OCI vs Indian Tourist Visa: Which Is Actually Cheaper for Visiting India from the UK? (2026)

Every December, the same quiet panic ripples through Indian-origin households across the UK: the flights are booked, the suitcases are half-packed with Marks & Spencer biscuits for the relatives, and someone suddenly asks, "Wait — did we sort the visa?" And every year, a fresh round of the same argument breaks out at the kitchen table. Should we just get an OCI and be done with it? Or keep paying for the e-visa each time?

It sounds like a simple money question, and for years the received answer was "the e-visa, obviously." That answer is wrong for British passport holders, and this page used to give it. The reason is a number almost every UK site gets wrong by a factor of six.

So let's do what almost nobody does properly: pull the actual figures off the government's own fee schedule, and run the comparison again.

The two options, in plain English#

If you hold a British passport and want to visit India, you broadly have two routes.

The Indian e-Tourist Visa (e-visa) is the modern, online-only travel authorisation. You apply through the Indian government portal, upload a photo and passport scan, pay, and — if all goes well — receive an electronic visa by email. It comes in three flavours: a 30-day version, a 1-year multiple-entry version, and a 5-year multiple-entry version. (All of them are multiple entry — the "30-day double entry" description you will find on many sites, including our own earlier version of this page, is out of date. The portal's wording is "Entries: Multiple Entry, non-extendable and non-convertible.") It is purely for visiting. When it expires, you apply again.

The Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card is a different animal entirely. It is not a visa you renew per trip — it is a lifelong, multiple-entry travel and residency-style document for people of Indian origin and their spouses. With OCI you can enter India as often as you like, stay as long as you like, and skip the foreigner registration hoops. It is closer to a permanent status than a holiday permit.

So already we're comparing apples with a much larger, longer-lasting orange. But since both get you through immigration at Delhi, Mumbai or Kochi, the comparison is fair — and the cost question is real.

The real 2026 fees#

Here is where every comparison of this kind goes wrong, including ours until now.

The Indian e-visa fee is reciprocal — set country by country — and the schedule published at indianvisaonline.gov.in is a table of nationalities. Row 166 is the United Kingdom. Read across it and you get:

• 30-day e-tourist visa, arriving April–June: US $10
• 30-day e-tourist visa, arriving July–March: US $25
• 1-year e-tourist visa: US $40
• 5-year e-tourist visa: US $484

That last figure is not a typo, and it is where almost the entire UK internet — this page previously included — quotes US $80 instead. US $80 is the global default rate that appears in generic write-ups. British passport holders pay six times that.

On top of any of them there is a 3% bank charge on card payments, or 4% via PayPal — not the 2.5% widely quoted.

A fresh OCI through VFS Global in the UK costs £247.78: £215 consular fee, £3 ICWF and £29.78 VFS service charge. It is a published sterling price, not a currency conversion. That single payment buys a document valid, in practical terms, for life.

Let's lay it side by side.

Feature	Indian e-Tourist Visa	OCI Card
Who it's for	Any British traveller	People of Indian origin & spouses
Validity	30 days, 1 year or 5 years	Effectively lifetime
Official cost for a UK citizen	US$10–25 (30-day), US$40 (1-year), US$484 (5-year), + 3% card	£247.78 one-off
Entries	Multiple on every tier	Unlimited, multiple
Max stay	180 days per calendar year on the 1 and 5-year	No limit
Renewal	Re-apply every time it expires	None — no age now triggers a re-issue
Processing	Often a few working days	VFS UK states 6–8 weeks
Convertible/extendable	No	N/A — it's permanent

Running the break-even maths#

Now the part everyone actually came for. Converting to pounds at roughly US$1 ≈ £0.79 and including the 3% card charge:

• 30-day e-visa: about £8 (April–June) or £20 (July–March)
• 1-year e-visa: about £33
• 5-year e-visa: about £394
• Fresh OCI: £247.78, fixed

Which produces a result that surprises almost everyone, and that no other UK page we have seen states:

For a British passport holder, one 5-year e-visa costs about £146 more than an OCI card that lasts for life.

There is no break-even period to calculate. If you are eligible for OCI and were considering the 5-year e-visa, OCI is cheaper on the very first purchase — before you count the 180-day cap, the repeat applications, or the fact that the OCI never expires.

The genuine contest is therefore OCI versus repeated short visas:

• 1-year e-visa, renewed: ~£33 a year. It takes about 7.5 years of continuous cover to reach £247.78.
• 30-day e-visa, one trip a year in high season: ~£20 a year — cheap, if a month is genuinely enough and you never need longer.

So the honest rule is: if you visit once every few years for under a month, keep buying short e-visas. If you were about to buy a 5-year e-visa, buy an OCI instead — assuming you qualify.

