Indians in Fiji: the 2026 guide to the Indo-Fijian community, Girmit history, work permits, Lautoka, Nadi, Suva, Labasa, temples and Diwali

About 318,000 overseas Indians live in Fiji: 318,364 in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs' estimate for January 2026, made up of 2,283 Indian citizens and 316,081 people of Indian origin. That is a ministry estimate, not a census count. Fiji's published 2017 census reports give the total population (884,887) but no breakdown by ethnic group, so the other numbers that exist are the 2019–20 Household Income and Expenditure Survey, which put people of Indian descent at 295,326, or 34.2% of 864,132, and the High Commission of India's own page, which gives the same 316,081 as about 33% of the population. The community section says what each of these counts and what it leaves out.

In Fiji, "Indo-Fijian" and "Fijian of Indian descent" mean citizens whose forefathers came as indentured labourers, the girmitiyas, between 1879 and 1916, or as free migrants (mainly Gujarati and Punjabi) in the decades after. "iTaukei" means the indigenous people, and since the 2013 Constitution every citizen is legally a "Fijian", a choice that is still argued about. Indian nationals living in Fiji are a small group: 2,283 in the ministry's table. This guide is written for both, for Fijian families of Indian descent and for people from India who have moved for work, because they share the temples, the shops and the festivals but not the paperwork. It covers the whole country, not one city, because the community is spread along the sugar belt: Lautoka, Nadi, Ba and Sigatoka on the west of Viti Levu, the Suva, Nasinu and Nausori corridor in the south-east, and Labasa on Vanua Levu. The Fiji dollar (FJ$) stood at about US$0.44 on the Reserve Bank of Fiji's website on 23 October 2026.

Four things shape the year. Prices turned up after a year of falls: the Bureau's inflation rate went from minus 3.8% in September 2025 to plus 6.8% in September 2026. The Ministry of Immigration changed how it handles work permits from 1 September 2026. India's Overseas Citizenship card became a digital-only card for new applicants from 8 July 2026. And Fiji is heading into a general election, with a Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2026 before a parliamentary committee; the politics section gives the dates without taking sides. There are no Fiji topic guides on this site yet, so permits, banking and consular services are on this page, and the Fiji directory, events page and groups cover what is live.

Fiji's earlier censuses reported the population by ethnic group, and the 2017 census is the exception. After it, the Attorney-General told Parliament on 5 March 2018, in answer to the Leader of the Opposition, that there had been no collection and no aggregation of data by ethnicity (Fiji Sun, 6 March 2018). The Bureau's three published releases bear that out: Release 1 covers age, sex, geography and economic activity, Release 2 is an infographics release, and Release 3 is the administrative report with general tables, and none of them has a table by ethnic group. Release 1 gives the headline: 884,887 people counted on census night, 17 September 2017, which was 47,616, or 5.7%, more than the 837,271 of 2007, with a growth rate of 0.6% a year that the Bureau attributes mainly to lower birth rates and out-migration. A figure of 289,237, or 32.7%, for Indo-Fijians in 2017 circulates (Wikipedia prints it, citing a census dashboard); we could not find it in a Bureau publication, so this guide does not use it. The first official-source ethnic split after 2007 was the 2019–20 survey, released in September 2021.

The numbers we have

How to read them

The two recent counts differ by 20,755 (316,081 against 295,326, our arithmetic), and neither is a census. The ministry does not say how it arrives at its table, and a household survey is a sample, so the honest summary is that the community numbers somewhere between about 295,000 and 316,000, roughly a third of the country. The 1996 and 2007 censuses show how it got there: the count fell by 25,020 between them (338,818 to 313,798, our arithmetic) while the iTaukei count rose from 393,575 to 475,739. The workforce figures are shares of people in work, not of residents, and should not be read as population shares.

Religion is not a proxy for community. Hindus were 24.0% of Fiji in the 2017 census, 21,068 fewer than in 2007 (our arithmetic), but Indo-Fijians are also Muslim, Christian and Sikh, and a few iTaukei are Hindu (864 in the 1996 census, according to Wikipedia's article on Hinduism in Fiji). The languages and faiths section has the organisations behind each.

Where families came from in India

Wikipedia's article on Indo-Fijians says that about half of the indentured labourers came from the Awadh and Bhojpur regions of the Hindi belt, from districts in present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand such as Basti, Gonda, Lucknow, Kanpur, Azamgarh and Gorakhpur, with smaller numbers from West Bengal, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the Telugu-speaking regions. The list of indenture voyages gives the ports: 45,439 people embarked at Calcutta and 15,114 at Madras, so about a quarter, by our arithmetic, sailed from the south. Free migration from about 1900 brought Gujarati and Punjabi families, and the High Commission says many of Fiji's Gujarati-owned companies employ the Indian professionals who now arrive.

Indian nationals

The High Commission puts Indian expatriates at about 2,200 and the ministry's table at 2,283 citizens. The High Commission describes them as mainly professionals: doctors, professors, IT specialists, accountants and sales and marketing staff, many of them at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji National University and government hospitals or working for local companies. No source we found breaks them down by town or by Indian state.

