You cannot choose your appointment time anymore, and refreshing the site for a better one is wasted effort. Since 1 July 2026, every Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC) in Bangladesh has been running a time-slot-based submission system for all visa categories, and the slot is assigned to you automatically and sequentially out of each center’s configured daily capacity when you submit your application. That was reported by the Dhaka Tribune on 30 June 2026 and by The Daily Star, and IVAC’s instruction is to arrive at the time printed on your appointment confirmation. Check the current position at ivacbd.com and on the High Commission of India’s notices before you plan any dates.
That single change explains most of what people find confusing about this process right now. The rest of this guide covers the order of operations, who is ahead of you in the queue, and the one offer on this subject that you should always refuse.
What changed on 1 July 2026
Before this, applicants selected an appointment slot themselves, which produced exactly what you would expect: people refreshing the booking page at all hours, a secondary market in slots, and a widespread belief that the system rewarded whoever was fastest.
The current system removes the choice. You complete and submit your application, and the system allocates you a slot from that center’s daily capacity, working through applications in sequence. Every visa category is covered, not just tourist.
What that means for you, concretely:
- There is nothing to refresh. Sitting on the page at midnight does not improve your allocation.
- Submitting a complete application sooner is the only lever you have, because allocation follows submission order against capacity.
- The time on your confirmation is the time. Turning up early does not get you seen early, and turning up late can cost you the appointment.
- Anyone claiming to hold a slot for you is describing something that no longer exists in the form they are selling it.
The order of operations, and the mistake people make
The sequence matters, and getting it backwards is the most common self-inflicted delay.
- Complete the online application form first. Fill it accurately, and check the spelling of your name against your passport character by character. A mismatch between the form and the passport is a rejection waiting to happen at the counter.
- Print the completed form and sign it. The physical, signed form is what you carry.
- Then obtain your submission appointment, at which point the system allocates your slot.
- Attend the assigned center at the assigned time, with the signed form, your passport, and the supporting documents for your visa category.
People routinely try to secure an appointment before the form is finished, on the theory that the appointment is the scarce thing and the paperwork can follow. Under an allocation system driven by submission, that gets you nowhere and often means starting again.
Why you cannot get a date, and who is ahead of you
If you are applying as a tourist, the honest answer is that you are not at the front of the queue, and that is a policy decision rather than a fault in your application.
Reporting through 2026 has consistently described a reduced set of operating centers in Bangladesh and constrained daily capacity, with available appointments directed first at urgent medical cases, students, and business travelers. Tourist applications are processed against what is left.
Two things follow, and both are more useful than another attempt at the booking page.
Stop reading your difficulty as a personal problem. Capacity is the constraint. A perfectly prepared tourist application does not get a faster allocation than a badly prepared one if the category itself is deprioritized.
Have a second destination in mind. This is the practical reason many Bangladeshi travelers end up in Colombo or Kathmandu rather than Kolkata. If your dates are fixed and India is not available, the alternatives are genuinely open: Sri Lanka’s ETA for Bangladeshis is applied for online in days rather than months, and Nepal’s visa on arrival for Bangladeshis needs no advance appointment at all. Neither is a substitute for a trip you actually wanted to take, but both beat an indefinite wait.
Nobody sells appointment slots
This is the part of the page with real money attached to it, so read it even if you skip the rest.
The High Commission’s standing position, repeated in reporting on the system, is that no one from the High Commission of India contacts visa applicants by personal phone call, through social media, or via a third-party intermediary to offer appointment slots in exchange for payment, and that no payment beyond the published IVAC processing charge is required.
So when you are approached with an offer of a slot, one of the following is true, and none of them is good:
- The person cannot deliver what they are selling, and the money is simply gone.
- They intend to submit a fabricated or altered application in your name, which puts your own immigration record at risk long after the money is.
- They want your passport, your photographs, and your personal documents, which are worth more to the wrong person than the fee they are charging you.
The pattern is consistent enough to state as a rule: an unsolicited offer to shortcut a government queue, for a fee, over WhatsApp or Facebook, is not a service. Verify anything you are told against ivacbd.com and the High Commission’s own published notices, and treat urgency in the pitch as a reason for more suspicion rather than less.
