Armenia visa for Indians

Armenia is one of the most accessible countries for Indian travellers. In this post, I’ll share my experience with the visa application process and some important immigration details. Armenia was part of my recent visit to Caucasus region.

Applying for E-Visa

Armenia offers e-visa option for Indian citizens, which makes the application process quite straightforward. I visited the official website and filled out the basic information about myself and my travel plans. The process required me to upload a photograph and my passport copy. I uploaded the first and last pages of my passport. There was an option to add additional pages which was a bit confusing. I uploaded one of the empty pages from my passport and existing valid visa pages.

There was also an optional field for uploading supporting documents. I included everything I had at the time—my air ticket, hotel reservation, itinerary, and travel insurance.

After completing the application, I made the payment of $8 USD. Just three days later, I received an email confirming that my visa was ready. It was that simple!

Entering Armenia – Transiting at Sharjah

Our journey began with Air Arabia flight from Bengaluru to Yerevan, with a stopover in Sharjah. Immigration in Bengaluru was smooth, with minimal questions from the officer. However, we encountered a surprise at the boarding gate in Sharjah—over half the passengers were Indians, most holding tourist e-visas for Armenia. It was unexpected to see such a large number of Indian tourists headed to Armenia.

Interestingly, many of these travellers didn’t quite fit the typical tourist profile. It appeared that they were using the tourist e-visa as a means to gain entry into the country for other purposes. On the flight, I spoke with the person sitting next to me, who said he was visiting Armenia to meet a friend and see what opportunities might be available. “Goomenge our dekhenge kya kar sakte hain”, a cryptic response with a lot of hidden meaning.

This raised a concern about how immigration officials would distinguish us from the rest of the group. I hoped that the existing visa and immigration stamps in our passports would help.

Immigration at Yerevan

To my surprise, immigration in Yerevan was seamless. There were no questions, and I saw others passing through with similar ease. It was surprising to see officials allowing entry without much scrutiny.

Later, I learned that many Indians in Armenia are involved in the shadow economy. There are numerous articles online about this. It’s uncertain how long this situation will continue, especially given that Armenia was previously used as a gateway to Europe—a route that has become more difficult due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Exit from Armenia

We crossed into Georgia via the land border, a process that took only a few seconds. The immigration officer simply checked our passports and e-visas before stamping our exit.

What about Visa on arrival?

If you hold a Schengen or U.S. visa, you can obtain an Armenian visa on arrival. However, I wouldn’t recommend this option. At Yerevan airport, there was a long queue for filling out application forms and paying the visa fee. It’s much more convenient to apply for an e-visa in advance from the comfort of your home. Additionally, I heard that visa on arrival is not available at land borders.

Summary

Armenia enjoys good relations with India, and their simple visa policy makes it an easy country to visit. However, with the level of misuse I observed, I hope this doesn’t lead to increased scrutiny, as happened in Georgia (more on that in my next post).