Northeast India Permit for Foreigners: PAP, RAP and FRO

A passport that works at Delhi airport can still be turned back at the Bhalukpong check gate if the right paper is missing. That is the whole story of travelling the Northeast as a foreign national: three states are as open as Goa, four are not, and the line between them has moved twice in recent years.

We plan trips for international guests every season, and most of the confusion we untangle comes from blog posts written before December 2024. This guide is what we send those guests now.

Which states need a permit

The Northeast has eight states. For foreign nationals they fall into two groups.

The December 2024 change matters most. For more than a decade before that, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram were open to foreigners with only a registration on arrival. On 17 December 2024 the Ministry of Home Affairs withdrew that relaxation. A foreign guest planning Kohima, Imphal or Aizawl today needs a PAP in hand before arriving, exactly as for Arunachal.

Citizens of Afghanistan, China and Pakistan, and foreigners of Pakistani origin, face stricter rules and need prior Ministry of Home Affairs clearance for any protected area. If that applies to anyone in your group, tell us on day one.

The open states: Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura

These are the easiest places in the region to travel as a foreigner. You land at Guwahati, show your passport at hotel check-in, and go.

• Assam: Guwahati, Kaziranga National Park, Majuli and the tea country around Jorhat need no permit. Kaziranga charges a higher foreigner rate for entry, jeeps and camera fees.
• Meghalaya: Shillong, Sohra, Mawlynnong and Dawki and the Umngot River need no permit. There is no ILP and no statewide entry fee. Since June 2025, every hotel, homestay and resort must register guests on the state tourism app, and renting private vehicles to tourists for self-drive is prohibited, so plan on a car with a driver. The state has also planned entry registration centres at Umling on the Guwahati–Shillong road and at Berubari in the Garo Hills; as of July 2026 these were not yet running. Check current status before you travel.
• Tripura: Agartala and Unakoti need no permit. The state was never brought back under the PAP regime, so a Tripura add-on from Guwahati by air (about 1 hour) involves no extra paperwork.

A combined Assam and Meghalaya trip, like our Assam and Meghalaya Highlights route, involves no permit paperwork at all for a foreign guest. That is why we suggest it for first visits.

Arunachal Pradesh: the PAP in practice

Arunachal is where most of our international guests want to go after Meghalaya: Tawang, the Sela Pass and Ziro Valley. It has needed a Protected Area Permit for foreigners for as long as it has had tourism.

The rules that have applied for years, and which we still plan around:

• Group size: the standard PAP is issued to groups of two or more.
• Solo travellers: single foreign tourists are reported to be allowed permits only for Tawang, Bomdila and Ziro. That still covers most of what people come for, including the drive over Sela.
• Validity: permits have been issued for up to 30 days and list the specific districts you may visit. Anything off that list, such as a detour to Mechuka, needs to be on the application.
• Fee: a state royalty in US dollars per person. Published figures have ranged from USD 30 to USD 50, and operators add a handling fee. Check current status before you travel.
• Route: most applications go through a registered Arunachal or Assam tour operator. You can also apply through an Indian mission abroad or the FRRO.

Bum La, the pass on the India–China border 37 km beyond Tawang, and Madhuri Lake on the same road are open to Indian nationals only, with Army permission. A foreign guest's Tawang days go to the monastery, the Sela Pass lake, Nuranang Falls and the town's markets instead. Indian friends travelling with you can go; our Bum La Pass permit guide covers their permit.

If you travel with Indian friends, they need the separate Inner Line Permit, which is covered in our Arunachal ILP and PAP guide.

Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram since December 2024

This is where older advice goes wrong. Before December 2024 a foreigner could arrive in Kohima and register at the district police within 24 hours. That no longer works.

Nagaland: a PAP is needed again. For the Hornbill Festival from 1 to 10 December 2025, the Centre relaxed the requirement for foreign visitors as a temporary measure, and Nagaland's government has asked for the PAP to be lifted entirely. Nothing has been confirmed for December 2026. Our Hornbill Festival, Kohima trip for foreign guests assumes a PAP and applies early. Foreign visitors also pay a Nagaland ILP fee, listed at INR 500 for 30 days on the state portal, on top of the PAP.

Manipur: a PAP is required. The UK government, among others, has advised against all but essential travel to Manipur since the violence that began in 2023, citing curfews, transport disruption and internet shutdowns. We do not currently sell Manipur trips; check the current advisory and local conditions before you consider it.

Mizoram: a PAP is required in advance, and foreign visitors must also register with the Superintendent of Police (CID/SB) in Mizoram within 24 hours of arriving. The state has asked the Centre for a local registration office in Aizawl because the nearest FRRO has been in Kolkata. Mizoram is also a dry state.

Which visa works

The permit sits on top of your visa; it does not replace it. Any valid Indian visa that allows tourism works for the open states. For the protected states, the visa must be valid for the full permit period.

