Where Can You Enter India on an e-Visa? The 2026 Airports & Seaports List

Here is the detail that catches more travellers off guard than any other: your Indian e-Visa is not valid everywhere. It is valid only at a fixed, government-published list of airports and seaports. Land at one of those, and immigration waves you through. Arrive anywhere else — a smaller airport, a land border from Nepal, the wrong cruise terminal — and that visa you paid for, waited for, and printed is effectively worthless. You can be denied boarding before you even leave the UK, or turned around at the desk in India.

It sounds like an edge case. It isn't. People route through a cheaper connection into a regional airport, or assume a cruise can dock anywhere, or plan to cross overland after a trek in Nepal — and only discover the rule when an airline agent at Heathrow refuses to let them board. So before you book that flight, let's get the 2026 list straight, explain exactly why the restriction exists, and show you where it quietly trips people up.

The short version: e-Visa means air or sea only#

An Indian e-Visa is a privilege-with-strings. Unlike a traditional sticker visa in your passport, the electronic visa is tied to a defined set of immigration check-posts. As of 2026, that means:

• 33 designated airports
• A growing list of designated seaports (cruise arrivals)

And critically: no land borders. You cannot drive or walk into India on an e-Visa. If your itinerary involves crossing from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Myanmar by road, your e-Visa will not get you in — you need a regular paper visa instead.

The 2026 list of authorised e-Visa airports#

These are the airports where an e-Visa is accepted for arrival in 2026, per the Bureau of Immigration's e-Visa portal:

Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gaya, Goa (Dabolim), Goa (Mopa), Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kannur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Port Blair, Pune, Surat, Tiruchirapalli, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Varanasi, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.

That's 33 airports — and it covers nearly every place a UK traveller would realistically fly into. The big metros (Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad) are all on it, as are popular leisure gateways like both Goa airports, Cochin and Jaipur.

The catch is the airport that isn't on the list. Smaller regional fields — and there are dozens across India — are not authorised. If a cheap multi-stop fare routes your final domestic-feeling hop into an airport not named above as your international point of entry, you have a problem.

The 2026 list of authorised e-Visa seaports#

Cruise passengers and those arriving by sea get their own list. In 2026 India significantly expanded maritime access — adding 14 new seaports earlier in the year and taking the total number of authorised immigration check-points across all modes past 110. The designated e-Visa seaports include:

Agatti, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Goa (Mormugao), Kamarajar, Kandla, Kattupalli, Kolkata, Kollam, Mangalore (New Mangalore), Mumbai, Mundra, Nhava Sheva, Port Blair, Vallarpadam, Visakhapatnam, Vizhinjam and Vizhinjam International.

If you're on a cruise, the rule is the same as for flights: your ship must dock at a designated seaport for your e-Visa to be honoured. A cruise line's published itinerary usually clears authorised ports — but itineraries change, ports get swapped for weather or operational reasons, and an unscheduled call at a non-designated port is not a valid e-Visa entry.

Why landing somewhere not on the list voids your e-Visa#

This isn't bureaucratic fussiness for its own sake. The e-Visa system works because the named airports and seaports have the biometric capture equipment, immigration staffing, and integration with the central visa database needed to verify an electronic authorisation on the spot. A non-designated airport simply isn't set up to process an e-Visa arrival — the officer there has no mechanism to admit you on it.

So the consequences are real and they cascade:

• Denied boarding in the UK. Airlines are liable for carrying passengers who will be refused entry, so check-in staff are trained to verify your entry point matches your visa type. An e-Visa for an arrival at a non-listed airport can see you stopped at the gate.
• Refused entry in India. Reach immigration at the wrong port and the officer cannot admit you. You may be detained pending the next flight out, fined, and sent back at your own cost.
• A wasted, non-refundable visa. The e-Visa fee is not refunded because you used it incorrectly. You're back to square one — and possibly buying an expensive last-minute paper visa.

