India e-Arrival Card Not Generating QR Code – Anyone Else?

I recently flew from London to Bengaluru and had a more frustrating experience.

My QR code never appeared during the first day after submission. Since my departure date was getting close, I contacted the support team listed on the portal. Before they responded, I checked again and found the QR code had been generated.

During my trip, I spoke with several travelers in the immigration queue who had experienced similar issues. A few received the QR code instantly, while others waited several hours.

One recommendation I would make is not to submit the e-Arrival Card at the last minute. Completing it 48 to 72 hours before travel gives you enough time to deal with any technical problems.

Technology-based systems are helpful, but occasional delays are probably inevitable during the early stages of implementation.

I was traveling from Toronto to Delhi as an OCI cardholder and submitted the e-Arrival Card approximately 48 hours before departure. I received the QR code immediately, but my wife did not.

After some troubleshooting, we realized there had been a temporary issue with the portal. We waited until the next morning and checked again. Her QR code was then available without having to resubmit anything.

One thing I noticed is that many travelers are refreshing the page immediately after submission and expecting the QR code to appear right away. The system doesn't always seem to update instantly.

I would recommend taking screenshots of your application reference number and keeping a record of the submission confirmation page. If there is a system delay, those details can be useful.

I faced something very similar about three weeks ago while traveling from Chicago to Mumbai.

In my case, the application was submitted successfully, but the QR code was not generated immediately. I assumed something had gone wrong and almost submitted a second application. Fortunately, I decided to wait.

About six hours later, I logged back into the portal using my application reference number and found that the QR code had appeared automatically. The confirmation email arrived even later, nearly twelve hours after submission.

When I arrived in Mumbai, the immigration officer asked if I had completed the Digital e-Arrival Card. I showed the QR code from my phone, and the process was straightforward.

From my experience, there seems to be a delay in some cases between submission and QR code generation. If your application status shows as successfully submitted, I would give it some time before creating another application.