The Bureau of Immigration (BoI) formally rolled out its e-Arrival card across every international airport in India on 1 October 2025, and on 23 October issued detailed public guidance explaining how travellers must comply. The digital form, which replaces the decades-old paper disembarkation card, must be completed online or via the Su-Swagatam mobile app between 72 hours and departure time.
The card captures passport data, flight details, address in India and purpose of visit; no document upload is required. Families of up to five people may file a single submission. On arrival, passengers present the QR confirmation on their phone (or a print-out) to the immigration officer, cutting average clearance times by an estimated 40 per cent, according to pilot tests at Delhi IGI and Bengaluru.
For global mobility programmes the change is double-edged. Assignees and short-term business visitors will enjoy quicker queues, but travel managers must update pre-trip checklists: airlines have begun denying boarding to passengers who cannot show proof of submission during check-in audits. The BoI has allowed a six-month transition period in which paper cards will still be accepted, giving multinationals until 31 March 2026 to adjust SOPs.
Duty-of-care teams should store the Su-Swagatam app links centrally and brief travellers on data privacy—personal information is retained in encrypted form for seven years under India’s Immigration Rules. Frequent-flyer employers may wish to leverage the BoI API to auto-populate forms from HRIS travel data once it becomes available later in 2026.
The move aligns India with Singapore, Australia and the UAE, all of which have digitised arrival cards, signalling a broader government push toward paperless borders in advance of the 2026 G20 tourism year.
The card captures passport data, flight details, address in India and purpose of visit; no document upload is required. Families of up to five people may file a single submission. On arrival, passengers present the QR confirmation on their phone (or a print-out) to the immigration officer, cutting average clearance times by an estimated 40 per cent, according to pilot tests at Delhi IGI and Bengaluru.
For global mobility programmes the change is double-edged. Assignees and short-term business visitors will enjoy quicker queues, but travel managers must update pre-trip checklists: airlines have begun denying boarding to passengers who cannot show proof of submission during check-in audits. The BoI has allowed a six-month transition period in which paper cards will still be accepted, giving multinationals until 31 March 2026 to adjust SOPs.
Duty-of-care teams should store the Su-Swagatam app links centrally and brief travellers on data privacy—personal information is retained in encrypted form for seven years under India’s Immigration Rules. Frequent-flyer employers may wish to leverage the BoI API to auto-populate forms from HRIS travel data once it becomes available later in 2026.
The move aligns India with Singapore, Australia and the UAE, all of which have digitised arrival cards, signalling a broader government push toward paperless borders in advance of the 2026 G20 tourism year.
