Travelling for a transplant: India’s rules for foreign nationals
You must travel with a near-relative donor, and your embassy must certify the relationship. Anyone offering you a donor is breaking the law.
Legal & Ethics · 4 October 2026 · By Nikhil Sharma, Founder
International patients can have a living-donor kidney or liver transplant in India, but only within strict rules. Under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules 2014, a foreign patient needs a near-relative donor, and a senior official of the embassy must certify the relationship on Form 21.
What the rules mean in practice
- You travel with your own related donor
- The relationship is certified by your country’s embassy in India (Form 21)
- The hospital’s authorisation committee reviews the documents and interviews both patient and donor
- Indian living donors are not considered for a foreign recipient who is not a near relative
A warning
Anyone offering to “arrange” a donor for you is proposing a crime. IndiaMedica never sources, introduces or arranges donors.
Planning the trip
Both patient and donor need full medical evaluation, and both need recovery time before travelling home. Your transplant team will tell you how long to plan for. Start the embassy paperwork early.
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General information, not medical or legal advice. Rules change — always confirm with the official source.
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