India Business Visa Requirements: How I Got India e-Business Visa for 1 year

Maybe you want to visit India for a while. Who doesn’t want to go to the Taj Mahal, right? So you get a tourist visa for India.

Maybe you fell in love and you would want to move to India, which means you would probably need an India Entry Visa.

Maybe you want to study classical dance and you would get a student visa. And well, how about opening a business? Selling something? Now, that calls for a Business visa for India.

I got an Indian Business Visa while living in the United States as a Mexican citizen. Contrary to a bunch of posts that I had read in some forums, India business visa requirements weren’t hard to understand.

And should you go for it, it’s real easy to get it online or through the embassy, as long as you have the legitimate proof.

When to Fill in India Business Visa Application?

You can fill in the application for India e-business visa at max 120 days in advance from the proposed date of travel, but not more than 4 days from your travel date.

Do You Need India e-Business Visa?

There are many situations where a foreign national would be need a Business visa.

1. Set up a Business Venture in India

If you want to start a new industrial/business venture(other than Proprietorship
Firms and Partnership Firms) in India or you want to explore the options to start one, you can apply for Indian business visa.

2.  Sale/Purchase/Trade

If you are coming to India to sell or purchase products such as industrial, consumer durables etc.

You can come to do business with suppliers/ potential suppliers in India, to evaluate or monitor quality, give specifications, place orders, negotiate further supplies etc., relating to goods or services procured from India.

And also pre-sales or post-sales activity not amounting to the actual execution of any contract or project falls under this category.

3. Attend Meetings/Trainings

A foreigner can come to attend business/technical meetings in India and in-house training in a regional center of multinational companies/corporate houses.

4. Recruitment

A foreigner can come to India to recruit people for a company or organization

5. Exhibition/Trade Fairs

A foreigner can participate in a trade fair or exhibition to demonstrate their products or for any other reason using a business visa for India.

Foreign nationals can also attend cultural events/ activities with remuneration on a business visa.

6. Experts/Specialists

Foreign nationals who are experts in a certain technology or field of work can visit India on a business visa to help with an ongoing project such as providing guidance or monitoring progress etc.

7. Conducting Tours

You can come to India as a tour conductor and travel agent and/or conduct
business tours of foreigners or business relating to it.

8. GIAN

GIAN (Global Initiative for Academic Networks) allows foreign academians/experts to come to India on an Indian e Business visa.

Are Regular Indian Business Visa & e-Business Visa Same?

Well yes and no.

Yes, in the sense that they are for the same purpose: things related to business.

No, in the sense that an e-Business visa is easier to obtain and requires less documentation while a regular business visa needs you to make a trip to the embassy.

As the name suggests, you can get e-Business visa would involve applying for the India business visa online and no stickers on your passport.

Also, the India business visa requirements differ when it comes to the e-Visa and the regular visa.

However, the regular visa can be obtained for 5 or even 10 years while the e-Visa for a year only.

India Business Visa Requirements

While the requirements for Indian business visa might vary a little in the case of a regular visa depending on the country you are applying from, for an e-Business visa, the requirements are much more straightforward.

Here is everything you need.

Indian Business Visa Photo Requirements

It should be a color photo, preferably with white background.

• JPEG
• Size: 10 KB-1 MB
• The minimum dimensions are 350 pixels (width) x 350 pixels (height).

Valid Passport

Your passport must be valid for 6 months from the date of arrival in India, and it should have at least two blank pages.

Business Card

A business card containing your name and profession and contact info, and perhaps a website will do the trick.

How to Apply India Business Visa Online?

You can apply for the India business visa online through the official website of the Indian government. Make sure not to do it through any other scammy website. There are many actually.

https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/Registration

Here is the step-by-step process to fill in the India business visa application form online.

Step 1: Register yourself

You must visit the official website, and register with your passport and other details.

Visa Service

The visa service should be e-Business visa only. And choose the category that is the closest to what you will be doing in India actually.

In my case since I would be helping set up a restaurant, I chose the option: TO SET UP INDUSTRIAL/BUSINESS VENTURE.

Expected date of arrival

Don’t fret over it. Simply provide a date that is close to your flight date.

Step 2: Fill in a lot of data

On the next page, you can see the temporary application ID. Make a note of it. In case, something goes wrong, you don’t have to start from square one.

But know that this temporary application-id is valid for 7 days only.

Then you would need to fill in details like

• Gender
• Date of birth
• Religion
• Passport details
• Educational qualification

Once done, save it. On the page after that, fill in some other details like

• Present and permanent address
• Father and Mother’s details
• Marital status
• Profession
  
  In profession, make sure to provide your employer/business name and your profession. In my case, I filled in chef.
  

When you save the application and go to the next page, you would need to provide a few places that you are planning to visit. Simply put a few names.

Details of Purpose

As per the India business visa requirements, you need to provide the actual purpose which should be the same as you provided when registering.

You will need to provide the name of the company, address, and the nature of the business.

Reference

You need to provide a reference for India and a reference for the country that you are a citizen of. I simply gave my employer’s reference for India and a friend’s for Mexico.

Once you save it, you would need to answer a few questions.

Step 3: Upload your pic

You need to upload a recent color pic in JPEG format as per the specifications.

• JPEG with size of 10 kb to 1 MB
• At least of 350 pixels (width) x 350 pixels (height).

After uploading, you can crop it.

Step 4: Upload India Business Visa Documents

On the next page, you would need to upload a copy of your passport bio page and a business card. These documents need to be in PDF format and of any size from 10 KB to 300 KB.

The business card has to be in English. After uploading the documents, you can verify the details.

Step 5: Pay India Business Visa Fees

After verifying all the details, you can generate the application form. Then you can pay for the visa right away or later.

What is the cost of Indian business visa?

India business visa cost is 80 USD. You can pay using any of the 3 gateways. I used SBI gateway and paid using an international credit card. You can also pay through Paypal.

The Visa fee payment status update may take up to 2 hours due to technical reasons/network delays. I didn’t face any issues.

They ask you to make the payment at most before 4 days of your journey date.

After you make the payment, you would receive a confirmation email related to the submission of your application.

Step 6: Receive the Visa

After the payment is made, you should receive the visa as a PDF in your email if everything checks out.

Online Indian business visa processing time

The India business visa processing time is usually 72 hours or more. I got my visa within 24 hours I believe.

If you don’t receive it within 72 hours, you can call them on +91 11 24300666 or e-mail at indian-evisa@gov.in.

Entering India on Business Visa

At the time of entering India, I simply had to show the ETA and my passport at the airport. They also asked for an address at the airport for which I provided the address of a hotel where I planned to stay for a few days.

I did my biometrics and that was it.

Before the 180 days were over, you would need to leave and reenter.