India Sharply Raises the Cost of the 5-Year e-Tourist Visa

India has revised its e-Visa fee schedule, and the long-validity tourist category has taken the largest increase. The revised schedule published by the Bureau of Immigration under the Ministry of Home Affairs carries an effective date of 9 July 2026, and the document was republished on 12 August 2026.

What actually changed

The five-year e-Tourist visa is now substantially more expensive than it was: a large step up rather than an incremental adjustment. The one-year e-Business category has also risen.

Several categories were left alone. The 30-day and one-year e-Tourist slabs are unchanged, as are e-Conference, e-Medical and e-Ayush.

The detail travellers keep missing

India does not charge every nationality the same amount. The e-Visa fee schedule is country-specific, and the spread between nationalities is wide: wide enough that two travellers applying for an identical visa on the same day can pay very different amounts depending on the passport they hold. Reciprocity arrangements drive much of this.

That means a figure quoted in an article, a forum post or a travel agent's price list is only meaningful if it was quoted for your nationality. A general "India e-visa price" is not a reliable number.

There is also a bank charge applied on top of the visa fee itself, which catches applicants who budget only for the headline amount.

Who this affects most

Frequent visitors and the diaspora feel this hardest. The five-year multiple-entry tourist visa is the category chosen by people who travel to India repeatedly, for family, for business trips that do not qualify as business travel, or for extended stays split across several visits. Those travellers now face a materially higher cost for the convenience of not reapplying.

For a single short trip, the shorter-validity slabs are unchanged and remain the cheaper route.

What to do before you apply

Check the current price for your own nationality and your chosen validity before committing to a five-year application. If your travel pattern is one trip in the next twelve months, the shorter slab is likely the better value now that the gap between the two has widened.

Verified against the Ministry of Home Affairs / Bureau of Immigration e-Visa fee schedule, effective 9 July 2026.