• e-Tourist Visa: e-Visa holders have been issued PAPs; the permit is tied to your passport and visa dates. Enter India through one of the airports listed on your e-Visa, then fly domestic to Guwahati. Check that your e-Visa's arrival list covers your first Indian airport.
• Regular tourist visa: works the same way, and suits guests planning longer or repeat trips.
• Business, conference or employment visas: tourism permits are sometimes refused on these. Ask us before you apply.
• OCI cardholders: OCI does not remove the need for a PAP in protected areas, and hotels now file Form-III for OCI guests too.

Mistakes we see every season

Most permit problems we deal with come from the same five errors. None of them are hard to avoid.

1. Using a pre-2024 blog for Nagaland or Manipur. Advice that says "just register at the police station in Kohima" is out of date.
2. Leaving out a district. A PAP for Tawang does not cover a side trip to Ziro unless Lower Subansiri is listed. Write the full route first, then apply.
3. Dates that do not match flights. If your flight to Guwahati moves by two days, the permit window may no longer fit. Keep a day of slack at each end.
4. Name mismatch. The permit must match the passport exactly, including middle names. A missing letter can mean a long wait at Bhalukpong.
5. Relying on phone photos. Some check gates have patchy mobile data and ask for paper. Carry prints.

A sixth, less common one: booking a homestay that cannot file Form C. In village Meghalaya that is still possible, and it causes trouble for the host, not just for you.

What happens at a check gate

On the road into Arunachal from Assam, the main gate is at Bhalukpong, about 60 km north of Tezpur. The check itself takes 10–30 minutes. An officer reads the permit against each passport, records the details and waves the car through. Your driver handles the queue; you stay near the vehicle with passports ready.

Hotels in Tawang, Dirang and Bomdila also ask for the permit at check-in, and some Tawang sights, such as army-run memorials, may note foreign visitors separately. None of this is a problem when your papers match.

How to apply for a PAP

There are three routes. The one that suits you depends on where you are when you start.

We handle Arunachal permits for our guests through the operator route, because the permit then matches the exact districts and dates on your itinerary. For Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, processing has been slower and less predictable since the reimposition, so we start at least 30 days out.

Documents that are always needed:

1. Passport scan, bio page, with at least 6 months' validity
2. Indian visa scan (e-Visa approval letter or visa sticker)
3. A day-by-day itinerary naming every district
4. Recent passport-size photo
5. Entry and exit points for the protected state

Print three colour copies of the permit. Check gates keep one, and hotels in Tawang and Kohima often ask for another.

Hotel registration and Form C

Wherever you stay, the property must report you. Under the Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025, the old Form C is now called Form-III, and it must be filed online within 24 hours of your arrival, with an exit update when you leave. This now covers OCI cardholders too.

What that means for you:

• Every homestay, including a two-room village stay in Mawlynnong or Nongriat, has to see your passport.
• Some small homestays are not set up for Form C. We only book foreign guests into places that are.
• If you stay more than 180 days on a long-term visa, personal FRRO registration within 14 days also applies. Tourist visits rarely hit that line.

Getting in and out

Most international guests fly into Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata and take a domestic flight to Guwahati, whose new terminal opened in December 2025. Guwahati also has a few direct international links, including Bangkok and Paro, and IndiGo is scheduled to start Guwahati–Bangkok from 27 October 2026. Guwahati to Shillong is about 100 km and 3 hours by road; Guwahati to Kaziranga is about 200 km and 4.5–5 hours. Our how to reach Shillong guide covers the options in detail.

Land borders exist at Dawki–Tamabil into Bangladesh and at Agartala–Akhaura, and a road runs from Assam into Bhutan at Samdrup Jongkhar. All three depend on your visa type and on bilateral conditions that changed several times in 2024 and 2025. Check current status before you travel.

A route that avoids permits entirely

If you have 8–10 days and want the least paperwork, stay in the three open states:

• Guwahati: 1 night
• Shillong: 2 nights
• Sohra (Cherrapunji): 2 nights, with the root bridge walk
• Kaziranga: 2 nights, 2–3 safaris
• Majuli or Jorhat: 1–2 nights

That is close to our Northeast for International Travellers itinerary. Adding Tawang means 5–6 more days and a PAP; adding Kohima means a PAP for Nagaland.

How we'd plan it

For a first-time foreign visitor, this is the order we follow:

1. Six to eight weeks out: fix dates and decide if any protected state is in scope. If not, you only need your Indian visa.
2. Five weeks out: send passport and visa scans. For Arunachal we start the PAP; for Nagaland, Manipur or Mizoram we start at the same time and allow a longer wait.
3. Two weeks out: confirm the permit covers every district on the route, then check travel advisories for border areas and any bandh calls.
4. On the trip: carry the original passport, the printed permits and a spare photocopy. Your driver will know each check gate.

A realistic combination for 12–14 days is Meghalaya and Kaziranga without permits, then 5 nights in Arunachal on a PAP: Guwahati, Dirang, Tawang, back via Bomdila. Our Tawang via Dirang and Sela itinerary slots in after the Assam leg. For a slower, permit-light alternative, the Ziro Valley trip needs a PAP but only covers one district. And if you want the classic loop in a week, see Northeast in a Week.

Send us your passport country and dates through our contact page and we will tell you exactly which permits your route needs.