India adds 11 new entry points for the e-Visa

With the latest expansion, overseas visitors arriving under the e-Visa scheme can now enter India through 88 designated ports: 37 airports, 38 seaports, and 13 land border crossings. The watershed moment is the land route: it was previously closed on first entry for e-Visa holders and is now open at nine additional checkpoints.

What was banned until now

The official e-Visa portal has long stated clearly that arrivals on an e-Visa are permitted only by air or sea. The FAQ at question 23 reads: “No, you can enter India only through the airports and seaports listed on the e-Visa website.”

The exception was four land posts on the Nepal and Bhutan borders: Raxaul, Rupaidiha, Jogbani and Darranga. All other crossings required a consular sticker visa, complete with administrative delays and supporting documents. (We covered this asymmetry in an earlier piece: while leaving India was always possible on foot or rail through land borders, return was not.)

Scenarios grew surreal when travellers could walk out to Pakistan’s Lahore at Attari but couldn’t walk back because they lacked the paper visa.

The new entry points

Four of the eleven new locations have been named by the Ministry of Home Affairs: airports in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), plus the land crossings Attari and Agartala.

Attari is India’s only road checkpoint to Pakistan, linking Amritsar with Lahore. Agartala, capital of Tripura, guards one of the busiest axes into Bangladesh, roughly 100 km from Dhaka. Opening these posts reshapes multi-country itineraries where previously only return journeys via air or sea were possible.

Seven additional land posts remain unnamed in government communications; Indian media lists Gede, Ghojadanga, Haridaspur, Jaigaon, Dawki and Moreh, but no official source has confirmed the list at the time of writing. All six names already appeared as valid exit points on the e-Visa portal, so the hypothesis is consistent even if not officially validated.

The portal hasn’t caught up yet

As of 11 August 2026, the drop-down menus on indianvisaonline.gov.in still reflect the pre-notification roster: 34 airports (Bhopal and Tirupati are missing), and just four land posts. Attari, Dawki, Gede, Ghojadanga, Haridaspur, Jaigaon and Moreh show only in the exit column.

A lag between announcement and online update is common, yet it carries real consequences. Travellers must declare their intended port of entry in the e-Visa application; if the dropdown menu does not offer it, the field cannot be selected. Airlines and road transporters, meanwhile, rely on the published entry lists when policing boarding requirements.

Until the portal is updated, applicants naming any of the 11 new points will face a form that does not recognise them and could therefore be denied.

Mapping new routes

The additions unlock trans-border regular passenger links. The Delhi–Lahore bus and Dacca–Agartala shuttles now fall within e-Visa coverage for travellers of any nationality, removing the former requirement to obtain a consular sticker even if they lived outside the subcontinent.

As always, confirm the live list on the official portal at the time of application; India opens (and occasionally closes) entry points in batches. Last April saw 14 seaports added. The list displayed on the portal at the moment of submission is the one the border officer will enforce.