International passengers can say goodbye to the tiny paper disembarkation form that has been a feature of flights to India since the 1960s. As of 1 April—but formally reiterated in a government circular published on 7 May—every foreign national must complete an online e-Arrival Card within the 72-hour window before their flight’s scheduled arrival. The new form, accessible on the government’s AirSuvidha portal and via participating airlines’ mobile apps, captures the same data points (passport details, address in India and a brief customs declaration) but is automatically sent to both the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) and Customs. Airlines receive a real-time confirmation code which they must scan at the gate before boarding, making the e-Arrival Card a de-facto boarding requirement similar to Australia’s Digital Passenger Declaration.
If you’re unsure about the new process, VisaHQ can help. Through its India services hub (https://www.visahq.com/india/), the platform walks travellers through the e-Arrival Card step by step, validates documents, and can even bundle the task with visa or passport applications—giving both individuals and corporate travel teams extra assurance that nothing will block boarding.
For business-travel programmes the operational impact is significant. Travellers who decide to make last-minute itinerary changes within 72 hours must re-file the form, and failure to do so can prevent boarding even if the traveller holds a valid visa. Travel managers should therefore bake the e-Arrival filing into their standard pre-trip workflow alongside visa checks and Indian Air Safety self-declaration for electronic items. The BoI says the switch will save an estimated 40 million paper forms a year and shave 30–45 seconds off each immigration inspection. Data integration with risk-assessment engines is also expected to allow advance targeting of high-risk passengers, reducing random secondary screening and offering compliant travellers a smoother experience. Importantly, Indian citizens and OCI cardholders remain exempt, but mixed-nationality families must ensure that non-Indian members complete the form even if they are children travelling on a parent’s passport. Failure to do so has already led to several families being denied boarding on Gulf–India routes this week.