How many people can travel with a patient? The Indian medical attendant visa, for Bangladeshi citizens

Checked 12 September 2026. Corrected and re-checked 13 September 2026 — see the correction in section 1: the Indian government does publish an attendant number for Bangladeshi nationals, and our first version of this page said it did not. Every fact below carries the government page we read it on. Rules change — check the link before you rely on it.

The short version

Three different Indian government statements give three different answers to "how many", and we are going to show you all three rather than pick one.

1. The Bureau of Immigration, part of India's Ministry of Home Affairs, states a number for Bangladeshi nationals specifically: "Three medical attendants shall be allowed in case of Bangladesh nationals." Full quote, second source and the "shall"/"may" wording difference in section 1.
2. IVAC, the visa application centre in Bangladesh, has the Medical Attendant category M-2 on its own checklist but publishes no number at all.
3. The e-Medical Visa, a separate online route, states: "Only two e-Medical Attendant Visas will be granted against one e-Medical Visa" — with no mention of nationality.

No government page we have read says which of these governs a Bangladeshi patient using the online route. If a website or an agent gives you one number with no source, ask which of these three sentences they mean and which government page it is printed on.

1. The paper visa: IVAC's own list publishes no limit — the Bureau of Immigration does

IVAC's own visa-category list, read 12 September 2026:

(source, read 12 September 2026)

IVAC adds one specific rule about minors: "Minor applicants have to be compulsorily accompanied by parent/guardian as medical attendant. In case patient is minor, then parents may apply visa as medical attendant (M2) and any other sibling or minor child who is dependent on M2 visa holder may apply for X-Misc visa." That is the only numeric-adjacent rule on the page, and it is about minors specifically, not a general cap.

We read this page fully, and no number appears for how many M-2 attendants a non-minor patient may bring. That is still true of IVAC's page. It is no longer the whole answer — see the correction immediately below.

Correction added 13 September 2026: the number is three, and the Indian government publishes it

When this page was written on 12 September 2026 we said that if you see "3 attendants" stated as a rule, "it is not on the page we read". We have since found it, on two separate Indian government pages, and we were wrong to leave the impression that no such rule exists. It is not on IVAC's page. It is on the Bureau of Immigration's, which is part of India's Ministry of Home Affairs.

On its Medical Treatment in India page, under "Country-Specific Guidelines", the Bureau of Immigration states:

"Not more than two persons shall be given Medical Attendant visas in case of foreign nationals other than Pakistan and Bangladesh nationals."

"Only one medical attendant shall be allowed in case of Pak nationals."

"Three medical attendants shall be allowed in case of Bangladesh nationals."

— source, read 13 September 2026

And on its Terms and Conditions of your Visa page — where you have to select "Medical Visa (M)" from a dropdown before the text appears, which is probably why it is so rarely quoted — the same office states it again, in the M-2 section, with a different verb:

"In the case of foreign nationals other than Pakistan and Bangladesh nationals, not more than two persons (attendant or family member) may be allowed at a time for the grant of 'M-2' visa."

"In the case of Pakistan nationals, only one attendant may be allowed on M-2 visa."

"In the case of Bangladesh nationals, three attendants may be allowed on M-2 visa."

— source, select "Medical Visa (M)", read 13 September 2026

Notice that the two pages use different verbs: "shall be allowed" on one, "may be allowed" on the other. Same government office, same day, two wordings. We are not going to tell you what the difference means or which one governs, because neither page says. Note too that in both sentences the number sits among upper limits — the parallel clauses read "not more than two persons" and "only one attendant". Read three as a ceiling, not as a guarantee that three will be granted.

And this does not settle the e-Visa route. The e-Visa portal's own FAQ says "Only two e-Medical Attendant Visas will be granted against one e-Medical Visa" — quoted in section 2 below — with no mention of nationality. The Bureau of Immigration's pages say three for Bangladeshi nationals, with no mention of which route. Neither document says what happens to a Bangladeshi applying for an e-Medical Attendant Visa. We found no source that resolves it, so we are publishing both and refusing to pick, as we do everywhere else on this site.

The practical reading: a number quoted to you without naming both the route and the government page it comes from is not a rule you can rely on. Ask which of these three sentences the person means.

2. The e-Medical Visa: a different, online route, with a published cap of two

Separately from the IVAC paper process, India runs an online e-Visa system. Bangladesh is on the government's own published list of eligible countries/territories — it appears as entry 14 on the modal list at https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html, alongside every other eligible country, with no asterisk or special note attached to it (checked 12 September 2026).

This route has its own Medical Attendant categories: e-M2 (attendant of an e-M1 patient) and e-M4 (attendant of an e-M3 Ayush patient). And on this route, the government publishes the number directly. From the site's own FAQ:

Q33. How many attendants can come with a patient? Ans. Only two e-Medical Attendant Visas will be granted against one e-Medical Visa (patient).

(source, FAQ, read 12 September 2026). The same sentence appears a second time in the portal's General Instructions section, word for word.

So on the e-Visa route, the number is two, stated by the government itself. This is the only place across every government page we have read — for this cluster or for Kenya, in a separate research pass — where a specific attendant number is published anywhere. It applies to the e-Visa route. We found no equivalent sentence anywhere on IVAC's pages for the M-2 paper route.

What the e-Medical Attendant Visa costs a Bangladeshi applicant

The government's own fee table, "Country/Territory Wise e-Visa Fee," dated 15 April 2026, lists Bangladesh at row 14:

(source, page 2, checked 12 September 2026). A 3% bank transaction charge applies on top of the fee, and the fee is non-refundable whether the application is granted or rejected — both stated in the portal's General Instructions.

