Bhutan for Indians: Permits, Documents and SDF

This is where most Indian families get caught out. The Embassy of India in Thimphu lists only two documents for adults: an Indian passport valid for at least six months, or an original Voter ID card (EPIC). If you use a Voter ID, carry two or three passport-size photos as well. Photocopies and phone scans are not enough at the counter.

Aadhaar, PAN and driving licences are not accepted as travel documents, even though they are valid ID everywhere else in India. We have seen people turned back at Phuentsholing with only an Aadhaar card. Children under 18 who do not have a passport can travel on their original birth certificate.

Applying online saves an hour or more in the queue at Phuentsholing, especially on Saturdays in October and May. If you book through a Bhutanese tour operator, they usually file the application for you and send the permit by email. If you apply yourself, the process runs roughly like this.

• Scan the photo page of your passport, or both sides of your original Voter ID, plus a recent photo with a plain background.
• Fill in the application on the Department of Immigration portal with your dates, entry point and plan for each night.
• Pay the Sustainable Development Fee online for every night you will spend in Bhutan.
• Download and print the approved permit; keep a copy on your phone as well.
• Carry the original document you applied with, because officers check it against the permit at the border.

The Entry Permit covers Thimphu and Paro. To go further, to Punakha, Wangdue Phodrang, Phobjikha, Haa, Trongsa, Bumthang or Gasa, you have needed a separate Route Permit. It is issued by the Immigration office in Thimphu on working days, Monday to Friday. In practice your guide or tour operator takes your documents in and collects it, often while you are at the Memorial Chorten or Buddha Dordenma.

Plan your route so that you reach Thimphu on a weekday. If you arrive on a Friday evening and want to leave for Punakha on Saturday morning, the permit may not be ready. Reports in 2026 suggest the route permit process is being simplified, so check current status before you travel.

The Sustainable Development Fee, or SDF, is a per-night charge that goes to the government of Bhutan for conservation, health, education and infrastructure. For Indian nationals it is ₹1,200 (Nu 1,200) per person per night. Children aged 6 to 12 pay half, and children under 6 pay nothing. You pay it online with the permit or at the entry point.

For a family of two adults and two children aged 9 and 4 on a six-night trip, the SDF works out to ₹14,400 for the adults, ₹3,600 for the older child and nothing for the younger one: ₹18,000 in all. It is charged per night, not per day, so a trip that enters in the morning and leaves the next evening is one night of SDF. Check current status before you travel, because the fee has changed before.

SDF does not cover anything you use directly. Your hotel, guide, car, meals and monument tickets are all extra. When an operator quotes a package price, ask whether SDF is included, because some quotes leave it out to look cheaper. On a six-night trip for a couple, that difference is ₹14,400.

If you only want to cross the gate at Jaigaon, walk around Phuentsholing, eat ema datshi and buy a few things, you do not pay SDF. Casual visitors to the border towns of Phuentsholing, Samtse, Gelephu and Samdrup Jongkhar can stay up to 24 hours without SDF, as long as they stay inside the designated zone. In Phuentsholing that means not going past the Rinchending checkpoint, about 5 km up the Thimphu highway.

From September 2026, news reports said the zone was widened to allow visits to Milarepa Lhakhang and the Pachu community ecotourism site, on an approved package with a licensed guide. The details are new and may shift, so check current status before you travel.

For years, websites said Indians could drive around Thimphu and Paro on their own. That is no longer safe advice. A Department of Tourism notification dated 8 April 2026 restated the Tourism Rules and Regulations 2024: all tourists must be accompanied by a certified, licensed guide on tours beyond the first checkpoint, which for Phuentsholing is Rinchending. That includes the drive from Paro airport to Thimphu and visits to monuments. We read this as covering Indian tourists as well. Plan on a licensed guide for the whole trip beyond Phuentsholing.

Indian private cars are allowed in with a permit from the transport authority at the border. Reports in 2026 put the fee at Nu 4,500 a day for foreign-registered vehicles, and the vehicle must be under 10 years old. You still need a guide. Indian taxis from Siliguri normally stop at Jaigaon, and you switch to a Bhutan-registered tourist vehicle. Check current status before you travel.

The Ngultrum is pegged 1:1 to the rupee and Indian rupees are accepted widely. The Embassy of India notes that Indians may carry up to ₹25,000 in ₹500 or smaller notes; above that, carry ₹100 or smaller notes. UPI and Indian cards work in some places, but carry cash. Tourists must stay in Department of Tourism-certified hotels of 3-star and above, or in registered homestays and farmhouses.

• Original passport or Voter ID for every adult, birth certificate for children without a passport.
• Printed Entry Permit and SDF receipt, plus copies on your phone.
• Four passport photos per person for route permits and any surprises.
• Hotel confirmations at certified properties for every night.
• Guide and vehicle booked through a licensed Bhutanese operator.
• Cash in ₹500 or smaller notes within the ₹25,000 limit.