letter. If your centre is experienced, your case is simple, and you are comfortable on government portals, there is no shame in doing it yourself. The portal is the authoritative source and it is free to use.

Where people come unstuck — and where we add value — is:

• Choosing the wrong category (tourist instead of AYUSH for a treatment stay), which can mean a refused entry or a centre declining your booking.
• A weak or missing accredited-centre letter, the most common cause of friction.
• Confusing AYUSH with the e-Medical route, or vice versa.
• Forgetting the e-Arrival Card.

Our honest funnel is narrow and specific: we sort the right category and make sure the accredited-centre letter is in order, so you do not get refused for using a tourist visa on a treatment stay. You can see the scope of that support on our medical and wellness e-visa service page.

A quick reality check before you book#

If you take one thing from this guide: match the visa to the nature of the trip, not to habit. A structured AYUSH programme is a different animal from a holiday, and India has now given it its own door. Walking through the tourist door instead is a small mistake with a potentially expensive outcome.

For UK-specific nuances on the broader e-visa landscape, our overview for British citizens applying for an Indian e-visa is a useful companion read alongside this one.

When you are ready, we will help you pick the correct AYUSH sub-type, pressure-test your centre letter, and make sure nothing — including the e-Arrival Card — falls through the cracks. Start with our medical and wellness e-visa service.

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This article is general information, not legal or immigration advice, and 2026 figures (validity, fees, eligibility for e-AYUSH) may change. Always defer to the official source at indianvisaonline.gov.in before applying or booking travel. NriDirect is an independent agent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the Bureau of Immigration, the Government of India, or VFS Global.