E Visa for India?
 

Hi,
I am desperately confused about how to arrange for the Indian visa.
Here are my deetz:
American by birth, New York going to New Delhi for one night on my way to Sri Lanka. Arrive Delhi December 16, depart December 17th. Figured I'd spend on night in the city.
22 days later on the way back to New York, I am stopping in Mumbai for four nights then catching my plane back to New York. Total travel time is less than 30 days.
I read I could apply for an Indian visa online, and started to fill out the form on this site:
Indian Visa https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/VisaDetails

Then I read that I should only get a visa through Cox & King. I don't need a longer visa, but C&K doesn't mention anything about the electronic visa on its site.

Finally, I got stumped on the electronic visa site when it asked me for an Indian referral. What the heck does that mean? I don't have a friend in India (I mean, maybe I could drum one up), but what kind of question is that for an under 30 day tourist visa? So, what do I answer?

Thanks for the help.

Cheers,
Lauren

Cox and Kings is who the Indian government has contracted with to provide visa service in the US. So yes, you do need to go through Cox and Kinga. If you have a question call them or email them. Others report excellent service from Cox and Kings.

I've used their electronic visa and it's very straightforward and convenient if it fits your travel.

However, the electronic visa is single entry so won't work for you--see point 11 here:
https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html

So you need to deal with Cox and Kings.

Well that didn't post the correct link. Click the second link on the left "Instructions for Applicant".

Sounds like you may have a problem, in any case, with the e visa due to your planned multiple entries.

However just to note that I was similarly perplexed by the question about Indian referral when applying earlier this year. I raised it as a query with them and was told to put down the name of the first hotel I was staying at. This worked out OK and it went through without a problem.

I also had a query with the bit that asked about any previous visa numbers as I had no record of my previous visa number from a trip many years ago. Again I raised this as a query as was told to enter 'not known' or 0000000 in the boxes. Again I did this and there was no problem.

Hope you can sort out your visa without too much hassle.

Thank you for the replies. I just read that single entry allows movement to neighboring countries, which sri lanka would qualify for. But I don't want to wait and find out when I arrive. I emailed Cox and King but haven't heard back yet.

Actually, I can't use the evisa to go to sri lanka and back. I will have to apply for a second electronic visa while in Sri Lanka to return in January. This is quite a hassle.

Do Cox and Kings they offer a multi-entry visa as an option? I got a visa good for 10 years (obviously, multi-entry) and it was only maybe twenty dollars more.