The first ship of Indian indentured labourers, the Leonidas, reached Levuka on the island of Ovalau on 14 May 1879. Sources differ on how many boarded: the Lowy Institute essay of 19 May 2026 says 498, a Fiji Times history of 14 May 2023 says about 522, and the arrival register in Wikipedia's list of indenture ships has 463 people. The Fiji Times says 17 died at sea, 11 of cholera and six of dysentery, and that the survivors were quarantined on Yanuca Lailai, an uninhabited island between Ovalau and Moturiki, where another 15 died. Contracts ran five years, and a free passage home was promised after ten, which meant five more years of work (Lowy Institute). Most workers were employed on the sugar estates of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, whose Lautoka mill dates from 1903.

How many came

That same list counts 87 voyages between 1879 and 1916. It says 60,965 passengers left India and 60,553, including births at sea, arrived in Fiji; its own breakdown by port, 45,439 from Calcutta and 15,114 from Madras, adds to the arrivals, not the departures, so the two totals should not be mixed. The last ship, the Sutlej, arrived on 11 November 1916 with 888 people. Wikipedia's article on Indo-Fijians says the system ended with the freeing of the remaining labourers on 1 January 1920 and that about 25,000 returned to South Asia; the rest stayed, and their descendants are today's community. Wikipedia's article on Hinduism in Fiji says that nearly 85% of the labourers were Hindus, and the one on Islam in Fiji that Muslims were among them from the first ship, with the Labasa strike of 1907 led by workers it describes as mostly Pashtuns and Punjabis.

Girmit Day

Girmit Day, 14 May, marks the arrival of the Leonidas. Cabinet's list of eleven public holidays for 2026, reported by the Fiji Times in September 2025, puts the holiday on Friday 15 May 2026, and the High Commission's list of its own holidays for 2026 carries it on the same day. The Prime Minister's message for the 147th commemoration, published by the Fiji Sun on 15 May 2026, spoke of the girmitiyas as "agents of transformation" and gave the year's theme as "From Roots to Wings, Carrying the Girmit Flame Forward". The Fiji Girmit Council is based in Lautoka, according to the High Commission's list of Indian organisations.

The date carries a second memory: 14 May is also the anniversary of the first coup of 1987, an overlap that the Lowy Institute essay takes as its subject, under the title "Two dates, one wound". For 2027 we found no confirmed holiday date. The High Commission's office order of 15 October 2026 lists its 2027 holidays and has no Girmit Day on it, and the Cabinet's 2027 list was not available to us in a reliable form, so check the Gazette notice when it is published; 14 May 2027 is a Friday.

Reading the numbers for yourself

If you want to check a figure in this section, the three documents to open are the Wikipedia list of indenture ships (the voyage and arrival counts), the Fiji Times history of the Leonidas (the voyage and the quarantine) and the Lowy Institute essay (the contracts and the coup anniversary). They disagree in small ways, as the text says, and none of them replaces the arrival registers held in Fiji's archives, which we did not see.

The April 1987 election replaced the government of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara with a Labour-led coalition that had mostly Indo-Fijian support, and on 14 May 1987 Sitiveni Rabuka, then an army officer, overthrew it. A second coup followed on 25 September 1987, Fiji was proclaimed a republic in October and was expelled from the Commonwealth. Wikipedia's article on the coups says they triggered heavy emigration by Indo-Fijians, particularly skilled workers, and that by 1994 the community was a minority. The census figures above fit that: Indo-Fijians were 43.7% in 1996, and the Bureau's 2017 release still attributes slow growth to out-migration. Estimates of how many left are not consistent: Wikipedia's article on Hinduism in Fiji says about 50,000 Hindus and other Indo-Fijians between 1987 and 1992, and its article on Indo-Fijians says more than 100,000 in all, so this guide gives no single figure.

On 19 May 2000, the first anniversary of the election of Fiji's first Indo-Fijian prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, armed men led by George Speight took the government hostage in Parliament; the last hostages were freed on 13 July. Wikipedia's article records that mobs burned and looted Indo-Fijian-owned shops in Suva, with more than 100 businesses ransacked on the first day. Emigration did not stop: the Employment Minister said in August 2025 that many Fijians have migrated to "greener pastures" (Fiji Sun).

The 2013 Constitution and the word "Fijian"

The 2013 Constitution, adopted under the government that took power in the 2006 coup, declares in its preamble that "we are all Fijians united by common and equal citizenry". Section 5(1) says that all citizens shall be known as Fijians. It allows dual citizenship (section 5(4)), makes the state secular (section 4: religion and the State are separate), and requires conversational iTaukei and Fiji Hindi to be taught in primary schools (section 31(3)). The name is still contested: Rabuka, then in opposition, told an audience in 2018 that for an iTaukei "Fijian" means membership of a customary landowning clan, not only citizenship (Islands Business, 27 April 2018), while the People's Alliance president said on 23 July 2026 that "Fijian" is the right word for all citizens (Fiji Sun). Fiji's newspapers and statistics use both "Indo-Fijian" and "Fijians of Indian descent", and this guide uses the first.

2026 and the election

Prime Minister Rabuka said, in a Fiji Times report dated 20 October 2026, that the general election will be held no later than 6 February 2027 and that Cabinet is committed to holding it before then. A Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2026, Bill 32, is before Parliament's special committee; the Fiji Times on 23 October reported the Centre for Democracy and Dialogue's criticism that the Government's draft keeps power with the executive, and the Fiji Sun the same day reported the Fiji Law Society's submission against any future grant of immunity to coup-makers. We take no position on either, and note only that politics is a topic Fiji's newspapers cover daily and that visitors are advised to avoid demonstrations (see the safety section).

