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

The Indian medical visa

e-Medical Visa

Zimbabwean passport holders can apply for India's e-Medical Visa online, without attending the mission in person to lodge the application. Zimbabwe is the last country on the official eligibility list, at entry 175 of 175, which is worth knowing only because people scanning that list tend to give up before the end. Applications are made on the official e-Visa portal, and the letter from the Indian hospital is part of the file from the start. The decision is emailed to the address used on the form, so use one you can still reach while travelling.

Apply on the official Indian e-Visa portal

Indian mission

• India's mission in Zimbabwe calls itself the Embassy of India, Harare, and it is worth saying so plainly: Zimbabwe is a Commonwealth country, where you would expect a High Commission, and some directories label it that way. If you go looking for a High Commission in Harare, this is the office you want.
• It is at 12 Natal Road, Belgravia, Harare, and is open from 09:00 to 17:30, Monday to Friday. Consular questions can be emailed to [email protected], and the telephone is 00263 242 795955.
• Because the online route is open to Zimbabwean passports, most patients will not need to attend at all.

Travelling with a family member

Two family members may come with you, each on an e-Medical Attendant Visa tied to your own medical visa. They are applied for on the same portal, and every person needs a separate application, including children. Apply for the attendants at the same time as the patient rather than afterwards. The attendant visa depends on the patient's, so a late application is the part most likely to leave a family travelling apart.

Documents

• The portal asks for the passport bio page, a recent front-facing photograph on a white background, and a letter from the Indian hospital on its letterhead giving the date or the expected date of admission. Your passport needs six months' validity and two blank pages, and you are asked for a return or onward ticket and evidence that the costs can be met.
• The Harare mission publishes no separate checklist for a medical visa that we have been able to read, so there is no second list to reconcile against the portal's. We confirm what is in force before you apply and give it to you, rather than leaving you to work out which lines apply to treatment.

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

Zimbabwe's airports company operates nine airports and names three of them international: Robert Gabriel Mugabe in Harare, Victoria Falls, and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo in Bulawayo. The others — Charles Prince, Kariba, Masvingo, Buffalo Range, Grand Reef and Hwange National Park — serve domestic and regional traffic. Harare is the one to plan a journey to India around. It is where the connection we have been able to verify begins.

Routes to India

• There is no non-stop flight from Zimbabwe to India that we could confirm on any airline's own pages, so expect to change aircraft at least once.
• One routing does verify on a single carrier. Uganda Airlines serves both Harare and Mumbai from its base at Entebbe, so one airline can carry you the whole way with a single change. That is worth looking for rather than assembling a journey from two separate tickets: on one ticket, a late first flight is the airline's problem rather than yours.
• We do not call the second leg a non-stop flight, because the airline publishes no schedule or routing for it that we have been able to read. Connections through Johannesburg, Nairobi or the Gulf may suit a particular date better.
• We check what is actually bookable with you before anything is paid for.

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

Money

Currency

The currency is Zimbabwe Gold, ISO 4217 code ZWG, numeric code 924. If you find older guidance quoting ZWL or a Zimbabwe dollar, it is out of date: the register now lists Zimbabwe Gold.

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.