The entry visa is the part most guides skip past, and it’s the part most likely to derail your timeline if you get it wrong. Below is the actual sequence, visa rules straight from the Government of India’s own e-Visa portal, followed by what happens once you land, so you can plan the trip end to end rather than piecing it together from a hospital’s marketing page and a forum thread.
Step 1: Get a diagnosis-backed hospital letter before you apply for anything
You cannot apply for India’s e-Medical Visa without one specific document: a letter from the treating Indian hospital, on its official letterhead, stating your name, nationality, passport number, and the tentative date of admission or treatment. This is a hard requirement on the government’s own e-Visa portal, not a hospital formality. In practice, this means your first real step is a teleconsultation or records review with the hospital, not a visa application.
Step 2: Apply for the e-Medical Visa (and e-Medical Attendant Visa, if needed)
According to the Government of India’s official e-Visa portal:
- Who’s eligible: nationals of the countries listed on the government’s e-Visa eligibility list. Pakistani nationals, and those of Pakistani origin, are not eligible for e-Visa and must apply through a regular visa at an Indian mission.
- Validity: the e-Medical Visa is valid for 60 days from your first arrival in India, with triple entry allowed within that window.
- Attendants: up to two blood-relative attendants can accompany you, each applying separately for their own e-Medical Attendant Visa, which carries the same 60-day validity.
- Timing: apply online at least 4 days before your planned arrival; applications can be submitted up to 120 days in advance.
- Documents required beyond your passport: a scanned bio page of your passport, and the hospital letter described in Step 1.
- Where to apply: only through indianvisaonline.gov.in. The government’s own FAQ explicitly warns that no other website is authorized to process e-Visa applications, and that no legitimate “express” or “emergency” fee exists, a warning worth taking seriously given how many unofficial-looking visa-agent sites show up in search results for this exact query.
Your passport needs at least six months of validity remaining at the time you apply.
Step 3: Plan your arrival point
e-Visa holders can only enter India through the government’s designated airports and seaports, not any international entry point. As of the current portal listing, that includes major hubs like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, among 34 designated airports in total. If your itinerary routes you through a smaller airport not on that list, you will not be able to use your e-Visa there.
Step 4: What to bring, beyond the visa
- Your printed Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) confirmation, along with the passport used in the application.
- Complete prior medical records: angiogram results, echocardiogram reports, prior procedure notes, and current medication list, ideally translated into English if not already.
- Proof of sufficient funds for your stay, since the e-Visa process requires demonstrating you can support yourself financially during the visit.
- A return or onward journey ticket, required as part of the eligibility conditions.
Step 5: Arrival, admission, and treatment sequencing
Biometric details are captured at immigration on arrival, standard for all e-Visa categories, not specific to medical visas. From there, timelines depend heavily on your specific procedure:
- Diagnostic review and pre-procedure workup typically happens in the first 1 to 3 days after arrival, confirming what was assessed remotely actually matches your in-person results.
- PCI (angioplasty) patients are often admitted for 1 to 2 days around the procedure itself.
- CABG (bypass surgery) patients typically stay 5 to 7 days in hospital, with fuller recovery over 8 to 12 weeks, most of which does not require you to remain in India.
- TAVR recovery and hospital stay is generally shorter than open CABG, though the exact window depends on your case.
Ask your hospital directly, in writing, how many of those recovery weeks require you to physically remain in India versus how much can be managed by your home cardiologist with a structured handoff. This single question affects your total trip cost and time away from work more than almost anything else in this guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a tourist visa instead if it’s simpler? No. India’s medical visa exists specifically because tourist visas aren’t intended for, and shouldn’t be used for, formal hospital treatment. Using the wrong visa category risks complications at immigration or during your hospital stay.
Does the hospital letter commit me to that specific hospital? The letter is what your visa application is tied to, so yes, practically speaking, you should have your hospital and treating team confirmed before applying, not shopping around after your visa is issued.
How many people can travel with me? Up to two blood relatives, each on their own e-Medical Attendant Visa, per the government’s official FAQ.
Is there an “emergency” or expedited version of this visa for urgent cardiac cases? The government’s own portal states plainly that no official emergency or express fee exists for e-Visa processing. If a service is charging extra for guaranteed fast processing, that is not an official government channel.
The honest limit here
Visa rules, designated entry points, and document requirements can change, and the authoritative version is always the government’s own portal at indianvisaonline.gov.in, not this article or any third-party agency site. What doesn’t change as often is the clinical sequencing: workup, procedure, recovery threshold before you can safely travel home. That second part is where your hospital’s coordination, not the visa process, actually determines how smooth this trip is.
Considering treatment in India and want a realistic itinerary, cost estimate, and hospital letter to start your visa process? [Contact our international patient coordinator].
Sources
- Government of India, Bureau of Immigration / Ministry of Home Affairs, official e-Visa portal, including e-Medical Visa and e-Medical Attendant Visa eligibility, validity, and document requirements — https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html
- in, Heart Bypass Surgery (CABG) Cost in India 2026 (hospital-stay and recovery-window figures) — https://whatsthecost.in/bypass-surgery-cost-in-india/
