When traveling overseas, you sometimes have to get an e-visa/visa waiver beforehand. The country you plan to visit will have the requirements and form online, and once you’ve filled it out and paid whatever amount they require, you should have a visa waiver in a matter of minutes, hours, or, at worst, days.
Unfortunately, there are lots and lots of fake websites out there. Some say they’re an official service, some pretend to be an actual government entity, and all of them add on an extra price to whatever the actual e-visa cost is.
Here’s how to avoid those sites.
Let’s say you’re going to India for a week and want to get your Indian e-visa. If you Google “Indian evisa for USA,” one of the first hits is for www.india-visa-online.org/ and the home page looks very official.
Except the site isn’t official at all; if you go down to the bottom of the page, there’s a link to ABOUT US. If you click on that, it goes into how they’re not an official site. The boldface is ours:
About Us
This (www.india-visa-online.org) is a private website offering our users online application services which include assistance with their application for Electronic Travel Authorization for travel to India. Applying for the Indian e-Visa through our website simplifies the process and makes it easy for the applicants. This is because our agents help the users applying for the Indian e-Visa fill out their application forms, review their answers, translate information for them if necessary, and check everything for accuracy, completeness, and grammar and spelling errors. If any additional information is required from the client we make sure to contact them directly. After the applicant has finished filling their application form, an immigration expert reviews it in its entirety before it is finally submitted to the Government of India for approval. The final result of the application, whether it is granted or not, is decided entirely by the Government of India, but using our expertise while filling your application form ensures that your application is error-free which is important if you want the best result.
In most cases it won’t take more than 48 hours for the applications to be processed and granted unless some information has been left out or not entered correctly, in which case the application might be delayed. In any case, we will follow up on all applications and keep the client informed. Once the Government of India approves the application for Indian e-Visa, the client will receive the same through email as well as more information on it and tips to use it.
We are based in Australia and Oceania and our agents can assist applicants with their Visa applications anytime and anywhere. Our website is private and in no way affiliated with the Government of India. Applying through our website instead of the Indian Government’s website for the e-Visa has the added advantage of getting assistance and guidance on your application and getting it reviewed by our team of experts. We charge a small fee for our services.
So you could go to India’s authorized portal for visa application, fill out the form and pay $10 to $25 for a tourist 30-day e-visa, or you could use the “service” page above and pay the $10 to $25 fee plus $32 for “Photo Editing, Passport PDF conversion, Size adjustment, Liaison with Immigration, and Language Translation Fees (where required),” plus whatever other fees, for a total price of $99 to $119.
In the example above, they at least admit they’re a service; many places don’t. If you’re lucky, they actually will fill out the application on your behalf and you’ll get your e-visa. Some companies just pocket the money, do nothing and you’re out of luck. And don’t expect the country in question to help you – most countries have a disclaimer on their page that warns against such scam sites.
So how do you find the official sites to get e-visas?
Well, they certainly don’t make it easy.
You can hope the official sites would be at the top of a Google search..and sometimes they are. But sometimes you’ve got the places like india-visa-online-org and ivisa.com that pay Google to have a higher listing on searches, and wait for the next rube to come along.
So look for websites that have .gov in them (and be aware of ones that use variations, like .govt).
By the way, the U.S. government has a bajillion pages for anyone who wants to get an e-visa to enter the United States. But if you want to find out how a U.S. citizen can get a legitimate e-visa to another country, don’t count on our government to help. At best they have a page with contact info for foreign embassies and consulates but all the links only give you emails and phone numbers, no websites. If there’s a “one-stop-shop” on the U.S. government’s web presence to can lead you towards what forms you need to fill out and where to find said forms, I sure can’t find it.
However, the U.K. government has a lovely page set up that gives you foreign travel advice for 225 countries and territories, and if you click on any of them, one of the categories included is “Entry Requirements.” Of course, whatever’s listed are entry requirements for U.K. citizens, which may or may not be what’s required for U.S. citizens. But if nothing else, it can be a reference for your search. Here’s the link.
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1 comment
One way to find the official websites is to look up the consulate of the country. For example, the Consulate General of India in San Francisco has a link to the company that handles e-visas for India and charges only the government fees of $25 ($10 for some months of travel, like March and April). I am unsure why India has a lower e-visa fee in March and April or May but accept the gift of the lower fee if you can.