The Australian government’s Smartraveller portal, refreshed on 9 October 2026, reminds travellers that India’s online e-Arrival card must be completed within 72 hours before departure. The advisory, which is legally non-binding but influential for corporate travel policies, flags recent incidents of tourists being denied boarding at Sydney and Melbourne for failing to present the QR-coded confirmation. The alert also reiterates monsoon-related transport disruptions and warns of scams involving unsolicited taxi ‘guides’. Business travellers are advised to carry hard copies of both the e-Arrival card and their invitation letters to expedite immigration formalities at Bengaluru and Hyderabad, where system outages were reported last month. For Indian inbound-mobility stakeholders—hoteliers, event organisers and destination-management companies—the update offers leverage to insist that overseas delegates upload passport data in advance, reducing airport meet-and-greet delays. Indian immigration officials note that completion rates for the e-Arrival card have climbed to 93 percent since airlines built the check into their document-verification apps, but non-compliance still causes bottlenecks during peak charter arrivals for exhibitions and ICC cricket fixtures.
