Updating its public advisories page on 28 July, the Embassy of India in Yerevan reiterated a rule that frequently trips up e-Visa holders: if a traveller has renewed their passport after receiving the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), they must carry both the old (cancelled) passport and the new one when boarding a flight to India. Immigration officers at Indian airports scan the barcode on the ETA, which is electronically linked to the original passport number. Arriving without the old document can result in refusal of entry and immediate deportation at the airline’s cost. The embassy says it handled eight such cases in the past fortnight alone, mostly involving Armenian and Georgian tourists who obtained new biometric passports after booking their trips. For corporate travellers, the advisory is equally pertinent. Executives who renew passports to add visa pages often overlook the linkage issue, causing missed meetings and project delays. The embassy stressed that airline check-in staff are empowered to deny boarding if the old passport is not produced, even when the traveller has a valid Indian business visa printed on the new passport. The Ministry of Home Affairs is reportedly working on a back-end solution to allow e-Visa holders to update passport numbers without reapplying, but no timeline has been published. Until then, travellers must either carry both passports or cancel and re-apply for a fresh e-Visa. Mobility managers should audit employee passport expiries well ahead of assignment start dates and ensure airline tickets are booked using the passport details shown on the ETA to avoid mismatches in airline Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) submissions.
Source: Embassy of India, Yerevan
