India e-Visa Shake-Up 2026: New Entry Points & Higher Fees

A London-based founder emailed us in February, mid-way through booking a trip to a trade expo in Chennai. "I applied for the same one-year business e-Visa my colleague got eighteen months ago," she wrote, "but the fee that came up was nearly half as much again, and the site listed a different number for an Australian on our team. Have I been sent to a scam page?"

She had not. She had simply run head-first into India's quietly significant 2026 e-Visa shake-up — a package of changes that widened where you can enter the country, pushed the e-Business fee up under a new pricing logic, and made the once-simple question "what does an Indian e-Visa cost?" depend heavily on which passport you hold.

This guide unpacks that shake-up for UK applicants: where you can actually enter, what a British passport really pays, and what "reciprocal pricing" means in practice.

What actually changed in 2026#

Three things moved at roughly the same time, and it is worth keeping them separate in your head because they affect different travellers differently:

• Where you can enter widened — more airports and considerably more seaports. Not land borders, which remain closed to e-Visa holders.
• The one-year e-Business fee rose, and is no longer a single flat global figure.
• Pricing logic is reciprocal, so your fee depends on your nationality rather than one universal price.

The tourist categories, by contrast, look largely untouched. If you are a UK holidaymaker on a short e-Tourist visa, very little has changed for you. If you are travelling for business, almost everything in your cost calculation has.

Where you can enter: 33 airports and 19 seaports#

For years, the frustrating catch with India's e-Visa was that it was only valid for arrival at a designated list of airports and a handful of seaports. Land borders were firmly off-limits — you needed a regular sticker visa to walk or drive across. Show up at the wrong port and an otherwise valid e-Visa could be useless.

India has expanded the maritime list considerably. The current position, per the e-Visa portal's own FAQ:

• 33 airports — the established major international gateways plus additions.
• 19 seaports — a substantial opening-up for cruise and ship arrivals.
• No land crossings. None. An e-Visa is an air-and-sea instrument only.

Our deeper companion piece, India's new e-Visa entry gateways, walks through the full port list and the cruise-passenger angle.

The e-Business fee went up — and is no longer flat#

Here is the change that prompted our founder's panicked email.

For a long time the one-year e-Business visa carried a flat fee of roughly US$80 for everyone. That flat figure has gone, replaced by nationality-specific amounts under a reciprocal model — and for a British passport, the published figure is US $242. Not "US $120-plus", as this page previously estimated.

Here is what a UK passport actually pays across the categories, straight from the government's published schedules:

	Fee for a UK passport	Roughly, in sterling
e-Tourist, 30 days (Apr–Jun)	US$10	£8
e-Tourist, 30 days (Jul–Mar)	US$25	£20
e-Tourist, 1 year	US$40	£33
e-Tourist, 5 years	US$484	£394
e-Business	US$242	£197
e-Medical / Medical Attendant	US$129	£105

Add 3% on card payments or 4% via PayPal to any of these.

Two figures on that table deserve a flag, because they are where nearly every UK guide goes wrong. The five-year tourist visa at US $484 is routinely quoted as US $80 — that is the global default rate, not the British one. And the e-Business at US $242 is routinely quoted as the old flat US $80, or as this page's own "US $120-plus" estimate. Both understate what you will actually be charged.

If you are comparing notes with a colleague of a different nationality, expecting your fees to match is exactly how people convince themselves a legitimate page is a scam.

"Reciprocal pricing": what it means for you#

The clearest way to understand the new model is the principle reportedly behind it: reciprocity. India sets its visa fee for a given nationality to broadly mirror what that country charges Indian citizens for an equivalent visa.

In plain terms: if a particular country makes it expensive for an Indian passport-holder to visit, India's fee for that country's nationals tends to rise to match; where a country is cheaper or easier on Indians, the Indian fee tends to be lower. That is why the reported examples vary so widely — a US, Australian and UAE national applying for the same one-year e-Business visa can each see a different number, and none of them is wrong.

For a UK applicant, the practical consequences are simple but important:

• Your fee is whatever the official schedule lists for British nationals at the moment you apply — the numbers in the table above, at the time of writing.
• The UK sits high in that table. Reciprocity is not a discount for British travellers.
• That figure can change as the arrangement is reviewed, so a number that was right last year may be stale today.
• Comparing your fee against a differently-passported colleague's is meaningless — different inputs, different outputs.

If you are weighing whether a business e-Visa is even the right category for your trip, our explainer on the business e-Visa versus an employment visa is worth reading before you pay anything, because choosing the wrong category is a far more expensive mistake than the fee rise itself.

The trap: paying the wrong amount#

The fee changes have created a fertile environment for two distinct ways of overpaying, and they catch UK applicants constantly.

