Sierra Leone is one of our featured corridors for a reason: families there make long-journey decisions with the thinnest information layer of any corridor we serve. This page is the deliberate version of a first journey to India — the order of steps, the routing reality, and the verification habits that matter most when you are new to all of it.
The order that protects a first-time traveller
The file, then the opinion, then the shortlist, then the ticket. First journeys fail most often at sequencing: a deposit paid on a phone call, dates booked before the visa letter exists, an opinion never sought because the “free” one came attached to a booking. The protected order: assemble records (diagnosis documents, imaging, labs, medication list), get a written specialist opinion ($150 — from someone with no admission to win), shortlist against that opinion, obtain itemized quotes, and only then touch airlines.
The routing and visa reality
Freetown has no nonstop to India; practical routings connect through Gulf or metro hubs — often as two separate tickets, which we say plainly rather than dress up as a connection. The visa runs through the embassy route (Sierra Leone is not on the e-visa list), anchored by the hospital’s invitation letter — the document that only exists once a hospital has accepted a documented case. Budget the visa file’s time honestly: it is days, not hours.
The budget, layer by layer
| Layer | What to know |
|---|---|
| Consult + written opinion | $50 + $150, published, credited toward the journey |
| Hospital | Itemized quote only — the red flags to check |
| Visa | Embassy route; hospital letter anchors it |
| Flights | Freetown connections via Gulf/metro hubs; separate tickets are common — priced as they are |
| Stay | Tier-2 Indian cities: attendant lodging from a few hundred rupees a night |
| Aftercare | Written follow-up plan + remote reviews, part of the journey scope |
Verify everyone — the habit that matters most
First journeys attract exactly the actors the facilitator-questions page is written against: intermediaries whose income appears only inside your hospital bill. Ask all twelve questions of anyone you consider, including us — and note that the answer we lead with is printed on every page of this site: we take no commissions from hospitals, our fees are published, and you pay the hospital directly on its own invoice.
Sources
- Government of India e-Visa portal — eligibility list (Sierra Leone: embassy route). Accessed 29 October 2026.
- Medical Tourism Association — how to find a facilitator — independent framing consistent with our checklist. Accessed 29 October 2026.