India has quietly widened the reach of its electronic Tourist Visa (e-TV) programme from 157 to 166 nationalities, according to an update released late on 10 February 2026 by the Ministry of Tourism. The e-TV—first rolled out in 2014 and steadily upgraded since—allows travellers to complete the entire visa process online, receive authorisation in as little as 72 hours and enter India through 29 designated airports and five seaports.
The latest expansion adds markets such as Kenya, Algeria, Fiji, Uruguay, Armenia and North Macedonia. While the headline category is ‘tourist visa’, corporate mobility managers make extensive use of the 90-day Business e-Visa sub-track for kick-off meetings, short-term project work and after-sales support visits. Event organisers also benefit: the e-Conference sub-category can be cleared entirely online as long as the meeting is on the Ministry of External Affairs’ approved list.
For companies and individual travellers who prefer to outsource the paperwork, VisaHQ’s online visa concierge can handle the entire Indian e-visa submission, troubleshoot document-quality issues and track approvals in real time. The platform’s dedicated India page (https://www.visahq.com/india/) summarises the latest eligibility lists and makes it easy to upload compliant passport scans, allowing mobility managers to offload manual checks and minimise rejection risk.
![India expands e-Tourist Visa scheme to 166 countries, easing short-term business and leisure travel]()
Officials say the move dovetails with India’s ‘Visit India 2026’ campaign and the biometric Fast-Track Immigration–Trusted Traveller Programme (FTI-TTP), now operational at 13 international airports. Once pre-enrolled, e-visa holders can clear automated e-gates in under 30 seconds, shrinking kerb-to-kerb transit times for frequent flyers.
For inbound corporates the practical impact is sizeable. Before the pandemic only 68 nationalities could use the e-TV; today that figure is 166 and counting. Travel-security consultants note, however, that the back-end now cross-checks Interpol lost-passport data and uses AI fraud-detection algorithms. Applicants should therefore expect the system to reject low-resolution passport scans and be prepared for follow-up queries if their travel history triggers a risk flag.
Mobility teams should update internal travel-compliance portals this week, advise newly eligible employees of the e-visa option and remind existing users that overstays—even by a single day—generate automatic bans under India’s tightened immigration rules.
The latest expansion adds markets such as Kenya, Algeria, Fiji, Uruguay, Armenia and North Macedonia. While the headline category is ‘tourist visa’, corporate mobility managers make extensive use of the 90-day Business e-Visa sub-track for kick-off meetings, short-term project work and after-sales support visits. Event organisers also benefit: the e-Conference sub-category can be cleared entirely online as long as the meeting is on the Ministry of External Affairs’ approved list.
For companies and individual travellers who prefer to outsource the paperwork, VisaHQ’s online visa concierge can handle the entire Indian e-visa submission, troubleshoot document-quality issues and track approvals in real time. The platform’s dedicated India page (https://www.visahq.com/india/) summarises the latest eligibility lists and makes it easy to upload compliant passport scans, allowing mobility managers to offload manual checks and minimise rejection risk.
Officials say the move dovetails with India’s ‘Visit India 2026’ campaign and the biometric Fast-Track Immigration–Trusted Traveller Programme (FTI-TTP), now operational at 13 international airports. Once pre-enrolled, e-visa holders can clear automated e-gates in under 30 seconds, shrinking kerb-to-kerb transit times for frequent flyers.
For inbound corporates the practical impact is sizeable. Before the pandemic only 68 nationalities could use the e-TV; today that figure is 166 and counting. Travel-security consultants note, however, that the back-end now cross-checks Interpol lost-passport data and uses AI fraud-detection algorithms. Applicants should therefore expect the system to reject low-resolution passport scans and be prepared for follow-up queries if their travel history triggers a risk flag.
Mobility teams should update internal travel-compliance portals this week, advise newly eligible employees of the e-visa option and remind existing users that overstays—even by a single day—generate automatic bans under India’s tightened immigration rules.
