Getting a SIM in India as a foreigner: the paperwork problem

India is the destination where an eSIM saves the most paperwork, and that is not a sales line: getting a local card as a foreigner is an in-person procedure, with forms, photos and waiting, that leaves you with a line whose expiry is tied to your visa. This guide covers how that works, what to expect from coverage, why your phone can go silent in Ladakh, and how people actually pay there.

SIM registration: why the shortcut is not open to you

In India almost everything is activated against Aadhaar, the national biometric ID. That is the shortcut that gets an Indian out of the shop with a working line in minutes. A tourist does not have one: the issuing authority only enrols foreigners who have resided in the country 182 days or more in the previous twelve months.

With no Aadhaar there is no electronic verification, so sign-up is manual and in person. What the shop will ask for:

• Original passport and valid visa.
• A local address in India: a hotel booking in your name usually does.
• Passport photos. Bring three or four.
• Filling in a paper form, plus a later verification by call or text.

On top of that, the line is issued tied to your visa, with a validity of around three months renewable in store, and takes anywhere from half an hour to several hours to genuinely work.

A travel eSIM goes through none of this: you buy it before you leave, it arrives ready and needs no paperwork on arrival. That is what you are buying in India: the procedure you skip, more than the gigabytes.

One important and little-known warning: in 2024 the Indian regulator ordered several international eSIM apps removed from the country’s app stores and their sites blocked, for selling without the required local authorisation. In practice: buy and install your eSIM before you fly, on home wifi. From inside India you may not even be able to download what you need.

Ladakh, Kashmir and the detail that ruins trips

This is the point almost nobody mentions and it is worth reading twice. In Jammu & Kashmir and in Ladakh, prepaid SIMs issued in other Indian circles do not work: they deactivate on entry. It is a long-standing security measure with no plans for removal. Only post-paid contract lines roam there.

And who gets prepaid? A foreigner, almost always. So the typical scene is this: you buy the SIM in Delhi, fly to Leh, and on landing the phone has neither data nor calls, in exactly the place where you need them most. The classic workaround is buying the line already in Srinagar or Jammu, or relying on hotel wifi.

A travel eSIM comes in as international roaming, which is a different category from a local prepaid line, but we are not selling you that as a guarantee: it is an area with telecoms restrictions that have tightened and loosened several times. If your trip goes through there, go with a plan B: accommodation with wifi, offline maps, and permits and tickets saved as PDFs.

Real coverage: who covers what, and where it ends

Four carriers. Jio is the largest and reaches the countryside best, having rolled out low-band 5G nationwide; Airtel is just behind and usually gives the best experience in cities; Vodafone Idea (Vi) is still standing after the late-2025 financial rescue but is the weakest of the three outside cities; and BSNL, the state carrier, is sometimes the only one with signal in remote mountains.

Good: Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Udaipur, Goa, Varanasi, Amritsar, Kochi and the corridors between them. On long-distance trains there is signal for most of the journey, with gaps.

Where it ends:

• Ladakh and Zanskar outside Leh: sparse, plus the prepaid problem above.
• Himalayan treks: no signal is the norm. Same in the high valleys of Himachal and Uttarakhand.
• Andamans: Port Blair and the main tourist islands have decent 4G thanks to the submarine cable that landed in 2020; the rest of the archipelago does not.
• Tribal and border areas of the northeast: patchy, and they need entry permits too.

And as always: the eSIM connects to Jio, Airtel or whoever covers you — it brings no network of its own. Where there is no mast, no eSIM works, ours or anyone else’s.

Internet shutdowns, without the drama

India orders more internet shutdowns than any other democracy: 84 in 2024 and 65 in 2025, by Access Now’s annual count. The trend is downward, but the practice continues. They are local — a district, a few days — imposed without warning around protests or incidents, and sometimes only mobile data goes down while calls keep working.

It is not a reason not to travel; it is a reason to carry train tickets as PDFs, offline maps and some cash on you.

How much data you need

Type of trip	Typical use	Plan that fits
Cities and trains: maps, messaging, translation	400-600 MB a day	5 GB for a week
The above plus social posting daily	800 MB - 1.2 GB a day	10 GB for two weeks, or unlimited
Video, video calls, tethering a laptop	Over 1.5 GB a day	Unlimited by days

The breakdown app by app is in how much data do I need for a trip.

Installing the eSIM and landing connected

1. Compatibility: dial *#06# and look for the EID; the phone must be carrier-unlocked. List by brand on compatibility.
2. Buy for the days of the trip: validity starts with the first connection in India.
3. Install at home on wifi, no exceptions — see the warning about blocked eSIM sites above.
4. Lines: your home line for calls and texts with its data off; the eSIM as mobile data with roaming on.
5. On landing: turn off airplane mode and wait to see “Jio”, “Airtel”, “Vi” or “BSNL”.

Every menu, step by step, in how to install an eSIM.

Apps and payments

• Transport: Rapido has taken over with motorbike taxis and is now the most used app in the country; Uber still leads for cars and Ola holds on. Note: almost all of them want an Indian number to register, so set them up and verify them before you travel if you can.
• Trains: IRCTC does allow registering with a foreign number, for a small verification fee, and foreigners can book under the tourist quota with passport and international card. International texts often fail: keep email as a backup.
• Google Maps with every city downloaded. Indian addresses are descriptive, and the map is what saves you.
• Payments: cash and card. UPI is what moves the country and tourists are effectively outside it, so carry rupees for markets, rickshaws and anything rural, and a card for hotels and larger restaurants. At the ATM, always charge in rupees and decline conversion to your own currency.

Connectivity tips

• Before any trek or going up to Ladakh: maps, permits and tickets downloaded.
• A power bank, non-negotiable: between the heat, the long trains and the phone hunting for signal, you will not make it to the end of the day.
• Bank verification texts arrive on your home line, which stays active and costs nothing to receive on.
• If the route continues to Nepal or Sri Lanka, an India-only plan stops at the border: look at regional plans.

Rough price

The block at the top shows what an India eSIM costs in the MovaSim catalogue today, with the unlimited-by-days option and the cheapest by gigabytes; the India page has every plan and what each one covers. If you do end up with an Indian SIM, the advice about Ladakh and about shutdowns applies to you exactly the same.