Fiji Hindi

Fiji Hindi, sometimes called Fiji Baat, is the community's first language. Wikipedia's article on Indo-Fijians says it is based on Awadhi with Bhojpuri influence and has Fijian and English loanwords, and a Fiji Times opinion piece of 4 October 2026 says it grew largely from Awadhi and Bhojpuri and was shaped by the cane fields, settlements and temples. Almost all Indo-Fijians are fluent in English. Gujarati and Punjabi are spoken by minorities, and the Sangam, which the Fiji Times describes as a mix of Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam people classified as South Indians, has head priests from Tamil Nadu. The High Commission describes Hindi as one of Fiji's three official languages; the Constitution requires translations in iTaukei and Hindi (section 3(3)) and the teaching of Fiji Hindi in primary schools (section 31(3)). The opinion piece's worry is the one every diaspora has: that the main threat is a quiet shift to English at home, "through love", and that a language on a school timetable does not survive on that alone.

The Hindu organisations

Most Hindus in Fiji are Sanatani. In the 1996 census, the last that Wikipedia's article on Hinduism in Fiji breaks down, 193,928 people (25.0%) were Sanatani, 9,564 (1.2%) Arya Samaj and 57,430 (7.4%) other Hindu.

• Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji is the Sanatan body; its national president, Dhirendra Nand, said on 22 October 2026 that Diwali is a religious festival and not a corporate occasion. The Shree Satsang Ramayan Mandali and the Fiji Hindu Society are on the High Commission's list of Indian organisations too. Ramayan mandalis, the neighbourhood groups that recite the Ramayana together, are a common form of worship; the Satsang Ramayan Mandali in Nadawa is one the Fiji Times has reported.
• Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji was formed in 1918 and runs, according to Wikipedia, 14 pre-schools, 18 primary schools and seven secondary schools; its Gurukul Primary School in Lautoka (1918) was the first, and it provided the facilities for the University of Fiji.
• TISI Sangam (Then India Sanmarga Ikya Sangam) was founded in 1926 by Sadhu Kuppuswamy and is the South Indian body. It runs the Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple in Nadi and the Sri Raja Maha Mariamman Tiru Kovil on Howell Road in Suva, plus schools; the Fiji Times said in November 2025 that its centenary was planned for April 2026.

Muslims and Sikhs

Muslims were 5.8% of Fiji in the 2017 census (50,925). The Fiji Muslim League was founded on 31 October 1926 at the Jamia Masjid in Toorak, Suva, and, Wikipedia says, runs 17 primary schools, five secondary schools and the Islamic Institute of the South Pacific. The Prophet Mohammed's birthday is a public holiday, on Monday 24 August in 2026. Sikhs are a small community: 2,540 in the 2007 census. Wikipedia's article on Sikhism in Fiji names the Gurdwara Sahib Samabula in Suva (built in 1922, the first in Fiji), the Guru Ravidass gurdwara in Nasinu (1939), temples in Lautoka and at Tagi Tagi, and the Labasa gurdwara, and the Khalsa High School in Ba (1958). Indo-Fijians are also Christians, a group that was 6.1% of the community in the 1996 census according to Wikipedia.

A secular state

Section 4 of the Constitution makes religious liberty a founding principle and separates religion from the State. That is the legal background to the 22 October request from Sanatan Fiji: it asked businesses and Government bodies not to serve alcohol or meat at functions presented as traditional Hindu Diwali celebrations, and it was a request, not a rule.

No official source says how many Indo-Fijians live in each town: the Bureau published no ethnic table from 2017, and the 2019–20 survey is reported by division, not by place. What the sources do show is where the sugar belt and the towns around it are. Wikipedia's article on Indo-Fijians says the community is concentrated in the sugar belt and in the towns on the northern and western coasts of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu and is far scarcer in the south and inland. The table gives the 2017 populations of the main urban centres, for all residents of any ethnicity; Wikipedia's article on Suva puts the metropolitan area, with Lami, Nasinu and Nausori, at 268,423.

The figures are from citypopulation.de's table of the 2017 census (Fiji Bureau of Statistics); the page shows Suva as 93,870 in its table, which with Nasinu adds to the 185,913 it gives for the agglomeration, and 93,970 in a footnote, while Wikipedia gives 93,874 for the city, so treat the last digits as approximate.

Western Viti Levu: Lautoka, Nadi, Ba and Sigatoka

Ba province was the most populous in 2017, with 247,708 people, 28.0% of the country (Release 1). Lautoka is called the Sugar City: its mill, opened in 1903 for the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, is the largest in Fiji and employs about 1,300 people (Wikipedia). Almost all of its Indian residents descend from girmitiyas. The Fiji Girmit Council is in Lautoka, the Arya Samaj opened its first school at Saweni, Lautoka, in 1918, and the University of Fiji is at Saweni. Nadi, 71,048 people, is where visitors arrive: Nadi airport is about 9 km from the town, and the Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple makes the town, in Wikipedia's words, a centre of Hinduism in Fiji. Ba has the Rarawai mill and the Khalsa High School; Sigatoka has the Nadroga Arya College (1998) and a Hare Krishna temple, the Sri Radha Damodar Temple.

