Compare a one-off lifetime OCI card against repeated Indian e-Visas over 10 years — and see how much frequent travellers save with OCI.
OCI is a one-time cost that lasts a lifetime; e-Visas must be bought again and again. Tell us how often you'll visit India over the next 10 years and we'll show you which works out cheaper.
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Roughly how many times you expect to visit.
OCI one-off cost (valid for life)
£325
For only 6 trips, e-Visas work out about £85 cheaper than OCI over 10 years — though OCI still removes all per-trip paperwork.
Estimate over a 10-year horizon. OCI ~£325 one-off; 1-year e-Tourist ~£40/trip; 5-year e-Tourist ~£390 (the $484 UK reciprocity rate). Government fees float with the exchange rate — confirm live on VFS UK and indianvisaonline.gov.in.
This calculator weighs two paths over a 10-year horizon:
We multiply by the number of trips you expect and show the savings when OCI comes out cheaper. The more often you travel, the stronger the case for OCI.
Beyond the headline cost, OCI removes the per-trip friction of e-Visas — no reapplying, no waiting on approval before booking flights, and no risk of a rejected application. For anyone with family in India or regular business there, the lifetime OCI card is usually both cheaper and far more convenient than repeatedly buying e-Visas.
The services this tool relates to — handled end to end, with document checks and VFS booking included.
For frequent travellers, almost always. An OCI card is a one-off cost of roughly £325 all-in and is valid for life. A 1-year e-Tourist visa costs about £40 per trip, and the 5-year e-Tourist visa is about £390 every five years at the UK reciprocity rate. Over a 10-year horizon with several trips, OCI usually wins. This calculator shows your exact break-even.
About £325 all-in: ~£218 government fee, ~£7.44 VFS charge and ~£100 service fee. After that, no Indian visa is ever needed again — OCI is effectively lifelong (the card is re-issued in some cases but the status does not expire).
If you only plan one or two trips to India over the next decade, a 1-year e-Tourist visa at ~£40 each is cheaper than the OCI one-off. OCI's value comes from frequency — the more often you travel, the more you save.
Yes. OCI holders can enter India without a visa, stay indefinitely, and skip the foreigner registration process. There is no per-trip paperwork, no visa windows to manage, and no risk of a rejected e-Visa before a trip.