In a quiet but welcome website update dated 23 June 2026, Indian embassies worldwide confirmed that the government has reinstated all categories of long-duration tourist visas that were suspended at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The move completes a phased normalisation that began with short-stay e-Tourist visas in late 2024. Key points of the restoration include: 1) re-activation of previously issued ten-year paper visas that still carry validity; 2) resumption of fresh long-duration paper visas at Indian consulates; and 3) availability of one-month, one-year and five-year e-Tourist visas on the online portal for eligible nationalities.
![India Fully Restores Long-Duration Tourist Visas and e-Tourist Visas for All Nationalities]()
For travellers who prefer a streamlined application experience, specialist agencies such as VisaHQ can handle the entire paperwork remotely, monitor embassy processing times and flag any rule changes. Their India portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/) already incorporates the newly revived long-term options alongside e-Tourist visas, allowing applicants to compare durations, upload documents and receive status alerts without navigating multiple government pages.
Holders of restored visas may enter India immediately without re-stamping. Tourism stakeholders say the decision plugs the last gap in India’s inbound policy and gives travel wholesalers confidence to market winter-sun packages to Europe and North America. The timing is significant: foreign tourist arrivals were still 14 per cent below pre-pandemic levels in April, and competitors such as Vietnam and Malaysia have rolled out aggressive visa waivers. For multinational firms, the headline benefit is flexibility. Expatriate families based in Asia can again make spontaneous leisure trips to India without the uncertainty of single-entry paperwork, while conference organisers can lock in events secure in the knowledge that delegates can obtain five-year multiple-entry e-visas. Immigration lawyers caution that all travellers must still complete the Air Suvidha declaration and that overstays attract hefty penalties under India’s amended Foreigner Rules. Nevertheless, the restoration marks the final step in reopening the world’s second-largest emerging travel market.
For travellers who prefer a streamlined application experience, specialist agencies such as VisaHQ can handle the entire paperwork remotely, monitor embassy processing times and flag any rule changes. Their India portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/) already incorporates the newly revived long-term options alongside e-Tourist visas, allowing applicants to compare durations, upload documents and receive status alerts without navigating multiple government pages.
Holders of restored visas may enter India immediately without re-stamping. Tourism stakeholders say the decision plugs the last gap in India’s inbound policy and gives travel wholesalers confidence to market winter-sun packages to Europe and North America. The timing is significant: foreign tourist arrivals were still 14 per cent below pre-pandemic levels in April, and competitors such as Vietnam and Malaysia have rolled out aggressive visa waivers. For multinational firms, the headline benefit is flexibility. Expatriate families based in Asia can again make spontaneous leisure trips to India without the uncertainty of single-entry paperwork, while conference organisers can lock in events secure in the knowledge that delegates can obtain five-year multiple-entry e-visas. Immigration lawyers caution that all travellers must still complete the Air Suvidha declaration and that overstays attract hefty penalties under India’s amended Foreigner Rules. Nevertheless, the restoration marks the final step in reopening the world’s second-largest emerging travel market.
