e-Arrival Card India Login Problems – How Did You Resolve It?

I flew from Dubai to Hyderabad a few weeks ago and experienced repeated "session expired" messages even though I had just logged in.

What eventually worked for me was clearing all cookies related to the portal and starting a completely new browser session. I also made sure my device's date and time were set automatically, although I can't say for certain whether that made a difference.

If you're still unable to sign in, keep screenshots of the error messages and check whether the official portal has posted any maintenance notices. Requirements and system behavior can change, so it's a good idea to verify any updates before trying again.

I traveled from Melbourne to Mumbai recently and ran into a password reset problem.

The reset email didn't arrive for several hours. By the time it finally showed up, I'd already attempted multiple password resets, which made things even more confusing because I received several different links.

After resetting my password, I was able to log in successfully. If you're waiting for the email, I'd avoid requesting a new reset every few minutes because it can be difficult to tell which link is the most recent.

Based on my experience, the portal can sometimes be slow with account-related emails.

I had almost the same issue before my flight from Chicago to Bengaluru.

For me, the problem wasn't my password—it seemed to be the website itself. I kept getting logged out immediately after signing in. I waited until early the next morning and tried again, and everything worked normally without changing anything.

One thing that helped was opening the login page in a private browsing window. I'm not sure whether it cleared an old session or just happened to coincide with the website working again, but I was finally able to finish my application.

If you've already tried different browsers, it may just be worth waiting a little while and trying again later.

I recently traveled from Dubai to India and had a smoother experience, but I saw a few passengers struggling with the same login loop issue.

One person at the airport counter told me that even if the e-Arrival Card isn’t completed in advance, travelers are usually still allowed to fill it at arrival in some airports, although it slows down immigration clearance.

In my case, I noticed the system works better on mobile data than WiFi in some countries. Also, using autofill sometimes causes hidden formatting errors in passport fields, which can break the session.

From what I’ve seen, the system is still being stabilized under the Government of India digital entry framework, so occasional glitches are expected.

If nothing works, I’d suggest trying a completely fresh session (new browser, no saved data) and entering details manually very carefully.

I faced similar login issues when traveling from the UK to Bangalore.

My main problem was OTP not arriving at all. I later realized my mobile number format was incorrect in the system. I had entered my US number without the correct country code formatting, and the system kept failing silently.

What helped me:

• Rechecking passport number exactly as per bio page
• Using a different email ID for OTP verification
• Waiting at least 10 minutes before requesting another OTP

Also, I noticed that sometimes the e-Arrival Card system doesn’t work well on VPN connections. Once I turned off VPN, the login worked instantly.

Based on my experience, it’s not always a hard block. It’s more like session instability or backend delays.

If your travel is close, I would keep trying at different times of the day before giving up.