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I have a US passport, which is valid until May 2023. I also have a valid Indian tourist visa which expires in May 2023. So both the US passport, and Indian visa expire on the same day. Is it OK for me to travel to India for a couple weeks? I will be entering India on Feb 26, 2023, and coming back March 12, 2023.

I will be back before the passport/visa expire. So it should be OK for me to travel right? I have a valid passport and valid Indian visa. And as far as I know India doesn't have a 6-month validity requirement. It does have the 6-month validity requirement when applying for the visa, but in my case the "paper" tourist visa was issued back in 2018.

Thanks!

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3 Answers 3

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I highly recommend checking your specific data against current requirements on at least two different reputable interactive websites. Something like

If both websites agree that your docs are ok, than you are probably good to go.

Getting reliable information these days is quite difficult and even many official websites from governments and embassies often wrong, incomplete or out of date.

Example: We got into Indonesia last night and things did NOT go as my best effort at research had suggested: a) Timatic says you need to install an app and register, but nobody checked or looked for it, b) despite many websites saying that you can pay Visa on arrival with credit card, they only accepted cash (US and Indonesian Ruppee) which was a real problem for some travellers, c) you need to fill out an electronic customs declaration form I've never had heard of

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  • The IATA Travel Centre website is inaccurate. It doesn't even ask for any visa detials. It just says "the document I have is not valid for travel. Visa is required."
    – JMS10
    Commented Feb 8, 2023 at 17:33
  • The IATA site says you need a visa. Which you do. So it is correct.
    – Traveller
    Commented Feb 8, 2023 at 20:10
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I was able to get an answer directly from the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C. Below is the exact statement from their email.

If you have a valid passport and valid visa you can travel till validity of your passport and visa.

So that means I will be able to enter the country without any issues.

I had emailed the Indian Embassy a week before, but since I wasn't getting a reply from them I thought to post the question here.

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  • Did you end up traveling with that passport and have any issues? @JMS10
    – VHS
    Commented Jul 30 at 1:33
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    @VHS, yes I did travel and there were no issues.
    – JMS10
    Commented Aug 15 at 8:48
  • Thanks @jsm10. I also traveled last week with the passport exping in 3 months. No issues were faced. So it's a rumor that one cannot travel to India if the passport is expiring in 6 moinths. It's not true. However, one should still check with the airlines.
    – VHS
    Commented Aug 16 at 13:22
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According to the UK Home Office travel advice you should have 6 months validity at the time of entry to India:

UK Home Office:

Passport validity To avoid possible problems at immigration, make sure your passport is valid for a minimum of 180 days at the time of entry into India. Your passport must be machine readable, with 2 blank pages for your visa and valid for a minimum of 180 days at the time of your visa application.

Edit: the Indian Consulate General in San Francisco's E-visa page states the following:

Passport used by the applicant should have at least six-months validity from the date of arrival in India. The passport should have at least two blank pages for stamping by the Immigration Officer on arrival.

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    Right, even the US Travel agency recommends having a 6 month valid passport, but so far I haven't found anything that says it's a hard requirement. Also, most websites say India doesn't have that rule.
    – JMS10
    Commented Feb 8, 2023 at 6:17
  • @JMS10 see my edit
    – Ozzy
    Commented Feb 8, 2023 at 7:23
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    "Should" and "shall/must" are VERY different words in this context. Either it's optional (should) or an actual requirement (shall)
    – Hilmar
    Commented Feb 8, 2023 at 7:31
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    It ‘should’ be ok as long as nothing happens to prevent the OP leaving India on the planned date or by the passport expiry date.
    – Traveller
    Commented Feb 8, 2023 at 7:49
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    @Hilmar I would not say that "should" is very different from "shall". It is commonly used as a more polite form but I would not interpret as much weaker. I would not want to fly several thousands of kilometres and rely on arguing that "should" was optional to be allowed in. Especially not so in India where polite forms are used more frequently than the UK or US.
    – badjohn
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 18:39

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