India’s Ministry of Home Affairs has consolidated the country’s visa framework, cutting main visa categories from 13 to nine and sub-categories from 49 to 23, while reducing the number of fields applicants must complete on application forms by 65-70%. The rationalisation, introduced on 27 August 2026, is the second round of changes after an earlier 2025 exercise cut categories from 22 to 13.
The Tourist Visa has been renamed the Visitor Visa, now split into a short-stay V-1 (30 days, multiple entry — business meetings, medical consultations, wellness retreats, short courses) and a longer V-2 (valid one, five or ten years, also covering mountaineering trips, which get a six-month multiple-entry visa). The Medical Visa keeps separate M-1 (conventional treatment) and M-3 (AYUSH treatment) categories, each with a one-year default validity and a corresponding attendant visa (M-2/M-4). The Student Visa is split into S-1 (formal education) and S-2 (research, internships, exchanges), with an e-S1 e-Visa available for up to five years. The Business Visa separates long-term, licence-based ventures (B-1) from short-term contract work (B-2), which now also covers foreign technical specialists under what was previously the e-B4 category.
India’s e-Visa is currently available to nationals of 172 countries. The government says visas under the new nine-category framework — covering Business, Diplomatic, Work, Journalist, Medical, Official, Student, Visitor and Miscellaneous purposes — will be issued once IT system updates are complete, which it expects by the end of 2026.
References
Human Resources Online – India Simplifies Visa Rules, Cuts Application Fields by Up to 70%
