To travel Bhutan visa is required by all foreign nationals except for the citizens of India, Bangladesh, and the Maldives. It is notable that no foreign missions will grant a Bhutan tourist visa. Visas for Bhutan are issued only when you arrive in Bhutan, either at Paro airport (if entering by air/flight) or at Phuentsholing, Gelephu or Samdrup Jongkhar (if entering by road). You must apply in advance through Bhutan tour operator and receive visa approval before you travel into Bhutan.

For Bhutan Visa, you should email tour operator the clear scan copy of your passport information pages and your passport photo with the detail of your permanent address and occupation. For the visa application, your passport should have minimum six months of validity. Your tour operator applies for your visa in the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) in Thimphu.

Before the start of the visa process, TCB checks whether you paid the full payment of your holiday (including a USD 40 visa fee) or not. After they find out you paid it, they issue an approval letter to your tour operator. With this approval in hand, the tour operator then makes a final application to the Bhutan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which takes up to three working days to process the visa.

When the visa clearance is issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they send a visa confirmation number to the tour operator and to Druk Air/Bhutan Airlines. The airline will not issue your tickets to Paro until it receives this confirmation number and then rechecks the visa information when you check in for the flight.

The actual visa endorsement is stamped in your passport when you arrive at Paro international airport by flight or at other ports (names mentioned above) by the drive. You will receive a visa for the exact period you have arranged to be in Bhutan. If due to some unusual event, you require extending your stay in Bhutan, you can have a visa extension with payment of extension fee.