Suva, Nasinu and Nausori

Wikipedia says that Indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians comprise the bulk of Suva's population and that Fijians of Indian descent have largely shaped its economy. The places where the community's institutions are: Samabula (the Gurdwara Sahib), Nasinu (the Guru Ravidass gurdwara), Nakasi (Bhawani Dayal Arya College, 1972), Howell Road (the Mariamman temple and Suva Sangam College) and the city's DAV College (1952). Cumming Street and Marks Street are the old shopping streets for clothes, jewellery, food and electronics. The High Commission and the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre are in the LICI Building on Butt Street.

Labasa and the north

Labasa, on Vanua Levu, is "heavily Indo-Fijian", according to Wikipedia: it has curry houses and sari shops in its centre, a large market and Labasa Hospital, the referral centre for the island. The Hindi Parishad's northern branch and the Shree Sanatan Dharm Sabha at Seaqaqa are listed by the High Commission as Labasa organisations, and the Labasa gurdwara is the only Sikh temple outside Viti Levu. Macuata province, around Labasa, counted 65,983 people in 2017, 8.9% fewer than in 2007, and the Bureau notes that it has been falling since the 1996–2007 period. The Fiji Sun reported on 22 October 2026 that El Niño dryness was drying the wells and boreholes of cane farmers at Tabia, near Labasa.

Entering Fiji

India is on the Ministry of Immigration's list of countries whose citizens do not need a Fiji visa (the list also names Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore and the Maldives among the Asian countries; we did not find Pakistan, Nepal or Sri Lanka on the copy we read). Citizens on the list are still required to hold "the relevant permits" for what they intend to do. A visitor is given a visitor permit on clearance, allowing up to four months, and can extend by two months by applying and paying; the fee schedule lists the extension of a visitor's permit at FJ$93. The Ministry lists tourism, visiting a relative or friend who is a Fiji citizen, conferences and meetings, medical treatment, sport and transit as visitor purposes. It does not list work.

The High Commission's advisory of 10 July 2026 is blunt about the risk. It says the Mission has seen a rise in Indian nationals lured by unregistered recruitment agents with fake job offers, and that some travel as tourists and take jobs. It says that the Ministry of Immigration strictly forbids issuing work permits to people who came on a tourist visa, asks job seekers to use only recruiting agents approved by India's Ministry of External Affairs (check the "List of active RA" at emigrate.gov.in), to deal directly with the employer on terms, and to verify a work permit before travelling with the Ministry (imm-permits_visa@govnet.gov.fj) or the High Commission of Fiji in India. For complaints it gives the Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra, toll-free 1800 11 3090 from India, and helpline@mea.gov.in.

The work permit

A non-citizen needs a work permit before starting work. The Ministry's page lists eight categories: long term (W-01), one year or less (W-02), non-governmental organisations, maritime crew, secondments, overseas employer for a specific project, education (with the Ministry of Education's endorsement) and the business visitor permit, which is for meetings and consultancy and not employment. Applications go in online through Immi Hub, usually started by the employer or sponsor, and can be followed there; the Ministry says to follow up after 30 working days using its enquiry form.

For a new long-term permit, the Ministry's page gives these terms: - Employment in a locally registered company on a valid contract, for one to three years. - The applicant must be 18 or over, medically fit and with no adverse police record. - A first long-term application must be made from outside Fiji, except for the spouse of a Fiji citizen; someone on a short-term permit may apply for a long-term one while in the country. - Holders of study, residence, investor or visitor permits, and people on a business visitor permit, cannot apply for it. - Documents: a national police report from the country where you have lived for 12 months or more (certified or apostilled, valid one year), a medical report valid three months, the passport bio page valid for more than six months, a CV, certified academic qualifications, the Ministry's terms-and-conditions and consent forms, the signed contract, and a letter from the professional body where one is relevant. A driver also needs a Land Transport Authority licence and a defensive driving certificate within six months. - Fees: FJ$650.05 for the primary applicant and FJ$185.00 per dependant, plus an online service fee of 2% by M-PAiSA or 2.5% by card. The fee schedule gives FJ$650.05 for an application, an extension or a variation, FJ$136 for a replacement and FJ$185 for the permit issue. - A security bond may be required before the permit is granted and can be reclaimed when it ends; an extension must be lodged 30 days before expiry, and a decision can be appealed to the Minister.

A short-term permit, for expertise urgently needed, runs for a year or less. The Ministry's notice, posted on 14 September 2026, says that from 1 September 2026 five administrative requirements are excluded from the standard documentation for relevant work permit applications: the tripartite agreement, the advertisement requirement, the training plan, the local understudy requirement and the application received analysis, and it says Fiji's statutory and security requirements are unchanged. The Fiji Sun of 21 August 2025 had reported that employers had to advertise a post locally twice before looking abroad, so an employer who quotes that rule may be out of date.

What the Government wants from India

Cabinet endorsed a Declaration of Intent with India's Immigration Department on 19 August 2025 to explore recruiting skilled workers, with IT, health, construction and the trades named (Fiji Sun, 21 August 2025). The Employment Minister said many Fijians had left for "greener pastures" and that technical colleges had closed over a decade; ten registered agents are authorised to recruit overseas. The Fiji Times reported on 3 May 2025 that 6,460 work permits were issued between August 2023 and January 2025 to 774 employers, though its yearly figures do not add up to that total, and no source we found breaks permits down by nationality.

