International travellers arriving in India must fill this form. Details here

For all international travellers arriving in India, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has made it mandatory to fill out a self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha website due to the pandemic.

The Air Suvidha portal was launched in August 2020. It aids passengers in providing their details of travel and final stay along with RTPCR, vaccination status, and more. Air Suvidha is facilitated by Delhi airport.

Also read: All that’s changed in India for global air travellers

Without registering on the Air Suvidha portal, one cannot get a boarding pass to travel to India.

According to the Indian government, “The implementation of the Air Suvidha intends to provide hassle-free, queue-free, and convenient air travel to all international passengers arriving in India.”

“To ensure the necessary prevention of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, the exemption forms from the Air Suvidha portal have been discontinued, and filling of the details have been made compulsory for all international passengers arriving in India,” the government said.

All international passengers arriving in India are mandated to declare their current health status prior to boarding on the Air Suvidha portal along with the required documents – a copy of Passport, PCR negative certificate from a test conducted within 72 hours of departure and the vaccination certificate.

Here is your guide to filling up the self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha website.

Before boarding

All travellers should submit complete and factual information in self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha portal (https://www.newdelhiairport.in/airsuvidha/apho-registration) before the scheduled travel, including the last 14 days’ travel details.

You need to submit your full name, date of birth, PNR number, gender, mobile number in India, alternate contact number, email address, whether you are taking a connecting domestic flight, first airport of entry, home address, and more.

First, the primary member’s details should be filled in and at the end, add the number of passengers travelling with you. However, you need to submit all the details/documents of each passenger.

As per the government, a passenger is punishable under IPC if he/she provides an incorrect mobile phone number. “It is mandatory to provide a valid and working phone number in India. The passengers will be liable for a punishable offence under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Disaster Management Act, if this information is found to be incorrect.”

Children under 5 years of age are exempted from both pre- and post-arrival testing. However, if found symptomatic for COVID-19 on arrival or during the period of self-monitoring period, they shall undergo testing and treated as per laid down protocol.

Also read: 1.08 crore domestic passengers travelled in April, around 2 pc more than March: DGCA

Documents required

While filling up the self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha portal, the following documents are to be uploaded.

A copy of Passport (The file type should be PDF and up to maximum size is 1MB is required to be uploaded. File names with any special characters and space are not permitted. Only hyphen and underscore are permitted).

Upload a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey or upload a certificate of completing the full primary vaccination schedule of COVID-19 vaccination (for the list of countries mentioned by India). (The file type should be PDF and up to maximum size is 1 MB is required to be uploaded. File names with any special characters and spaces are not permitted. Only hyphen and underscore are permitted).

What if file size is more than 1 MB?

“Passengers can download any of the free apps available on both iOS or Android to reduce file size. For iOS, one can use PDF compressor or Android users can download Compress PDF app to reduce the file size,” the government has said.

No cut-off time

There is no cut-off time limit for the Self Declaration form. It can be filled any time before boarding. However, it is encouraged that you fill it well in advance.

Seat number, flight details

Passengers are required to mention flight number, seat number, date of arrival and country of departure (origin) while filling up the form. These are mandatory fields.

While filling up the form, flight number should be entered without any spaces. Eg: JA039 for flight number JA039.

Passengers, without assigned seat numbers, need to put “00” to submit the application. Passengers shall be responsible to self-edit the SDF and provide the correct seat number, before boarding the aircraft.

“This is a mandatory requirement and essential for contact tracing purpose,” the government has said.

What next after submitting self-declaration form

On submission, the mandatory self-declaration application will be forwarded to the Airport Health Organization (APHO). Passengers can then refer to their email inbox for the updated application document. Passengers should show this document on arrival in India at the APHO counter and proceed for immigration.

International travellers arriving at seaports/land ports

International travellers arriving through seaports/land ports will also have to undergo the
same protocol as above, except that facility for online registration is not available for such
passengers currently.

Such travellers shall submit the self-declaration form to the concerned authorities of the Government of India at seaports/land ports on arrival.

After landing in India

“In case you develop symptoms such as fever and cough within 28 days of leaving this airport, restrict your outdoor movement and contact MoHFW’s 24 hours helpline number 011-23978406. Call operator will tell you whom to contact further. In the meanwhile, keep yourself isolated in your house/room,” the government has said.