Treatment at hospitals in India: a guide for patients in Sudan

The Indian medical visa

Applying for a medical visa

Passport holders from this country are not on India’s e-Visa list, so a medical visa is applied for on paper at the Indian mission.

Indian mission

• The mission is working and serving Sudanese applicants, but it is not in Khartoum. It calls itself the Embassy of India, Khartoum, with its seat at Port Sudan, and the consular and visa section is on the first floor of the Indian School in Port Sudan. Knowing that before setting out saves a long journey in the wrong direction. Visa, passport and consular services have all resumed.
• Since October 2019 the embassy takes biometrics from every visa applicant, so in principle everyone attends the counter in person. The exemptions matter here more than the rule, and the embassy publishes them: applicants under twelve and over seventy, applicants who are medically ill and unable to attend physically, holders of diplomatic or official passports on a reciprocity basis, and anyone whose biometrics were captured on an earlier visit.
• If you are too unwell to travel to Port Sudan, that exemption is the single most useful line on this page. The embassy states the exemption from attending; it does not say what evidence of illness it wants, so we establish that with the mission rather than guessing at a procedure.
• We do not print the working days here. Two pages on the embassy's own site contradict each other, so we confirm the days with it before any appointment.

Travelling with a family member

Two people may travel with you, each on a medical attendant visa linked to your medical visa. The embassy publishes no document list for a medical visa — not for the patient and not for an attendant — so there is nothing to read off a page and comply with in advance. We prepare both files together and check them before anything is submitted, because an attendant's application that lags behind the patient's is the usual reason a family ends up travelling separately.

Documents

• Sudanese passport holders cannot use the online medical visa, so this is a paper application, and the embassy publishes no checklist for it. Its own "visa requirements" link leads nowhere. We do not substitute another mission's list, because those lists differ from one another substantially; we confirm the list in force with the embassy and give it to you before you apply.
• What the embassy does publish is enough to prepare for. A printed copy of the completed online application form, handed in on the date shown on the form itself. A passport with at least six months' validity. A photograph to its stated specification: JPEG, 10 to 300 KB, square, between 350 and 1000 pixels on each side, full face and front view, on a plain light or white background, with no shadows and no borders. The applicant in person for biometrics, unless exempt. And the fee in US dollars, in cash.
• One requirement falls on the hospital rather than on you. India's own visa rules oblige the treating hospital to send the documents it issues — the medical invitation letter and the appointment letter — to the mission's official email address, in a prescribed format. That is part of what we arrange with the hospital, and it is easy for a patient to be unaware of it until the file is refused as incomplete.

Visa rules differ by country and change often. Once a partner hospital accepts your case we arrange the hospital’s invitation letter and check the current rules with you before you apply.

Getting to India

Airports

Port Sudan New International Airport, IATA code PZU, is the working gateway. Khartoum International Airport, code KRT, is the country's other international airport. Port Sudan is also where the embassy's consular section now sits, so for most patients the journey for the visa and the journey out of the country begin in the same city.

Routes to India

• There is no direct flight from Sudan to India. Neither Sudanese carrier publishes an Indian city in its network, and no one-stop routing on a single airline could be verified either.
• The closest we could confirm is travelling to Dubai and onward from there, but that means two airlines and two separate tickets. The distinction is not academic: on separate tickets a delay on the first flight is the passenger's own risk, with no obligation on the second carrier to re-route them.
• Allow for that when the treatment date is set, and leave real margin between the flights rather than the minimum connection time.

Before you travel, check your own government’s current travel advice and your airline’s flight status.

Money

Currency

The Sudanese pound, ISO 4217 code SDG.

Before you travel

Health information

India applies yellow fever entry requirements under the International Health Regulations, and the embassy publishes the rule in its own words. A traveller over nine months old arriving from any of the 42 countries India treats as yellow fever endemic must hold a valid vaccination certificate from an authorised centre. The certificate only becomes valid ten days after vaccination, so the vaccination has to be at least ten days before departure. A traveller without a valid certificate, or with one that is not yet mature, can be quarantined for up to six days on arrival. The embassy states the rule and the number but does not publish the list of 42 countries, and we could not find that list on an official Indian page. So we will not tell you here either that you need a certificate or that you do not — we confirm your own position before you travel. Whatever the list says, the ten-day lead time is the part that actually derails journeys. If vaccination turns out to be needed, it has to be done before the final fortnight, not in the week of the flight.

Treatments we coordinate

Our partner hospitals treat these conditions, among others. Where hospitals publish their own prices we show an indicative range; otherwise ask us for an estimate.

• Heart surgery
• Cancer treatment
• Orthopedics and joint replacement
• Spine and neurosurgery
• Kidney care and transplant
• Liver transplant
• Bone marrow transplant
• IVF and fertility treatment
• Neurology
• Eye surgery
• Cosmetic and plastic surgery
• Bariatric (weight-loss) surgery
• Dental care

Don't see your treatment? Send us your reports and we will ask the right specialists at our partner hospitals.

How it works

1. Send your medical reports.

   Share your reports and scans with us on WhatsApp, by email or through our form. Your doctor can also send them to us.

2. Receive a specialist opinion and cost estimate.

   Specialists at our partner hospitals review your reports. We send you their opinion, the treatment they recommend and a clear cost estimate.

3. We arrange your travel.

   We arrange the hospital's invitation letter for your medical visa and help you with flights, accommodation and airport pickup.

4. Treatment, return home and follow-up.

   We support you during treatment and recovery in India, and we stay in touch after you return home.

Our partner hospitals

We work with partner hospitals across India. Their specialists review the medical information on this website and discuss cases with referring doctors.

• Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru / Pune / Gurugram / DelhiJCI-accredited
• Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune
• Jehangir Hospital, Pune
• Ramaiah Hospital, BengaluruJCI-accredited
• Kauvery Hospital, BengaluruJCI-accredited
• Aster Medicity, BengaluruJCI-accredited
• Fortis Hospitals, Bengaluru / Gurugram / NoidaJCI-accredited
• Apollo Hospitals, Bhopal / Bengaluru / Delhi / ChennaiJCI-accredited
• Medanta
• Artemis Hospitals

Talk to us about treatment in India

Send us your medical reports whenever you are ready, or ask us a question first. Coordination is free for patients.

For referring doctors

If you refer patients for treatment in India, we work alongside you. You submit the case through our online case form, and a specialist from our partner hospitals can discuss it with you by video call on request. We keep you informed during your patient's treatment and after they return home, so you can continue their care.