Dependants, residence, investors and students

Dependants are included in the principal's application (the long-term page lists a spouse's marriage certificate and children's birth certificates, with police reports from age 18), and a Co-Extensive Residence Permit lets dependants live with a permit holder. The Ministry also issues a Residence on Assured Income permit, an Investor permit for people over 18 and a Student Permit (FJ$136 plus FJ$185 on issue). A non-citizen can apply for citizenship by registration after lawful residence of three of the five years before the application, and Fiji allows dual citizenship; India does not, and the High Commission's passport checklist asks for a letter from Fiji Immigration saying no Fiji citizenship has been taken or applied for.

Money rules

The High Commission's advisory of 28 September 2026 says a tourist visa must not be used for business or paid work, that amounts above FJ$10,000 or the foreign-currency equivalent must be declared on entering or leaving, that splitting transactions to avoid reporting is an offence, and that travellers should not carry money for others.

Register with the High Commission

The High Commission's passport page says every Indian national living in Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga or Tuvalu must register with the Mission, on the registration form on its website. Do it in the first week, since the Mission's page makes registration a requirement, not an option.

Get a Tax Identification Number

The Fiji Revenue and Customs Service issues the TIN. The FRCS says it is free, is issued on the spot at an office when you have everything and takes one to three days online through its TPOS portal. The FRCS lists these documents for an individual who has never had a TIN: a digital passport photo on white, an original birth certificate, a photo ID (passport, voter card, driver's licence or FNPF card), a certified copy of the passport bio page for a non-resident, and the name of an alternate contact who already holds a TIN; a foreign student adds the offer letter. Offices are in Suva, Nausori, Levuka, Ba, Rakiraki, Lautoka, Nadi, Sigatoka, Labasa and Savusavu.

A bank account

The Reserve Bank of Fiji licenses six banks: ANZ, Bank of Baroda (Fiji operations), BSP Financial Group (Fiji), Bred Bank (Fiji), Home Finance Company (HFC Bank) and Westpac. The High Commission says Bank of Baroda, with the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the New India Assurance Company, has operated in Fiji since 1961, 1956 and 1954 respectively. We could not open any bank's account-opening checklist, so we cannot say what each asks of a new arrival: ask for the list before you go, and take the passport, the permit page, the employment letter and the TIN, which are the documents the other Fiji identity checks ask for.

A phone and M-PAiSA

Vodafone Fiji and Digicel are the mobile operators. Vodafone's Tourist SIM is sold at its Nadi airport outlet, and the only identity it accepts is a physical passport; we could not open Digicel's rules. Vodafone's M-PAiSA is a mobile-money wallet, and its identification page sets out what a non-resident needs for the full wallet limit of FJ$10,000: a valid permit from Fiji Immigration, a letter from the employer or the institution, a non-resident TIN where it applies and the passport; customers who cannot meet every item are held to a FJ$5,000 limit, a rule dated 15 September 2025.

Driving

The Ministry's long-term permit page tells people hired as drivers to get a full Land Transport Authority licence within six months. We found no official page on how long an Indian licence can be used, so ask the Authority before you drive. The UK government's advice is that a UK licence is valid, which says nothing about an Indian one.

The first-fortnight list

1. Register with the High Commission and keep copies of your passport, permit and High Commission registration with you.
2. Get the TIN, then ask the bank which documents it wants.
3. Buy a SIM and set up M-PAiSA once you have the permit page to show.
4. Find a clinic and read the health section before you are ill.
5. Join the local groups (see the app section) and ask which landlord, school and doctor others used.

Rents: what we could not confirm

We found no official rent survey and could not open a rent source we trust: Numbeo refused our fetch on 23 October 2026, and the one property-listing site we tried did not load. So this guide gives no rent figures rather than a number from memory. The Fiji Bureau of Statistics' consumer price index gives only the direction: its group for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels stood at 109.6 in September 2026 (2019 = 100), against 104.5 a year earlier, 4.9% higher by our arithmetic, and it peaked at 114.0 in June 2026. Ask in a local group for what a flat in your suburb is asking this month, and get a written tenancy before paying a deposit.

Where people settle, by what is nearby

No source ranks suburbs or says where Indian nationals live, so this guide gives anchors, not a ranking. The High Commission says Indian professionals work at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji National University and government hospitals; USP's main campus is at Laucala Bay in Suva, and Wikipedia's list of Fiji National University's campuses includes Nasinu, Samabula, Lautoka, Labasa, Nadi and Ba. The community's own institutions mark the older settlements: in the Suva area Samabula, Nasinu, Nakasi and Howell Road; in the west Lautoka, Saweni, Nadi and Ba; in the north Labasa.

Taxis, buses and roads

The Fiji Times of 23 October 2026 reports that the taxi distance charge was raised from 10 to 14 cents per 100 metres from 1 July 2026, 40 cents more a kilometre, with the flag fall unchanged at FJ$2 by day and FJ$3 at night and 18 cents a minute for waiting; a fare from Butt Street to Nadera that was about FJ$14 became about FJ$17.50, and one from Suva to Tacirua went from FJ$11 to about FJ$14.50. It says the increase had been extended to March 2027 and that another rise was proposed, and that bus fares were unchanged, with the rises in them so far subsidised by the Government. The article blames higher fuel costs.

