Visa, insurance & health
You must have a visa to tour India. There are two ways in which you can apply for a visa.
- A relatively expensive visa service operated by VFS global – an agency employed by the Indian Commission
- The new online system
VFS Global (expensive)
This agency has 16 centres all over the UK and will make a visa application for you. This will cost over £100 plus any fees of around £20/30. Please see: http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/india/ You can apply for this at any time. This is the most expensive option.
Visa online system (best value)
The Indian government have introduced a new online visa process where a 30 day visa can be obtained. The cost of this is around £20 plus any credit/debit card fees. Please see the Indian government site for details as prices may change.
Visa online, some detail
As with most services online, you will need to do a little admin to apply. You will need to scan a copy of your passport for example, as well as create a digital online photograph of yourself for the visa. Some previous passengers have used photographic developing services like ‘Snappy Snaps’ or photography services in large supermarkets to make digital photographs (see below too). Visa costs are cheaper for those with an Irish passport.
Some tricky steps you might encounter:
Your passport copy may be in JPEG format, yet the site may ask for it in ‘PDF’ format – and it needs to be less than 300kb in size. If you’re pretty adept on the internet, there are some sites that do this for free. Search under ‘convert jpg to pdf’ and upload your passport copy, and follow instructions. Save this new version to your computer, then go back online and search ‘compress pdf’ and upload the PDF copy of your passport and follow instructions. Save this again for uploading.
For payment by card, select SBI.
Once the you have completed the above, the visa usually takes around 72 hours to process. An email is sent to you to confirm it is ready. You usually have to revisit the website with your visa reference and passport number to print the visa. The ‘e-visa’ itself is one A4 sheet of paper which includes your photograph and a bar code. You need to take this when you travel. Please note at the time of writing, visas can only be applied for within a month of arrival. Please see the following for full information.
Insurance
It is your responsibility to ensure you have adequate insurance to cover all activities on this tour.
Health
Please note we cannot advise as to vaccinations and health precautions for this trip. Please visit your travel nurse several months before travel to get proper advice. Please tell them you are visiting Rajasthan.