India — Tourist Visa (90 Days Per Visit)
Summary
- Per-visit limit
- 90 days (180 for US/UK/Canada/Japan)
- Annual cap
- 180 days per calendar year
- Window
- Calendar year (resets Jan 1)
- Applies to
- 1-year and 5-year e-Tourist Visa holders
- Authority
- Bureau of Immigration
On India's 1-year and 5-year e-Tourist Visas, most nationalities can stay up to 90 days per visit, while nationals of the US, UK, Canada and Japan can stay up to 180 days per visit. Regardless of nationality, your combined stays cannot exceed 180 days in a single calendar year. Two limits run at once: a per-visit cap that resets each time you enter, and an annual aggregate that resets only on January 1.
Who it applies to
This rule matters if you are:
- A tourist, long-stay traveler, or digital nomad visiting India on an e-Tourist Visa.
- Someone planning several trips in one year — say a winter and a monsoon-season visit — where the days add up.
- A US, UK, Canadian, or Japanese national relying on the longer 180-day per-visit allowance.
The per-visit allowance depends on your nationality, but the 180-day annual cap applies to everyone on an e-Tourist Visa. It does not cover people holding other visa categories (employment, business, student, or entry visas), which have their own conditions.
The rule — and why it exists
The e-Tourist Visa carries two independent limits:
- Per-visit cap. Up to 90 days of continuous stay for most nationalities, or up to 180 days for nationals of the US, UK, Canada, and Japan. This resets on every fresh entry.
- Annual aggregate. No more than 180 days total in a single calendar year, no matter how many separate visits you make.
Why it exists: a tourist visa is meant for genuine short-term visits, not for effectively living in the country. The per-visit cap keeps individual stays short, while the annual aggregate stops travelers from stringing back-to-back visits together to live in India year-round on a tourist permit. Together they preserve the line between visiting and residing.
Counting the days
- 1Each new entry starts a fresh per-visit count — 90 days for most nationals, 180 for US/UK/Canada/Japan nationals.
- 2Every day you are physically present in India adds to your running calendar-year total. The official pages do not say how partial days are treated, so count arrival and departure days too.
- 3The calendar-year total must never exceed 180 days, even across several separate visits.
- 4On January 1 the annual aggregate resets to zero; a stay that straddles year-end draws down two separate annual allowances.
Examples
Example 1 — a single long visit
You hold a passport that gives the standard allowance and arrive in Goa on January 5. You may stay up to 90 days on that visit, so you must leave by early April. Because it is one visit well under 180 days, the annual cap is not a constraint here.
Example 2 — several visits in one year
You hold a passport with the standard 90-day allowance. In the spring you make two trips — 60 days from February, then another 40 days in May — for 100 days in India so far this year. You return in the autumn. Your per-visit count resets on this third entry, but your annual total is already 100. That leaves only 80 days before you hit the 180-day calendar-year cap — even though a fresh 90-day per-visit allowance would otherwise apply.
Example 3 — a US national across year-end
As a US national you arrive on November 1 and stay through the following March. Your per-visit allowance is 180 days, so the length of the trip is fine. But the days before December 31 count against the old year's 180-day aggregate and the days from January 1 count against the new year's — the annual counter resets mid-trip.
Exceptions & edge cases
- Nationality-based per-visit limit. US, UK, Canada, and Japan nationals get 180 days per visit rather than 90 — but the 180-day annual cap still applies to them.
- Longer-validity visas don't raise the caps. The 1-year and 5-year e-Tourist Visas simply permit multiple visits within the same 90/180-day limits.
- Year-end straddle. A visit spanning December 31 splits across two annual allowances, so it draws less from each year's cap — but no single visit can exceed the per-visit limit of 90 days (180 for US/UK/Canada/Japan nationals).
- The 30-day e-Tourist Visa is different. It is valid for 30 days from your first arrival, allows re-entry within that window, and cannot be extended — the 90/180-day per-visit limits apply to the 1-year and 5-year versions.
- Two-month gap for some nationalities. Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines and Indian missions require a gap of at least two months between two visits to India on a Tourist Visa for nationals of Afghanistan, China, Iraq and Sudan, foreigners of Pakistani origin and stateless persons. For an emergency, a mission may grant a fresh Tourist Visa within that gap on a written undertaking.
- No extensions. Indian missions state that e-Tourist and Tourist visas cannot be extended or converted to another category in India.
- Purpose restrictions. The visa is for tourism and short permitted purposes only; paid work, employment, or formal study require a different category.
Common misconceptions
- "Leaving and coming back resets everything." It resets the per-visit count, but the 180-day calendar-year aggregate keeps running.
- "A 5-year visa means I can stay for years." No — validity is not the same as permitted stay. You are still bound by the 90/180-day per-visit cap and the 180-day annual limit.
- "Everyone gets 180 days per visit." Only US, UK, Canada, and Japan nationals do; most nationalities are capped at 90 days per visit.
- "The limit is a rolling 12 months." The annual cap is tied to the calendar year and resets on January 1, not on a rolling basis.
Frequently asked questions
Up to 90 days per visit for most nationalities, or up to 180 days per visit if you're a US, UK, Canadian, or Japanese national. On top of the per-visit cap, everyone on an e-Tourist Visa is limited to 180 days total in India per calendar year, however many trips that takes.
No. A longer validity period only means the visa stays usable for more entries over that time — it does not raise the per-visit cap or the 180-day annual limit. You still get up to 90 days per visit (180 for US/UK/Canada/Japan nationals) and no more than 180 days total in a calendar year.
Treat them as counting. The official visa pages do not say how partial days are treated, so the safe reading is that the day you arrive and the day you leave are both days in India. Plan your exit with a buffer so a late flight doesn't push you over.
Leaving and re-entering starts a fresh per-visit count, but it does not reset the calendar-year total. Once your combined stays reach 180 days in a year you must wait until the next January 1, regardless of how many separate trips you took. Nationals of Afghanistan, China, Iraq and Sudan, foreigners of Pakistani origin and stateless persons must also leave a gap of at least two months between two visits on a Tourist Visa.
It is a calendar year. The annual aggregate resets on January 1, so a trip that straddles year-end draws partly from the old year's allowance and partly from the new one.
Overstaying breaches the terms of your visa. Indian missions state that e-Tourist and Tourist visas cannot be extended or converted, so if you need longer, leave before your permitted stay ends and apply from abroad for a visa category that fits.
No. The official e-Visa FAQ limits the e-Tourist Visa to recreation and sightseeing, casual visits to friends and relatives, short informal courses (such as yoga, languages or cooking), unpaid voluntary work of up to one month, and medical treatment. Paid work, employment, and formal or structured study require a different visa category.
This rule is tracked automaticallyin
Bounded
- Automatically tracks your days for this rule
- Alerts you before you cross the limit
- Records border-crossing days in both countries
- Runs alongside your other visa, tax, and residency rules
Sources
- Bureau of Immigration — e-Tourist Visa
- Indian Visa Online — e-Visa portal (Ministry of Home Affairs)
- PIB (Ministry of Home Affairs) — e-Visa liberalisation: 90/180-day continuous stay per visit
- High Commission of India, Wellington — 180-day annual cap; e-Tourist visas not extendable
- Ministry of Home Affairs — Details of visas granted by India (Tourist Visa: repeat visits)
Related rules
For information only. This page is a plain-English summary of publicly available rules, not tax, legal, or immigration advice. Rules change and depend on your personal circumstances — always confirm with the official source above and a qualified professional before acting.