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Travelling to India, by country

The medicine is the same wherever you fly from. What differs is the practical layer: how you get there, which Indian mission handles your visa, whether you will want an interpreter, and what to arrange for after you go home. These guides cover that.

Guides available
Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Fiji, PNG, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan
Not listed?
Write anyway. We help patients from well beyond these nine countries
The visa
A medical visa, issued after a hospital accepts your case
Companions
A family member travels on a medical attendant visa
Interpreters
Arranged on request, and worth asking for
First step
A specialist reviews your reports on video before you book anything

The order to do things in

  1. Send your reports. Before flights, before visas, before anything. A specialist tells you whether travelling will help at all.
  2. Get the written estimate. It covers the treatment, the expected hospital stay and the follow-up, so you can budget properly or decide against it.
  3. The hospital issues an invitation letter. This is what the visa application needs. It follows the hospital accepting your case, not the other way round.
  4. Apply for the medical visa, and for a medical attendant visa for whoever travels with you. See the medical visa guide.
  5. Book flights last, and keep the return flexible. Almost every page on this site says the same thing, because fitness to fly is a clinical decision and fixed return dates cause real problems.

What every country guide covers

Routes and journey time, which Indian mission handles visas for your country, whether an interpreter is worth arranging, what to bring, how money works, and which treatments patients from your country most often travel for. What none of them contains is a different price: the prices are the same wherever you fly from.

Choose your country

Each guide covers the practical layer: getting there, the visa, language, money, and what to arrange for once you are home again.

Nigeria The largest group we help. Sickle cell, cancer, cardiac and kidney care, and the practicalities of travelling from Lagos or Abuja. Ethiopia Direct flights from Addis Ababa make this one of the shortest journeys to India from Africa. Cancer, cardiac and transplant care. Uganda Travelling from Entebbe, and the cancer, cardiac and kidney treatment Ugandan patients most often ask about. Tanzania From Dar es Salaam, with notes on Swahili interpreting and on the treatments most commonly sought. Mozambique Portuguese-speaking, which makes interpreting the first thing to arrange. Routes from Maputo and what to expect. Fiji A long journey east to west, and a country with deep historic ties to India. Cardiac, diabetes-related and kidney care. Papua New Guinea The longest journey of the nine, and the one where planning the whole trip in one go matters most. Turkmenistan Russian and Turkmen interpreting, and how India compares with the Turkey and Iran options patients usually weigh. Kyrgyzstan From Bishkek, with Russian interpreting, and an honest comparison against Turkey, India and Korea.

Not listed? Write to us anyway. We help patients from well beyond these nine countries, and the process is the same.

Questions patients ask

Does treatment cost more or less depending on which country I come from?

No. The partner-hospital package prices published on this site are the same wherever you travel from. What differs between countries is the cost of getting there and how long the journey takes, which is why each country guide covers routes rather than repeating prices.

My country is not listed. Can you still help?

Yes. We help patients from well beyond these nine countries, and the process is identical: send your reports, speak to a specialist on video, get a written estimate, then apply for the visa. Write to us and say where you are, and we will be specific about routes and the relevant Indian mission.

Do I need a visa before I can be seen?

You do not need a visa for the consultation, which happens on video before you travel. The medical visa comes later and follows the hospital accepting your case and issuing an invitation letter. Do not apply for a visa or book flights before that.

Can a family member travel with me?

Yes, on a medical attendant visa applied for alongside your medical visa. For longer treatments such as transplant or bone marrow transplant, a companion is not optional in practice. Apply for both together rather than sequentially.

Will there be someone who speaks my language?

English is widely spoken in these hospitals, and an interpreter can be arranged for the consultation and for the stay. Ask in advance rather than on the day. It matters most where the language is not widely spoken in India, such as Portuguese for Mozambican patients or Russian for Central Asian patients.

How long should I plan to be away?

It depends entirely on the treatment, from around two weeks for angioplasty to several months for a transplant. Every treatment page gives an expected hospital stay and a realistic total time in India. Get that timeline in writing before booking flights, and keep the return date flexible.