Indian Business e-Visa from the UK 2026: Who Qualifies and What It Really Takes

You have a board meeting in Bengaluru in three weeks, a supplier audit in Pune the week after, and a half-formed plan to fly back for a trade fair before the quarter closes. The Indian business e-visa is built for exactly this — a year of coming and going on a single approval. And then you open the application, reach the field marked "invitation letter from the company in India," and the whole tidy plan stalls.

The Indian business e-visa is one of the most useful travel documents an India-bound professional in the UK can hold, and also one of the easiest to get wrong. Not because the form is long, but because what India is really assessing is not your itinerary — it is the legitimacy of your business relationship, evidenced by documents that have to line up perfectly across two companies, two countries and two sets of signatures. Get the bundle right and you have twelve months of freedom. Get one detail off and you have a rejection on your record that follows you into the next application.

Here is what the business e-visa actually is, who qualifies, and where the genuine friction lives.

What the business e-visa actually gives you#

The e-Business Visa (the official sub-category is e-B1 V) is an electronic travel authorisation granted online, with no stamp in your passport and no trip to a visa centre to lodge it. For most UK-based applicants the headline terms are:

• Validity: one year (365 days) from the date the ETA is granted — not from the date you first travel.
• Entries: multiple. You can enter and leave India as many times as the year allows.
• Maximum stay per visit: continuous stay must not exceed 180 days. Go beyond that and you are required to register with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) within two weeks.
• Visits per calendar year: the e-visa route as a whole may be used a maximum of three times in a calendar year (January to December).
• Processing: typically three to five working days, though applications flagged for additional scrutiny can take materially longer.

The fee is country-specific and set by the Government of India, paid in US dollars on the official portal. For the one-year business e-visa most nationalities sit in the US$120 band, with a card transaction charge of roughly 2.5% added on top. The figure for British passport holders is published in the official country-wise fee schedule and is subject to change on a reciprocal basis, so the live number on the government portal is the only one to trust on the day you pay.

Who qualifies — and who quietly doesn't#

The business e-visa is for travel whose primary purpose is commercial: attending meetings, negotiating partnerships, setting up an industrial or business venture, recruiting, sales, attending trade fairs, conducting tours, or coming as an expert in connection with an ongoing project. It is explicitly not for employment in India. If you intend to draw a salary from an Indian entity or take up a role on Indian payroll, that is an employment visa — a different category entirely, and one the e-visa cannot be converted into.

Two things catch UK applicants out repeatedly.

First, nationality versus passport. The e-visa is for foreign nationals. If you are an Indian citizen, you do not need it at all. If you are an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder, you already hold lifelong visa-free entry and a business e-visa would be redundant and incorrect — yet people apply for one anyway, out of habit or uncertainty about their status. And if you hold a British passport but were born in India or hold a Pakistani-origin background, additional checks and document requirements can apply that the standard online flow does not warn you about.

Second, the e-visa is non-extendable and non-convertible. You cannot stretch it, switch it to another category, or use it to cover a purpose it was not granted for. What you applied for is what you get.

The invitation letter: where most applications live or die#

This is the part of the process that has nothing to do with you and everything to do with your Indian counterpart — which is precisely why it is so unforgiving.

India wants evidence that a real Indian business has a real reason to host you. In practice that means a bundle that hangs together:

• An invitation letter from the inviting company in India, on official letterhead, stating the company's name, full address (city and state), telephone and email, the contact person, the precise purpose of your visit, the dates, and the cities you will travel to.
• Your own business card or a letter on your UK employer's letterhead establishing who you are and your role.
• Where requested, a certificate of incorporation or registration document for the inviting Indian company, proving it legally exists.

Every document must be in English. A letter partly in Hindi, or a scan where the letterhead is cut off, or an invitation that names a different purpose than the one you selected on the form, is grounds for rejection — and the system is unsympathetic about it. Files must be PDF, JPG or PNG and under 5MB each. The inviting company's details on the letter must match the details you key into the application. A mismatch between the city on the letter and the city in the form is the kind of small inconsistency that turns a three-day approval into a refusal.