How this compares to a paper visa#

If your itinerary genuinely needs flexibility — a land crossing, an obscure airport, an open-ended cruise route — the regular paper visa is the safer instrument. Here's the trade-off at a glance.

Feature	e-Visa	Paper visa
Entry by air	Designated airports only	Any international airport
Entry by sea	Designated seaports only	Designated seaports
Land border entry	Not permitted	Permitted at authorised posts
Where you apply	Online	VFS / High Commission, in person
Best for	Standard fly-in tourism	Complex or overland itineraries

The e-Visa is brilliant for the typical trip: fly into Delhi or Goa, see the country, fly home. It's the unusual routings where it quietly fails — and where choosing the right visa before booking matters most.

The fees and validity, for context#

For UK travellers, the e-Tourist visa comes in three flavours, with US-dollar fees set by the Indian government (plus a 2.5% bank charge on top):

• 30-day, double entry — around US$25
• 1-year, multiple entry — around US$40
• 5-year, multiple entry — around US$80

The longer visas allow a maximum stay of 180 days per visit. Fees change periodically and vary by season, so always confirm the current figure on the official portal at the time you apply. None of these prices change the entry-point rule — a 5-year e-Visa is just as void at a non-designated airport as a 30-day one.

There's also a newer wrinkle for 2026: alongside the e-Visa, India now requires an online e-Arrival Card, submitted shortly before you land. It's one more form, one more deadline, one more thing that has to be exactly right before immigration will admit you.

Where people actually come unstuck#

In our experience the e-Visa itself is rarely the hard part. The mistakes cluster around the surrounding detail:

• Booking the flight before checking the entry airport — then discovering the routing lands at an unauthorised field.
• Choosing an e-Visa when the trip really needs a paper visa — because of an overland leg or a non-standard port.
• Mismatched passport details — a name, passport number, or date keyed slightly wrong on the application that doesn't match the travel document, which immigration treats as a fail.
• Leaving it too late — the fee must clear several days before arrival, and processing isn't always instant.
• The wrong e-Visa category entirely — tourist when the purpose is business or medical, each of which has its own rules and entry conventions.

Any one of these turns a £30 formality into a missed flight. The list above is public and unforgiving, and the system assumes you'll read every line of it correctly. That's a lot of small, high-stakes decisions to get right with no second chance at the airport.

This is exactly the kind of thing worth handing off. We confirm the correct visa type for your actual itinerary, match every detail to your passport, choose an entry point that won't trip the rules, and file it on the right timeline — so the only thing you have to think about at the airport is your gate number.

If your trip is anything other than a straightforward fly-in — a cruise, a business purpose, medical treatment, or travel from a third country — the right category and entry-point combination matters even more.

Frequently asked questions#

Can I enter India by land on an e-Visa?#

No. The e-Visa is valid for arrival by air and sea only, at designated airports and seaports. Land border crossings are not permitted on an e-Visa — those require a traditional paper visa applied for in advance.

What happens if I land at an airport not on the e-Visa list?#

Your e-Visa cannot be processed there. In practice you'll usually be stopped at check-in in the UK and denied boarding; if you reach a non-designated point you can be refused entry, fined and sent back at your own expense, with the visa fee lost.

Do I have to exit India from the same airport I entered?#

No. The strict list applies to entry. Exit is permitted from a wider range of authorised airports, seaports and other check-posts, so you can leave from a different point than you arrived — and, on a multiple-entry visa, enter through a different designated point next time.

Is the airport and seaport list ever updated?#

Yes. India revises the list periodically — 2026 saw a notable expansion of seaports. Because it can change, always confirm the current list on the official e-Visa portal close to your travel date rather than relying on an older copy.

How much does an Indian e-Tourist visa cost for UK citizens in 2026?#

Roughly US$25 for 30 days, US$40 for one year and US$80 for five years, plus a 2.5% bank charge. Fees are set in US dollars and change periodically, so check the official figure when you apply.