That matches what IVAC separately says about the paper route: the Government of India charges Bangladeshi nationals no visa fee there either, and IVAC adds its own BDT 1,500 processing charge on that route (source, read 12 September 2026). Neither route's government visa fee costs a Bangladeshi citizen anything.

What the e-Medical Attendant Visa needs — and does not need

The portal lists the document requirements for each category separately. For e-Medical Visa, the applicant needs a scanned passport bio page and a copy of a letter from the hospital in India, on its letterhead, giving the tentative admission date. For e-Medical Attendant Visa, the requirement is shorter — a scanned passport bio page only. No hospital letter is listed for the attendant's own application (source as above, "Documents Required" section, read 12 September 2026).

Timing. Apply online at least 4 days before travel. There is a 120-day arrival window from the date of application — the portal's own example: apply 1 September, and you may select an arrival date any time from 5 September to 2 January. This applies to both the e-Medical Visa and the e-Medical Attendant Visa (source as above, General Instructions, read 12 September 2026).

Validity — the government's own page contradicts itself, and we are not going to guess which line is right. The e-Visa category table states e-M1 / e-M2 / e-M3 / e-M4 last "One year (365 days) from the date of arrival into India." The FAQ on the same page, in answer to a separate question, states: "For e-Medical Visa, the validity would be 60 days from the date of first arrival in India... For e-Medical Attendant Visa, the validity would be 60 days from the date of first arrival in India." Both sentences are on the document we read, on the same day. We are publishing both because we found both, not because we can reconcile them. The stamp actually placed in your passport is what governs your stay — read that, and ask the mission in writing if it does not match either number here.

Added 13 September 2026 — a third official statement, which agrees with the 60 days. The Bureau of Immigration's Terms and Conditions of your Visa page (select "Medical Visa (M)") states: "e visa for M-1 Visa (e-M1 V) will be granted for a period up to 60 days from the date of first entry into India with triple entry", and for the attendant: "e Visa for M-2 Visa (e-M2 V) will be co-terminus with the validity of the principal e-M1 visa holder" (source, read 13 September 2026). That is two government statements saying 60 days and one saying one year, all still live. We are not adjudicating, and we are not counting votes either — the three sentences may not be measuring the same thing. The Bureau of Immigration's own FAQ separates "visa validity" (the period during which you may stay on the strength of the visa) from a "stay stipulation" (the number of days permitted, either continuously from your last arrival or in aggregate in a calendar year) (source, read 13 September 2026). A one-year validity carrying a 60-day stay stipulation would be a consistent reading of all three — but all three passages use the word "validity", so we cannot tell you that is what they mean. We are showing you the distinction because it exists, not because we can apply it here. "Triple entry" and "co-terminus with the patient's visa" are two further conditions neither of the other pages mentions.

3. Which route should you actually use?

We are not going to tell you which to choose — that depends on how you plan to enter India, and we cover the entry-point question, including a second contradiction on the government's own e-Visa page, in what happens on arrival: FRRO, the hospital's own reporting duty, and the land-border question. Read that before deciding, if you plan to cross by land rather than fly.

What we can say here: the two routes are not interchangeable rule sets. A document, a fee, or an attendant number that is true on one route is not automatically true on the other. If an agent quotes you a single set of rules without saying which visa type they apply to, ask. Our Indian medical visa document checklist tool asks which of the two routes you are on and filters its answer by that, for the same reason.

4. What we still could not find, and are not going to guess at

• A published attendant limit for the IVAC paper route (M-2). Resolved 13 September 2026 — see the correction in section 1. The Bureau of Immigration publishes three for Bangladeshi nationals. What remains unresolved is which number applies to a Bangladeshi on the e-Visa route, where the portal states two without naming a nationality, and whether "shall be allowed" and "may be allowed" mean the same thing.
• Whether the e-Medical / e-Medical Attendant route is actually usable by a Bangladeshi patient who plans to enter India by land, rather than by air. See the linked arrival page — the government's own e-Visa FAQ and its own list of authorised entry points do not agree with each other on this point.
• Processing time for either route. Not published on the pages we read.
• Any hospital name, treatment price, waiting time or outcome. We have verified none, so we publish none.

5. The rest of this series

• Indian medical visa from Bangladesh: the process — the four steps, the categories, what it costs, why appointments are the real constraint.
• Indian medical visa requirements from Bangladesh — the two official document lists, and the three ways they disagree about money.
• After you arrive in India — FRRO registration, the hospital's own duty to report you, the e-Arrival Card.
• When treatment outlasts your visa — the Bureau of Immigration's one-paragraph extension rule, the blank certificate a treating hospital fills in, and the numbers it does not publish.
• Changing hospital on a medical visa — both offices say FRRO permission is required; neither publishes a form, a document list, a fee or a deadline for asking.
• Indian medical visa fraud from Bangladesh — what the High Commission itself says about agents, fees and appointment slots.
• Questions to ask before you pay a medical travel agent — the questions, and what a real answer looks like.

About this page

Infirmy is a marketplace. Hospitals and medical facilitators list for free and pay only per qualified lead they receive — no commission on treatment. Today it has none listed. This page names no hospital, quotes no treatment price and gives no medical advice. We are not a visa agent and we do not sell visas or appointments. If something here turns out to be wrong, we will correct it here and record when we did.

This is general information about process and paperwork, not medical advice. Infirmy does not diagnose, recommend a treatment, or tell anyone what care to seek.