The cruel part is that you are dependent on a third party — your Indian host — to produce a document to a standard they may never have had to meet before. Chasing a partner company in another time zone to reissue a letter because the visa portal rejected the formatting is not anyone's idea of a productive week.

Business e-visa vs tourist e-visa: don't pick the cheaper one by accident#

A common — and expensive — instinct is to grab the tourist e-visa because it is cheaper and the form looks identical. It is not the same document, and using the wrong one for the wrong purpose is a problem at immigration, not just on the website.

Feature	Business e-Visa	Tourist e-Visa
Purpose	Meetings, trade, ventures, recruitment	Sightseeing, leisure, visiting friends/family
Validity	1 year from grant	30 days, 1 year or 5 years
Max stay per visit	Up to 180 days	Up to 180 days (1/5-yr)
30-day limited
Entries	Multiple	Multiple (1/5-yr)
Invitation letter	Required, on company letterhead	Not required
Can you do business on it?	Yes	No — strictly prohibited
Typical govt fee	~US$120 band	From ~US$25

The line that matters: you cannot conduct business activity on a tourist visa. Walking into a contract negotiation or a supplier audit on a tourist e-visa is a misrepresentation of purpose, and Indian immigration officers do question travellers about the nature of their visit on arrival. The few pounds saved at application are not worth the position it puts you in at the airport.

The realities that don't appear on the form#

The application looks deceptively self-service. The complications are quieter:

• Photograph and passport scan standards are exacting. A photo with the wrong background, a passport scan with a glare strip across the machine-readable zone, or a signature that bleeds outside the box are all routine rejection triggers.
• The four-day rule. You must pay the fee at least four working days before your intended arrival. Last-minute business travel — exactly the kind a business visa exists for — sits awkwardly against this.
• Port of entry restrictions. E-visa holders may only enter through designated airports and seaports. Arriving at a non-designated land border or minor port can mean being turned away.
• The 180-day clock and FRRO registration. Long projects that drift past 180 days trigger a registration obligation that, if missed, becomes an overstay — with penalties on exit.

None of these are dramatic on their own. Collectively, they are why a "simple online form" produces a steady stream of refusals and anxious airport phone calls.

This is the case for not doing it alone. The form is free; the cost of error is not. When the document bundle has to align across your UK employer and an Indian host, when the photo and scan standards are unstated, and when a single mismatch can cost you both the fee and a clean record, having someone scrutinise the whole package before it goes in is the calm choice — particularly when the trip itself is already demanding enough.

If your travel is genuinely leisure rather than commercial, the tourist route is the correct — and cheaper — document. We handle that end-to-end too.

And if India is becoming a regular fixture in your working year, it may be worth stepping off the visa treadmill entirely.

Frequently asked questions#

Can I work for an Indian company on a business e-visa?#

No. The business e-visa covers commercial activity such as meetings, negotiations, trade and setting up ventures, but it does not permit employment or drawing a salary from an Indian entity. Taking up a role on Indian payroll requires an employment visa, and the e-visa cannot be converted into one.

How long can I stay in India on each business e-visa trip?#

Up to 180 days of continuous stay per visit. If a single stay exceeds 180 days you must register with the FRRO within two weeks. The visa itself is valid for one year with multiple entries, but the e-visa route may be used a maximum of three times in a calendar year.

Do I really need an invitation letter from an Indian company?#

Yes. An invitation letter on the inviting company's official letterhead — with its name, full address, contact details, the purpose and dates of your visit — is a core requirement, often alongside your business card and the company's incorporation document. Everything must be in English and consistent with what you enter on the form, or the application is liable for rejection.

How much does an Indian business e-visa cost from the UK in 2026?#

The government fee is set in US dollars and varies by nationality on a reciprocal basis, with the one-year business e-visa sitting in roughly the US$120 band for most applicants, plus a card transaction charge of around 2.5%. Because the figure can change, the live amount shown on the official Indian e-visa portal for British passport holders is the only reliable number on the day you pay.

What's the difference between a business and tourist e-visa?#

The business e-visa permits commercial activity and requires an invitation letter; the tourist e-visa is for leisure or visiting family and strictly prohibits business. Both can offer multiple entry, but using a tourist visa to conduct business misrepresents your purpose and can cause problems at immigration on arrival.