Travellers holding long-term Indian e-Visas can now shift their electronic travel authorisations to a new passport without visiting an FRRO office, thanks to a ‘Transfer of eVisa/ETA’ feature quietly rolled out on 22 September. Initial tests by industry site VisasNews show the online tool supports one- and five-year e-Tourist and e-Business visas, provided the original passport is lost, stolen or not returned by issuing authorities. Applicants enter their old passport number, ETA reference and date of birth, then upload a photograph and the biographical page of the new passport. The system currently offers no option for routine renewals when both passports are available—indicating that the longstanding two-passport rule remains valid. For corporates that rotate expatriate staff through India, the feature removes a logistical pain point: employees whose passports are replaced overseas no longer face a trip to an FRRO counter or risk denied boarding because the ETA is tied to the defunct document. HR should update mobility policies to include screenshots of the new workflow and remind travellers that processing times and any fees are still unconfirmed. Immigration advisers welcome the change but caution that travellers must still carry printouts of both the original and transferred ETA until airlines update their DCS software. Indian authorities have yet to release formal guidance; observers expect FAQs to be updated after a short beta period. The upgrade exemplifies New Delhi’s broader digital-immigration agenda, following recent deployments of biometric e-Gates at Delhi and Bengaluru terminals.
Source: VisasNews
