e-Arrival Card India Status Not Showing After Submission

One thing I'd check is the 72-hour window.

The current official Indian Visa Online portal says foreigners and OCI cardholders can complete and submit the e-Arrival Card online within 72 hours before their arrival in India.

If you submitted it within that period and received some kind of successful submission message, I'd first try to retrieve the confirmation rather than immediately filling out another form.

The official e-Arrival Card page currently has a retrieval/quick-fill function that starts with passport number and nationality.

I'd also make sure you're not checking the e-Visa status page and expecting the e-Arrival Card to appear there. They are separate processes.

If your e-Arrival Card still cannot be retrieved after checking the details carefully, I would use the official immigration/Indian Visa Online contact channels rather than relying on an unofficial agent.

And if you're travelling on an e-Visa, don't confuse the two documents. The Government of India's portal says the e-Arrival Card is not a visa, while the e-Visa is a separate authorization for eligible travellers.

I had a different experience. I submitted mine and received the confirmation, but I didn't see any “approved” status afterward.

I think that's because people are sometimes treating the e-Arrival Card as another visa application. It isn't.

The official Indian Visa Online site describes it as an arrival-information form and says it is a free service of Indian Immigration.

So I wouldn't necessarily worry if you're looking for a status such as “granted.” That's how the e-Visa process works, but the e-Arrival Card is different.

I would first try retrieving the submission using your passport number and nationality. If the system doesn't retrieve anything, I'd check whether you entered the passport number exactly as printed and whether the nationality selected matches the passport.

Also make sure you're using the official Government of India website. There are plenty of third-party websites online that describe the arrival card, and I wouldn't pay someone just to submit a form that the government identifies as free.

For my trip, I kept the confirmation available on my phone and also had my passport and visa documents ready separately.

I had almost the same issue before my trip to Mumbai.

The first time I completed the form, I didn't save the confirmation properly. When I went back later, I couldn't find a normal “application status” page like the one available for an e-Visa.

What helped was going back to the official e-Arrival Card page and using the Quick Fill From Existing Data option. The page asks for the passport number, nationality/region, and captcha.

I wouldn't treat the e-Arrival Card like an e-Visa. The Government of India's Indian Visa Online portal specifically says the e-Arrival Card is for arrival information, not a visa. Foreigners and OCI cardholders can submit it online within 72 hours before arrival.

In my case, I was eventually able to retrieve the submission and save the confirmation.

I also kept a screenshot on my phone. I wouldn't rely only on a screenshot, though—make sure the information matches your current passport exactly.

If you're travelling on an e-Visa, make sure you're separately carrying the valid e-Visa/ETA. The e-Arrival Card doesn't replace the visa.

I flew from the US earlier this month. The status didn't appear immediately, but I had received the on-screen submission confirmation. I cleared my browser cache, logged in again later, and everything was visible. If your status still doesn't appear after some time, it's probably worth contacting the official support team instead of submitting a new application.

I traveled from Australia recently and experienced something similar. I had saved my application reference number, which turned out to be useful. After waiting a few hours, I checked again and the status was available. I didn't submit a second application because I was worried it might create duplicate records.