India’s Ministry of Home Affairs has unveiled the most sweeping expansion of its e-Visa regime since 2019—and Germany is among the 166 countries set to benefit. From 18 December 2025, visitors can apply for their electronic authorisation up to 120 days before arrival, quadrupling the previous 30-day window and allowing trip planners to lock in visas alongside flights and hotels.
Critically for overland adventurers and supply-chain managers, the upgrade also designates Raxaul—the busy India-Nepal border crossing—as the first land entry point for e-Visa holders, complementing 29 airports and five seaports. Further land checkpoints are expected in 2026.
German travellers who prefer delegated paperwork can lean on VisaHQ’s Germany portal (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) to assemble compliant e-Visa packets, track status changes and troubleshoot document snags long before departure—a handy safety net now that applications can be filed four months out.
![India Widens e-Visa Window and Adds Land Entry—Good News for German Tourists and Business Travellers]()
The overhaul accompanies a menu of new e-Visa categories—including e-Student, e-Transit and e-Production-Investment visas—aimed at diversifying inbound traffic beyond leisure. German corporates with operations in Bengaluru’s tech corridor or Pune’s automotive cluster stand to gain from smoother short-term project deployment, while Mittelstand suppliers trading over the Nepal corridor can shave days off paperwork.
Practical tips for mobility teams:
• Update travel policies to reflect the 120-day application window and ensure travellers use the official Indian government portal;
• Flag the single-entry nature of most e-Visas when planning onward trips to neighbouring countries;
• Remind staff that biometric capture still occurs on arrival, so printed e-Visas and the passport used for the application remain mandatory.
Indian officials say the measures are designed to lift annual foreign arrivals from 11 million to 15 million within three years, with Germany consistently ranking among the top ten source markets.
Critically for overland adventurers and supply-chain managers, the upgrade also designates Raxaul—the busy India-Nepal border crossing—as the first land entry point for e-Visa holders, complementing 29 airports and five seaports. Further land checkpoints are expected in 2026.
German travellers who prefer delegated paperwork can lean on VisaHQ’s Germany portal (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) to assemble compliant e-Visa packets, track status changes and troubleshoot document snags long before departure—a handy safety net now that applications can be filed four months out.
The overhaul accompanies a menu of new e-Visa categories—including e-Student, e-Transit and e-Production-Investment visas—aimed at diversifying inbound traffic beyond leisure. German corporates with operations in Bengaluru’s tech corridor or Pune’s automotive cluster stand to gain from smoother short-term project deployment, while Mittelstand suppliers trading over the Nepal corridor can shave days off paperwork.
Practical tips for mobility teams:
• Update travel policies to reflect the 120-day application window and ensure travellers use the official Indian government portal;
• Flag the single-entry nature of most e-Visas when planning onward trips to neighbouring countries;
• Remind staff that biometric capture still occurs on arrival, so printed e-Visas and the passport used for the application remain mandatory.
Indian officials say the measures are designed to lift annual foreign arrivals from 11 million to 15 million within three years, with Germany consistently ranking among the top ten source markets.
