New Delhi: The government on Wednesday announced changes to India’s visa system to simplify applications for foreign visitors. It reduced the main visa categories
from 13 to nine and sub-categories from 49 to 23. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the restructuring took place on August 27. An earlier revision in October 2025 had cut the main categories from 22 to 13 and sub-categories from 63 to 49.
The ministry said it studied visa systems in developed countries and international standards before making the changes.
Visitor Visa replaces Tourist Visa
The government has renamed the Tourist Visa as the Visitor Visa and created two sub-categories.
The V-1 visa permits short business meetings, medical consultations, wellness visits, brief treatment and courses in Indian languages, music, art and craft. It offers multiple entries over 30 days.
The V-2 visa covers these activities and mountaineering. Its validity may extend to one, five or 10 years. Mountaineers will receive six-month multiple-entry visas.
Medical and student provisions
The Medical Visa framework has four sub-categories. M-1 covers non-AYUSH treatment, while M-3 covers AYUSH treatment. M-2 and M-4 visas cover their respective attendants. Medical visas and their electronic variants will generally allow multiple entries for one year, the MHA said.
Student visas now fall under S-1 and S-2. S-1 covers school, graduate and postgraduate education. S-2 covers research, PhD programmes, visiting faculty, internships, exchanges and other academic activities. Students admitted through the Study in India portal may receive multiple-entry e-S1 visas for up to five years or their course duration, whichever is shorter.
Revised business visa categories
B-1 visas cover long-term, licence-based business activities, including the establishment of industrial or commercial ventures. B-2 covers short-term, contract-based work, including production investment, conferences, sports, performing arts and films. Foreign engineers, technical specialists and experts hired by Indian companies may obtain a Production Investment Business Visa electronically under B-2. This replaces the earlier e-B4 provision.
Simpler forms and rollout
The MHA said it cut application fields across all 23 sub-categories by 65-70 per cent while retaining essential verification details. The nine main categories are Business, Diplomatic, Work, Journalist, Medical, Official, Student, Visitor and Miscellaneous.
Miscellaneous visas cover eligible persons of Indian origin, dependants, specified institutional visits and certain long-term stays. The ministry said IT system updates should allow issuance under the revised framework by the end of 2026.
