Minimum Salary Threshold for Indian Employment Visas: What Qualifies
Employment Visas carry a minimum annual salary threshold, generally waived only for specific categories like language teachers, ethnic cooks, and some non-profit roles, structuring compensation below it derails eligibility.
India's Employment Visa policy sets a minimum annual salary threshold that must be met for most foreign national roles to qualify, structured compensation below this threshold makes the role ineligible for an Employment Visa regardless of the role's genuine seniority or importance. A small number of specific categories, certain teaching roles, specialty chefs, and some non-profit or research positions, are exempted from the standard threshold under separate provisions.
This becomes a real structuring consideration for companies bringing over more junior foreign staff, technical specialists, or roles where the India-market salary benchmark would naturally sit below the visa threshold, the compensation package sometimes needs to be structured (base plus allowances, or total cost-to-company framing) to clearly meet the threshold on paper, not just approximate it.
Getting this wrong isn't just an inconvenience, a visa application for a role priced below the threshold is a straightforward rejection, worth confirming compensation structuring against current threshold requirements before finalizing an offer letter for an international transfer or hire.