If you are already dealing with an agent, ask them to show you which official page supports what they told you. A legitimate operator can. That question, asked early, saves a lot of money.
Which center you are assigned to
The center is not a free choice either. IVAC operates locations across Bangladesh and each has its own configured daily capacity, which is what the allocation runs against. Your assignment reflects the network’s capacity, not your preference.
Plan around this rather than against it. If you are allocated a center outside your city, the travel to it is part of the cost of the application, and the appointment time you were given is not adjustable to suit your bus schedule. Build the journey into the day.
What this page will not tell you, and why
There is no fee figure here, and no current waiting time. Both are deliberate.
The IVAC processing charge is published, and a specific taka amount circulates widely on aggregator and blog pages. During research for this guide, ivacbd.com was not readable to verification, so the figure could not be confirmed against the authority that sets it. On a page where a reader will hand over money on the strength of what they read, an unverified number is worse than no number. Read the current charge on ivacbd.com at the point you apply, and pay it through the channel the site names.
Waiting times are the same problem in a faster-moving form. Any figure for how long an appointment is taking would be out of date within weeks, and this page carries a 60 day review interval for exactly that reason. What is durable is the mechanism, which is what this guide describes.
Before you plan a single date
A short checklist that reflects how this process actually behaves:
- Do not buy a non-refundable ticket before your passport is back in your hand. Not before the appointment, not before submission, not on the strength of an expected timeline.
- Check the High Commission’s notices and
ivacbd.comdirectly, not a screenshot forwarded to you. - Assemble the category’s documents completely before you fill the form. Under submission-order allocation, being ready earlier is the only advantage available.
- Keep your own copies of everything you hand over.
- If your travel is medically urgent, the category exists and is prioritized. Apply under it with the documentation it requires rather than as a tourist.
For the wider picture of what a Bangladeshi passport can reach and how much process each destination demands, start with our pillar guide to visa-free and visa-on-arrival countries for a Bangladeshi passport. If India is one option among several, Malaysia’s eVisa for Bangladeshis is a useful comparison: more documentation than Sri Lanka, but no appointment queue. And if this would be your first trip out of the country, the first international trip from Bangladesh checklist is the place to start.
FAQ
How do I get an IVAC appointment slot in 2026?
You do not select one. Since 1 July 2026 the system assigns a slot automatically and sequentially against each center’s daily capacity when you submit your application. Complete and sign the printed online form first, then submit.
Why can I not find any Indian visa appointment dates?
Daily capacity is limited and available appointments are directed first at urgent medical, student and business applicants. Tourist applications are processed against remaining capacity. The shortage is a capacity constraint, not a fault in your application.
Can someone get me an Indian visa appointment faster for a fee?
No. The High Commission’s position is that nobody from the High Commission contacts applicants by phone, social media or intermediary to sell slots, and that no payment beyond the published IVAC processing charge is required. Treat any such offer as a scam and verify everything against ivacbd.com.
What is the IVAC processing fee?
It is published on ivacbd.com. This guide does not quote an amount, because the figure could not be verified against the authority that sets it during research, and an unverified fee on a page about money is not good enough. Read it on the official site.
Do I fill the form before or after booking the appointment?
Before. Complete the online form, print it, and sign it. The appointment allocation follows submission.
How long does an Indian visa take for Bangladeshis right now?
No timeline is given here, because any figure would be stale within weeks. Check current notices on ivacbd.com and from the High Commission of India, and do not commit to non-refundable travel until your passport is returned.
Verified 30 July 2026 against reporting by the Dhaka Tribune (published 30 June 2026) and The Daily Star on the IVAC time-slot system effective 1 July 2026, and against the High Commission of India’s standing advisory on appointment-slot solicitation. ivacbd.com was not readable to verification at the time of writing. Review interval: 60 days, because appointment capacity and center operations in this process change quickly. Confirm the current position at ivacbd.com and with the High Commission of India in Dhaka before you plan travel. This guide is documented process, not immigration advice.