Can you enter India with a valid e-Visa linked to an old passport after renewing your passport, or do you need to apply for a new visa?

Some travelers report that in their case the old passport was fully confiscated when renewing (not returned even with punch holes), so they had to apply for a new e-Visa on the new passport; the new e-Visa application form has a specific field to indicate you already hold a valid visa.

If you renew your passport while your Indian e-Visa is still valid, a practical approach is to travel with both passports: the new one for travel and the old one linked to the visa. At immigration, travelers usually present both documents together.

If you now have a new passport, many travelers treat it as a separate case and simply apply for a new e-Visa using the new passport. This is often seen as the easier option if you do not want to rely on the old passport.

When a passport is renewed, the old passport with a valid visa is usually not fully confiscated; it may be canceled with punch holes but returned to the holder. In that case, travelers recommend carrying the canceled old passport with the visa plus the new valid passport when entering India.

If the old passport is close to expiry and the 6-month passport validity rule makes travel risky, the usual solution is to renew the passport and either carry both passports or get a fresh Indian e-Visa on the new one.

Another practical tip mentioned was to request an additional passport alongside the existing one, so you can keep the old document that still has the valid visa. This helps preserve access to the current Indian e-Visa.