In August 2024, I received my German citizenship in Berlin and then surrendered my Indian passport / citizenship. As a now German citizen and a former Indian citizen, I require a visa to visit India. There are two options for me:
Apply for an Indian e-Visa
Which I chose to apply onlineApply for Overseas Citizen of India (OCI)
Which requires a surrender certificate (takes around 3 months) and then another 3 months to process for the OCI application
Documents required
A digital copy of German passport
A digital copy of a recent photograph of yours
From this page, there are a bunch of requirements for how this photograph should be.
Recent front facing photograph with white background and photo page of Passport containing personal details like name, date of birth, nationality, expiry date etc are to be uploaded mandatorily by the applicant. Additionally one more document depending upon the e-Visa type would also be required to be uploaded. The application is liable to be rejected if the uploaded documents and photograph are not clear / as per specification.
The digital photograph to be uploaded along with the Visa application should meet the following requirements:
Format - JPEG
Size
Minimum 10 KB
Maximum 1 MB
The height and width of the Photo must be equal.
Photo should present full face, front view, eyes open and without spectacles
Center head within frame and present full head from top of hair to bottom of chin
Background should be plain light colored or white background.
No shadows on the face or on the background.
Without borders.
Scanned Bio Page of the passport showing the Photograph and Details.
Format -PDF
Size : Minimum 10 KB ,Maximum 300 KB
Other document for Business/Medical Purpose
Format -PDF
Size : Minimum 10 KB ,Maximum 300 KB
Applying for Indian e-Visa online
The process is quite straightforward and took around 15 to 20 minutes to finish it. I was able to save and resume my application using the application number that was generated after I provided my email address and went to the next page.
Indian e-Visa application
Go to Indian e-Visa portal
Choose nationality as German, passport type as Ordinary. Port Of Arrival was the city I would fly to - which is Chennai airport for me.
I chose eTourist Visa for 1 year
Enter your details including your email address which will be used for communication
Proceed after filling your personal information, purpose of visit for me was visiting friends / relatives
I included my current address, passport number, ID, etc.
Provided my parents apartment address as the address I will stay at, provided their name, contact details etc.
Couple of questions that were tricky. I answered no because I never visited India on a visa. I only visited India before when I was a citizen.
Have you ever visited India before? and Previous Visa/Currently valid Visa Details
Upload the photograph when asked
Upload a copy of your passport when asked, size limit is 300 KB
I verified all of my information and then went to the payment page. There were 3 options:
Credit card
Debit card
PayPal
I chose PayPal to the fee of around 41$ (dollars, yes) including a processing fee for payment provider. Once I paid, I got an email:
Dear ADITHYA SRINIVASAN ,
Thank you for applying for e-Visa service. We appreciate your interest in visiting India.
Your Application has been successfully received with the following details.
Application ID :- YYYYY
Passport No :- XXXX
Note: Application will take 72 hours for processing
and a response would be sent to the email provided in the visa application.
For any assistance contact e-Visa support center at [email protected]
and for Tele Enquiries (IVRS enquiry) call at (+91) 82 7808 7808 . Please use 00823559124 as key.
e-Visa fee once submitted is non refundable as the fee is for processing of the application and is not dependent on either Grant or Rejection of VISA.
You can check Visa Status or Print ETA by clicking 'Visa Status' on https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html
Timeline
I will update this as it goes.
Applied on 29.10.2024 around 19:00
I checked the status of e-Visa on 30.10 around 18:00 and it was already processed & granted.