The UK government's advice on roads is that many are in poor condition, that driving standards are poor and rules rarely enforced, and that you should avoid road travel outside towns at night because of poor lighting, pedestrians and stray animals. It says to use licensed taxis with yellow registration plates and minibuses with yellow plates, because unlicensed minibuses are often uninsured. Heavy rain can damage, block or wash away roads, and the cyclone season normally runs from November to April.

Airports

Nadi airport, about 9 km from Nadi town, is the international gateway. We did not verify flight links to India, and the UK government warned in August 2026 that escalation in the Middle East had caused widespread travel disruption, which affects routings; check the airline.

Sugar and the economy

Sugar is where the community's history and its work meet. The Fiji Sugar Corporation runs four mills: Lautoka, Rarawai at Ba, Penang at Rakiraki and Labasa; Wikipedia says they can produce more than 500,000 tonnes in a season and that 200,000 people or more depend on the industry in the cane belts. India supports it: the High Commission's press release of 25 September 2026 says India gave the corporation twelve agricultural drones, handed over at the FSC Training Centre in Lautoka, and lists ITEC-funded training for Fijian sugarcane farmers at the National Sugar Institute in Kanpur.

Indian employers

Three Indian public-sector companies operate in Fiji, according to the High Commission: the New India Assurance Company (1954), the Life Insurance Corporation of India (1956) and the Bank of Baroda (1961); WAPCOS, India's water and power consultancy, has been there since 2015. Bilateral trade was US$98.82 million in 2025–26, almost all of it Indian exports, and Fiji's exports to India include mineral water, sugar and fish. Beyond these, the High Commission's description of Indian professionals (universities, government hospitals and local firms) is the only account of where Indian nationals work; we found no source that names other Indian employers, and none that gives salaries.

Shortages and recruitment

The 2026 National Skills Gap Assessment Survey, reported by the Fiji Times on 8 May 2026, shows who is in work: iTaukei 62% of the workforce in 2025, Indo-Fijians 33% and others 5%. The Employment Minister has linked shortages to emigration, and the August 2025 Declaration of Intent with India targets IT, health and the trades. A proposed 100-bed super-specialty hospital in Suva, with India's help, was at the tender stage in February 2026 (Fiji One News).

Universities and scholarships

• University of the South Pacific, opened in 1968, has its main campus at Laucala Bay in Suva and campuses in Lautoka and Labasa; Wikipedia gives 29,918 students in 2017.
• Fiji National University was constituted on 15 February 2010 and has five colleges, including medicine, nursing and health sciences, on a number of campuses (Nasinu, Samabula, Lautoka, Labasa, Nadi and Ba among them).
• University of Fiji, at Saweni near Lautoka, was founded in December 2004 with the sponsorship of the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha.
• India offers Fijians ICCR scholarships (more than 3,000 awards a year worldwide) and ITEC courses; the Fiji One News report of 7 February 2026 says about 100 Fijian professionals took ITEC training in 2025 and more than 1,000 since 2007.

A foreign student needs a Student Permit (FJ$136 plus FJ$185 on issue), and the FRCS asks a foreign-national student for the offer letter when applying for a TIN. We could not open the permit page's checklist.

Prices fell through 2025 and turned sharply upward in 2026. The Fiji Bureau of Statistics' consumer price index, which the Reserve Bank of Fiji publishes (2019 = 100), had all items at 117.6 in September 2026. The year-on-year rate was minus 3.8% in September 2025, plus 1.8% in April 2026, 3.9% in May, 6.1% in June, 5.7% in July, 7.6% in August and 6.8% in September. The June peak was driven by transport, whose index reached 148.7, and by the group for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which reached 114.0.

The reading for a family is that food and transport moved most. Taxi fares have their own story, set out in the housing and transport section: a 40% rise in the per-kilometre charge from 1 July 2026. The Fiji dollar was about US$0.44 on the Reserve Bank's page on 23 October 2026; for rupee conversions use the day's rate, since the page we read gave no rupee figure.

Sending money

The Reserve Bank's Governor, Ariff Ali, told a remittance conference in Suva, as the Fiji Times reported in the week of 23 October 2026, that sending money home still costs too much, that remittance inflows to Fiji are expected to reach a record $1.6 billion this year (the report does not name the currency) and that mobile network operators carried more than half of inflows in 2025, up from about a third in 2023. That is about money coming to Fiji. We found no source on the cost of sending money from Fiji to India, so compare the banks and licensed dealers the High Commission's money advisory recommends, and keep the declaration rule for amounts over FJ$10,000 in mind.

What we could not price

Groceries, school fees, private clinics and rents are the four lines a family budget needs, and we could not source any of them to a standard we would print. School fees in the public system are not charged (see the schools section); for the others, the local groups are the better guide this month than a stale number.

Fiji's public system is run by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, whose site lists the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva, Lautoka Hospital and Labasa Hospital as the main hospitals, and St Giles and Twomey Hospitals as others. Labasa Hospital is the referral centre for Vanua Levu. We could not find a published fee schedule for non-citizens in the public hospitals, so we cannot say what a permit holder pays; ask the hospital's registry, and ask your employer whether it provides cover.

What the UK government says

Its Fiji advice says healthcare is limited, that serious emergencies often need evacuation to another country, that hospitals usually expect immediate cash payment, that the ambulance number is 911 and that you should have insurance that covers evacuation. Fiji's only recompression (diving) chamber is at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital and is not always working. The risks it lists are dengue, Zika, chikungunya and sexually transmitted infections; the Ministry of Health's site also carries pages on typhoid and leptospirosis.

