The India e-Medical Visa for French PatientsA 90-Minute Application We Walk You Through

What you need, before you start

The India e-Medical Visa (e-MED) is the visa category introduced by the Indian Bureau of Immigration for international patients travelling for medical or dental treatment. It is online, it is fast, and for French passport holders it is approved within 72 hours of submission in 98% of cases.

• A French passport valid for at least 6 months from your intended date of travel and with at least 2 blank pages.
• A digital passport-style photograph in JPEG format, 350 × 350 pixels minimum, light background, no smile, ears visible (detail on the photograph standard below).
• A colour scan of the biographical page of your passport, JPEG or PDF, file size under 300 KB.
• The Stunning Dentistry invitation letter, which your coordinator issues to you by email within 2 French business days of your 10% deposit.
• A credit or debit card for the USD 80 visa fee (USD 82 with the service fee; payable to the Indian government via the secure payment gateway).
• An email address that you check regularly, the e-MED visa is delivered by email.

The application itself takes about 90 minutes. Most of that is typing information from your passport, answering a series of standard questions, and uploading the documents above. Your coordinator walks you through it on a WhatsApp or phone call if you prefer live support, or sends you a French-language PDF walkthrough you can follow at your own pace.

The official URL (and the domains to avoid)

The official Indian government e-Visa portal is indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html, nothing else. There are several commercial websites that rank highly in French-language search results for "visa Inde" which charge €45–€110 on top of the USD 80 government fee to "simplify" the process. They do not simplify anything; they fill out the same government form on your behalf and then charge you for it. Your Stunning Dentistry coordinator will not use or recommend these third-party sites.

If you receive an email that claims to be from the Indian government or the Indian embassy asking you to use a different URL or pay an additional fee, it is almost certainly fraudulent. Forward the email to your coordinator, who will cross-check against the legitimate process and respond within 4 French business hours.

Approval rates and what happens if you are flagged

For French passport holders, 98% of e-MED applications are approved within 72 hours. The 2% that get flagged are usually flagged for one of three reasons:

1. Photograph quality below standard (most common reason, typically about 60% of flags). Resubmit with a compliant photograph.

2. Name mismatch between application and passport. Usually a surname issue for married women who entered nom d'usage instead of nom de jeune fille. Correct and resubmit.

3. Travel date conflict or document inconsistency. Rare. Your coordinator liaises directly with the visa processing agent if needed.

If you are flagged, the email from the Bureau of Immigration states the reason clearly. Your coordinator helps you respond within 24 hours. A flagged application resubmitted cleanly is typically approved within 24 hours of the correction.

VFS Global France as a fallback

If your e-MED application is rejected outright (which happens to around 0.3% of French applicants, generally because of a historical travel issue or a name spelling conflict), the fallback is an in-person paper visa application via VFS Global France, which operates official Indian visa application centres in:

• Paris, 3 Rue de l'Arrivée, 75015 Paris (near Montparnasse).
• Lyon, Part-Dieu business district.
• Marseille, Euromed 2 area.
• Strasbourg, Gare district.
• Bordeaux, Chartrons.

The paper visa process takes 8–12 French business days and costs €120–€160 depending on express options. Your coordinator helps you prepare the full paper-application pack. We have handled 3 such fallback cases in our 47 French completions; all 3 were approved.

Bringing a companion on an Attendant Visa

French patients are welcome to bring a partner, adult child, or other companion. The accompanying person applies for an e-Medical Attendant Visa (e-MED X) using the same indianvisaonline.gov.in portal. The Attendant Visa:

• Requires a separate invitation letter from Stunning Dentistry for the companion (we issue this at no cost within 2 French business days).
• Costs USD 80 per attendant.
• Has the same 60-day stay, double-entry, e-Medical category rules.

You can bring up to two attendants on a single e-MED case. We have issued Attendant Visa letters for partners, adult children, siblings, parents (for cases where a younger French patient brings an older parent to help), and in one case a long-term carer.

The one thing French patients most often forget

The Attestation Sanitaire or carte de vaccination internationale. India does not require any vaccinations for French passport holders arriving from France (this has been the case since the WHO removed yellow fever requirements for direct travel from France several years ago). However, your French médecin traitant will have their own recommendations for any international travel, hepatitis A, typhoid, routine tetanus boost, and you should follow their advice. None of these is legally required for visa approval or airport entry; they are clinical recommendations only.

Your coordinator sends you the current Ministère des Affaires Étrangères (MEAE) travel advisory for India three weeks before your departure so that you have the latest public information from the French government side.

Sources: Indian Bureau of Immigration e-Visa portal indianvisaonline.gov.in April 2026; VFS Global France Indian Visa Application Centre current operations April 2026; Stunning Dentistry French patient visa records 2021–2026 (47 completions, 184 enquiries, 3 VFS fallback cases); France Diplomatie MEAE India travel advisory April 2026.