Trap one — lookalike "official" sites. A long-standing problem made worse by fee confusion. Search "India e-Visa" and you will find a wall of sites that look official but are private operators adding opaque "processing" or "service" charges on top of the government fee — sometimes doubling the cost. When the genuine government fee is itself in flux, it is harder for an applicant to sense-check whether a quoted total is reasonable.

Trap two — budgeting against an outdated flat figure. Plenty of older guides still quote the old flat US$80 e-Business fee. Apply expecting that and the higher 2026 figure looks alarming — which, ironically, can push nervous applicants toward a scam site that "confirms" a lower (fake) price.

Here is the order of operations we recommend to anyone applying in 2026.

How to pay the correct e-Visa fee

1. Confirm your visa category — tourist, business, or something else; the business fee is the one that rose, so be sure you actually need it.
2. Read the official fee schedule for your nationality — note the current government figure for a British national before you go anywhere near a payment page.
3. Verify your entry point is e-Visa-enabled — check your specific airport or seaport is on the current list of 33 and 19. There are no land crossings.
4. Apply through the official portal or a transparent agent — one that shows the government fee separately from its service charge.
5. Keep your approval and fee receipt — carry the e-Visa approval and a record of what you paid, in case of any query at the port.

So is this a DIY job or an agent job?#

We will be honest, because that is the point of this guide.

For a straightforward UK applicant — a British citizen, clean travel history, applying for a standard e-Tourist or e-Business visa, entering at a major airport — the official portal is entirely manageable. The fee changes do not make the application harder; they make the budgeting and site-choosing riskier. If you read the official fee schedule and apply on the official portal, you can absolutely do this yourself.

Where an agent earns its fee is when the simplicity breaks down:

• You are unsure which category you need, or whether a business e-Visa even covers your activity (the wrong category is a costly error).
• Your nationality or travel history is non-standard and you want the per-nationality fee and eligibility confirmed before you commit.
• You are arriving via a newly added seaport and want certainty that your specific port is e-Visa-valid for your visa type.
• You want a transparent, government-fee-separated quote so you are confident you are not overpaying a markup.
• You simply do not want to risk a lookalike site with your passport data and card details.

That last point matters more than it used to — and here we should be clear about our own position. We do not sell Indian visas. Apply directly at indianvisaonline.gov.in; that is the only site that should ever have your passport data and card details for this. For a full walkthrough of the business e-Visa from the UK, our 2026 Indian business e-Visa guide covers documents, timelines and the common pitfalls.

What we do help with is the question the fee table raises for anyone of Indian origin: whether you should be buying Indian visas at all.

The honest bottom line for 2026#

Strip away the noise and the 2026 e-Visa shake-up comes down to this:

• Good news for cruise travellers: far more places to enter by sea — 19 seaports alongside the 33 airports. There are still no land crossings.
• Watch your wallet on business visas: the one-year e-Business fee rose from a flat US$80 to US $242 for a British passport, under a reciprocal, per-nationality model.
• Watch it harder on the five-year tourist visa: at US $484 for a UK passport it costs more than a lifelong OCI card.
• Your job: confirm the current fee for your nationality and your exact entry point on the official portal, and apply through the official channel so you pay the genuine amount and nothing extra.

None of it is exotic. Like most Indian consular paperwork, the difficulty is not the form — it is knowing the current figure, choosing the right category, and not handing your details to the wrong website. Get those three right and the shake-up is manageable.

Frequently asked questions#

How many entry points accept an Indian e-Visa? 33 airports and 19 seaports. There are no authorised land crossings — an e-Visa is valid for arrival by air and sea only.

Can I enter India from Nepal on an e-Visa? No. Overland entry requires a traditional sticker visa applied for in advance. Any source telling you Raxaul or Rupaidiha accept e-Visas is wrong.

How much is an Indian e-Business visa for a UK citizen? US $242, plus 3% on card or 4% via PayPal. The old flat US $80 rate no longer applies to British passports.

Why does my fee differ from my colleague's? Because Indian e-visa fees are reciprocal — set nationality by nationality to broadly mirror what that country charges Indian citizens. Two people applying for the same visa on the same day legitimately pay different amounts.

How much is a five-year Indian tourist e-Visa for a UK citizen? US $484, roughly £394. The US $80 figure quoted on most sites is the global default rate, not the British one.

Should I use an agent for an Indian e-Visa? No. Apply at indianvisaonline.gov.in. Any site adding a "processing fee" is charging for a form you can complete yourself.

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This article is general information for 2026 and not legal or immigration advice. Entry-point lists, fee amounts, per-nationality rates and the reciprocal-pricing arrangement are approximate, secondary-sourced where noted, and change without notice — always confirm the current position and the exact fee for your nationality and visa type on the official Indian government e-Visa portal at indianvisaonline.gov.in↗ before applying. NriDirect is an independent UK agent assisting with Indian consular paperwork and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of VFS Global or the Indian High Commission.