2026 notices

The Ministry's public advisories of September 2026 include a rise in influenza across Fiji (advisories 37 and 39, of 3 and 18 September) and a rise in diarrhoea on Batiki Island (advisory 40, of 21 September), which the Ministry linked to El Niño water problems. The Fiji Sun reported on 22 October 2026 that El Niño dryness was making water shortages worse for cane farmers around Labasa, and on 23 October its headline read "Residents urged to save water as Vaturu Dam levels fall". Where the supply is uncertain, boil or treat drinking water, and follow the Ministry's advisories.

For a permit application

The Ministry of Immigration asks for a medical report on its own form, valid three months, and a medical fitness condition is part of every permit; take the form to a doctor in your home country before you travel, and check the Ministry's current form before paying for the tests.

Doctors from India, and the community

The High Commission says doctors are among the Indian nationals working in Fiji, many of them in government hospitals. Wikipedia says the Sangam created nursing clinics, but we found no current opening hours or fees for them. The Namaste Community groups and the Fiji directory are the places to ask which doctors speak Hindi, Tamil or Gujarati.

Primary and secondary schooling has been free since 2013 (Wikipedia's article on education in Fiji), and most schools are run by committees or by religious and community bodies under the Ministry of Education. That second fact matters here, because Indian community bodies run many of them:

• The Arya Pratinidhi Sabha owns 14 pre-schools, 18 primary schools and seven secondary schools, from the Gurukul Primary School in Lautoka (1918) to the DAV College in Suva (1952), Bhawani Dayal Arya College at Nakasi (1972) and Nadroga Arya College in Sigatoka (1998), according to Wikipedia.
• The Sangam runs schools of its own; the Fiji Times mentions the Suva Sangam College beside the Howell Road temple.
• The Fiji Muslim League owns 17 primary and five secondary schools, according to Wikipedia.
• Sikh schools are the Khalsa High School in Ba (1958) and the Guru Nanak Khalsa primary schools at Ba and in Labasa (1970).
• The Sanatan Sabha's schools exist too, but we found no list of them.

Language

The Constitution requires conversational iTaukei and Fiji Hindi to be taught in primary schools. The Fiji Times opinion piece of 4 October 2026 recalls Hindi taught at the Arya Samaj primary school in Lautoka through culture studies, havan, mantras and radio lessons, and argues that school hours alone will not keep Fiji Hindi alive.

For newcomers

An Indian family moving for a work permit should ask the school directly about a place and any fee for non-citizens, because we found no published rule. We did not verify any international school and name none, and we found no list of schools that follow Indian curricula. A dependant's route is the Co-Extensive Residence Permit described in the permit section, and a child of a Fiji citizen who holds a foreign passport has an exemption status that lets the child reside and study.

After school

The University of the South Pacific (Laucala Bay, Suva, with Lautoka and Labasa campuses), Fiji National University (including the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences) and the University of Fiji (Saweni, Lautoka) are the three, and the work and study section has their dates. The Tertiary Scholarship and Loan Service finances qualifying Fijian students; its rules for non-citizens we did not find.

We could not confirm any individual grocer or restaurant to the standard this guide uses, so it names streets and markets that reference sources describe, not shops. The Fiji directory on Namaste Community lists businesses that members have added.

Suva

Wikipedia describes Cumming Street as a shopping district since colonial times, with its original buildings and narrow lanes, and says that along with Marks Street it sells clothing, jewellery, food, electronics and pharmaceuticals; it credits Indo-Fijians with shaping Suva's economy and its food, including the Fiji Indian curry.

Lautoka, Nadi and the west

Lautoka's Market, the Vitogo Parade shops, Tappoo City and Marine Drive are the shopping areas Wikipedia names, and the town is also called the Cane Market. We did not read a description of Nadi's town centre; Nadi's temple and its streets are covered in the worship section.

Labasa

Wikipedia describes Labasa's centre as having curry houses and sari shops and a fairly large market selling food, spices, fish, poultry and goats. Farmers sell seasonal produce and seafood at the town's market.

Vegetarian food and festivals

The Sanatan Sabha's statement of 22 October 2026 encourages Hindus to keep Diwali with prayer, vegetarian food and charity, and asks organisers of Diwali functions not to serve alcohol or meat, which matters if you are choosing a caterer for a festival event. A Hare Krishna temple, the Sri Radha Damodar Temple in Sigatoka, is described in the Fiji Times of 30 August 2026 as holding worship at 4.30am, 6am and 6.30pm, with kitchen work among its residents' duties. If you cook at home, ask in the groups where the spice sellers and the Indian-owned supermarkets are in your town; their names change faster than a guide can follow, and we would rather leave a gap than print a closed shop.

Fiji Hindi and Hindi films

Hindi radio and films have a public presence: the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation's Hindi radio stations ran the Holi Masti event in Suva in March 2026 (see the festival section), and a Fiji Sun headline of October 2026 reads "Hindi films unite Fiji's communities". We did not find a source on cinemas that show Indian films, so check a local listing.

Fiji's places of worship are listed here by town, with what each source says and when. Each place is named in a source we opened, with its date where the source has one; opening times are the least reliable item, so ask before you go. There is no Fiji temples page on this site, so none is linked.