But — and this is the part the spreadsheet misses — fees are the smallest cost in this equation.

Why the headline maths is a trap#

If you only counted the government fees, you might conclude "e-visa wins, easily." That conclusion quietly ignores everything that makes the e-visa expensive in ways money doesn't capture.

Your time and risk, every single time. Each e-visa is a fresh application: a fresh photo that must meet exact pixel and background rules, a fresh passport scan, fresh travel details, and a fresh chance of rejection. The Indian e-visa portal is famously unforgiving about photo specifications and document quality, and a single rejected application can cost you the trip if you've left it late. OCI is one painful application — and then never again for decades.

The 180-day cap. The 1-year and 5-year e-visas cap your stay at 180 days per calendar year in aggregate — the portal's wording is "Maximum stay in India during one Calender Year should not exceed 180 days for 1 year and 5 year Tourist Visa" — and they are non-extendable and non-convertible. Note that this is an annual total, not a per-visit allowance; the per-visit reading you will find on many sites belongs to the e-Business visa. If a parent falls ill and you need to stay longer, or you decide to work remotely from Bengaluru for eight months, the e-visa simply won't stretch. OCI has no such ceiling.

Passport changes. Renew or replace your British passport mid-cycle and your e-visa is tied to the old document — another thing to manage. OCI also needs the passport linked, but far less frequently under the current relaxed rules.

So which should you choose?#

Strip away the noise and it comes down to a few honest questions.

The short e-visa is the smart, cheaper choice if you visit India occasionally — a wedding here, a holiday there — your stays are well under a month, you don't qualify for OCI, or you need to travel within the next few weeks without committing to a multi-week processing window. Apply directly at indianvisaonline.gov.in; it is not something you should pay an agent for.

OCI is the smart choice if you're of Indian origin or married to an Indian citizen and you travel back with any regularity. At UK reciprocal rates it is now cheaper on the first purchase than the 5-year visa it replaces, and the lifetime convenience — no expiry anxiety, no per-trip photo gamble, no 180-day handcuffs — comes free on top.

If you are not sure whether you qualify, this takes a minute:

There's also a middle path that plenty of UK families take: use a short e-visa for the trip in front of you, and start the OCI in parallel. The e-visa gets you on the plane in days; the OCI takes 6–8 weeks and then never troubles you again. If a wedding is six weeks away, that is usually the right sequence rather than an either/or.

The catch is that OCI applications are where the genuine difficulty lives. The eligibility documentation (proving Indian origin, marriage where relevant), the photo and signature specifications, the passport-linking rules, and the VFS submission are all fiddly, and a single inconsistency can send the whole thing back to the start of a 6-to-8-week queue. This is precisely the kind of paperwork that rewards getting it right the first time.

The bottom line#

For a one-off short trip, a 30-day or 1-year e-tourist visa is cheaper, faster, and entirely sensible — get one, enjoy India, move on. But for a British passport holder the 5-year e-visa is not the frugal option it is usually presented as: at US $484 it costs meaningfully more than a lifelong OCI. If you qualify, that decision has already been made for you.

Whichever side of the line you land on, the part that actually costs people money and missed flights isn't the decision — it's the application itself. That's the bit worth handing over.

Frequently asked questions#

Is OCI cheaper than an Indian tourist visa for UK travellers?#

Against the 5-year e-visa, yes, immediately: the UK reciprocal rate for a 5-year e-tourist visa is US $484 (about £394 with the 3% card charge), while a fresh OCI is £247.78 and lasts for life. Against a 30-day or 1-year visa, the e-visa is cheaper for occasional short trips.

How much does an Indian e-tourist visa cost for a British citizen in 2026?#

US $10 for a 30-day visa arriving April–June, US $25 July–March, US $40 for the 1-year and US $484 for the 5-year, plus 3% on card or 4% via PayPal. The US $80 figure quoted on many sites is the global default, not the UK reciprocal rate.

How long does an OCI card last?#

For life. And since 30 June 2026 no age triggers a re-issue at all — the age-20 requirement was abolished then, and the age-50 one stopped requiring a physical re-issue in April 2021. All you do is update your passport details online within 3 months of a new passport.

What are the catches with the Indian e-tourist visa?#

It is non-extendable and non-convertible, the 1- and 5-year versions cap your stay at 180 days per calendar year in total, and it carries none of the residency-style rights of OCI. You also re-apply and re-pay every time it expires.

Can I switch from using e-visas to an OCI card?#

Yes. Many UK-based travellers start with e-visas and move to OCI once they see how often they're visiting. If you hold a foreign passport and qualify by descent or marriage, you can apply for a fresh OCI at any time.