Failed and Succeeded: The Story of India’s eVisa Hunt

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I have experienced that applying for an eVisa was easier and the chances of being accepted were greater than applying for a Regular Visa. It was enough to attach the required documents and pay at the online payment gate, the e-Visa would be issued according to the planned time of arrival in the country.

At least I had made eVisa Taiwan, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman. Everything went smoothly and the eVisa was easy for me to get.

Well, this time I will share a little story about how I made India’s e-Visa three times.

India’s eVisa is the second eVisa that I’ve ever pursued after the first eVisa that I’ve taken care of, i.e. eVisa Taiwan.

At that time….End of 2017….

The mental challenge that was so heavy after getting a Jet Airways flight ticket towards the capital of India, made my quest for an Indian e-Visa less enthusiastic. Getting an Indian eVisa was indeed very easy. I only needed to complete the data on the e-form and attached documents in the form of a photo of myself and a scan of the passport biodata sheet requested by the official India eVisa website. Then I only needed to wait some time for the eVisa to be issued. But the lack of enthusiasm in dealing with the e-Visa lied in the feeling of anxiety about visiting that Gandhi’s Country.

The eVisa validity period to entering India was short, which was around four months, making me had to apply for this eVisa close to the departure date.

I myself applied for this eVisa twenty days before departure and the eVisa was approved the day after submission after paying 50 US dollars at the payment gate. The application address was as follows: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/

This was my first story of hunting for an Indian eVisa.

The email I got after submitting data.
The next day the eVisa application had GRANTED status.
Check it out!…. Any entry point in India that could use this eVisa.
Tracking eVisa status on the application page.
Was my photo handsome or not?…. Hahaha.

Second Experience

Whereas my next experience in applying for an Indian eVisa occurred on November 8, 2018.

At that time, India’s eVisa was made free by the Indian government on June 18, 2018. The idea itself was conveyed by Nerendra Modi during a meeting of the Indian Diaspora in Jakarta.

Where was my destination at that time?….

Mumbai….Yups, I planned to get out of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport heading to the city center during a transit of more than 13 hours. At that time Jet Airways would take me from Dhaka to Colombo and transit in Mumbai.

Maybe due to a change in policy from a paid eVisa to a free eVisa, there had been a change of address on the India eVisa page. I submitted the eVisa application myself, exactly two months before departure.

Because the Web URL that I entered was wrong, the decision to accept or not my eVisa application never reached my email. The URL I went to at that time was https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/

Do I then plan to reapply?

No….Because at the same time, there was a change in Jet Airways flight from Dhaka to Mumbai. The change in flight schedule didn’t allow me to get out of the airport, let alone head to the city center. Because the change in flight schedule apart from shortening the transit time also made 80% of my transit time fall at night. Hence, it would be impossible for me to explore Mumbai at night….Too risky.

In the end, I decided, I wouldn’t continue the continuation of this eVisa application because basically, I didn’t need it anymore. But my curiosity was prolonged, finally, I tried to find the correct Indian e-Visa application page address. And I found it, here is the URL in question: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/eVisa/

Even though this page was wrong, the appearance of the e-form turned out to be exactly the same as the e-form on the correct page.
The page for checking the status of eVisa applications was also the same.

Third Experience

The third submission for the India eVisa was when I intended to explore the Middle East Region and decided to take entry to Dubai from Kochi.

The decision to jumping off to the Middle East from Kochi was of course closely related to the budget conditions I had. This condition was strengthened by the availability of low-cost Srilankan Airlines flights from Kochi to Dubai with temporary transit in Colombo. Of course, I chose to jump from Kochi also based on a strong desire to return to nostalgia with the rich culture of India.

The next opportunity occurred at the end of 2019. I applied for India eVisa to explore Kochi.

I processed this application by visiting the eVisa India page twice.

On December 4, I filled out the e-form partially due to busy work. Partially filling out the e-form during the day, I had to complete it in the afternoon until finally at four o’clock in the afternoon I was able to submit the e-Visa application.

This was the advantage of applying for an India eVisa where we could fill out the e-form several times (not fill in once). Usually, at the opportunity to fill out the first e-form, we would be given an Application ID No. which was entry access to our submission data if we wanted to edit or complete data.

On the third occasion of making this India eVisa, I submitted my eVisa application on December 4, 2019, and eVisa got GRANTED status on December 8, 2019.

Email sending that filling in the partial filling of my eVisa application was stored.
Notice that my e-Visa submission e-form was successful and waiting to be processed.
Wow, what a joy….GRANTED.

So, it was easy to make an Indian eVisa….

Come on, the pandemic was over, let’s go to India.

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