Nadi: Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple

The Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple is run by the TISI Sangam, whose headquarters are in Nadi, and travel guides call it the largest Hindu temple in the southern hemisphere; Wikipedia's article on Nadi says the same. A 2017 report said it opens at 6am daily and holds an hour-long Trishati Pooja on Tuesday evenings. The Fiji Times of 9 November 2025 reported that artisans from Tamil Nadu had been brought to paint the Sangam's temples ahead of its centenary and that two of them were finishing the Nadi temple. The temple has been planned for a US$0.5 million upgrade, which included a vegetarian eatery, in the 2017 report; we did not confirm what was built. The Fiji Times of 22 October 2025 reported crowds at a Sri Siva Subramaniya Temple on Diwali and placed it in Suva; the Sangam's temple of that name is the Nadi one, so check which temple a Diwali programme names.

Suva: Sri Raj Maha Mariamman Temple, Howell Road

The Sri Raja Maha Mariamman Tiru Kovil on Howell Road is the Sangam's Suva temple, founded in 1926 by Sadhu Kuppuswamy, with Pandit Prakash Sivam as head priest. The Fiji Times of November 2025 said the temple marked 100 years in 2025. Its annual firewalking, described in the festival section, is the event for which it reports the largest crowds. The Suva Sangam College stands beside it. The Fiji Times of 30 September 2019 said that about 6,000 to 7,000 people followed the temple and that 150 to 200 visited on an ordinary day, with an evening aarti on Tuesdays and Fridays at 7pm at that time; ask the temple for its current timetable.

Other places we can name

• Sri Radha Damodar Temple, Sigatoka, a Hare Krishna temple, in the Fiji Times of 30 August 2026.
• Gurdwara Sahib Samabula, Suva, built in 1922 and named by Wikipedia as the first in Fiji; the Guru Ravidass gurdwara, Nasinu (1939); the Lautoka Sikh Temple; the Tagi Tagi Sikh Temple; the Labasa gurdwara, the only one outside Viti Levu. We found no current opening hours for any of them.
• Jamia Masjid, Toorak, Suva, where the Fiji Muslim League was founded in 1926. Wikipedia's article on Islam in Fiji says mosques were built at Nausori and Navua in 1900 and at Labasa in 1902, so the older ones are historic; confirm what is open.
• Ramayan mandalis meet in neighbourhoods across the country; the Fiji Times of 11 April 2022 describes the Satsang Ramayan Mandali in Nadawa marking Ram Navami and giving FJ$200 each to the Fiji Cancer Society and WOWS Kids Fiji.

The sugar towns' temples

Ba, Lautoka, Labasa and Rakiraki each have Sanatan, Arya Samaj, Sangam, mosque and gurdwara sites that we could not individually confirm. The High Commission's list of Indian organisations names the Shree Sanatan Dharm Sabha at Seaqaqa near Labasa and the Hindi Parishad's northern branch in Labasa. Wikipedia notes that between 1996 and 2002, 25 Hindu temples were reportedly desecrated and that the 1910 Shiu temple at Nadawar near Nadi was destroyed in 2008; the practical point for a visitor is to go with someone from the community the first time.

Visiting

As at Hindu temples elsewhere, expect to take off your shoes, dress modestly and ask before taking photographs inside, and follow the temple's own instructions over this guide's. Festival days draw crowds: the Suva temple's own figures, in the Fiji Times of 2019, put 4,000 to 5,000 people at the firewalking and 300 to 500 visitors a day during Navaratri.

The High Commission's page on the Indian community lists ten organisations, which is the nearest thing to a directory:

• India Fiji Friendship Forum, which the High Commission says was established in November 2017 to promote Indian culture, religion and traditional art forms.
• Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji, Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji and TISI Sangam, the three Hindu bodies described in the languages and faiths section.
• Shree Satsang Ramayan Mandali and The Fiji Hindu Society.
• Fiji Girmit Council, in Lautoka.
• Hindi Parishad, northern branch, in Labasa.
• Fiji Sevashram Sangha.
• Shree Sanatan Dharm Sabha, Seaqaqa, Labasa.

The page gives no phone numbers or addresses for them; each has a Facebook page by name. It also links the Ramakrishna Mission as an Indian organisation in Fiji.

The High Commission's cultural centre

The Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre is on Level 6 of the LICI Building, Butt Street, Suva, telephone +679 330 1150, with emails dirsvcc@mea.gov.in and culture.suva@mea.gov.in. It belongs to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. We could not open a class list or fees, so ask the Centre which subjects it teaches this term; Indian cultural centres elsewhere teach yoga, Hindi, dance and music, but we do not know that this one does.

Scholarships and training

ICCR scholarships and ITEC courses are open to Fijians through the High Commission; its education pages list the Atal Bihari Vajpayee General Scholarship Scheme, but the page gave no slots or deadlines. The Fiji One News report of 7 February 2026 says more than 1,000 Fijians have attended ITEC training since 2007.

Sport, music and film

We found no source that describes the Indo-Fijian music, dance and sport clubs, which exist in most towns, so we name none; the Fiji Sun and Fiji Times culture pages report them as they occur.

Girmit Day and Diwali are public holidays in Fiji, and so is the Prophet Mohammed's birthday, which Indo-Fijian Muslims keep. The dates below are those Cabinet endorsed for 2026, the High Commission's own lists for 2026 and 2027, and the festival calendar on this site. The Indian dates in the High Commission's lists follow the Indian calendar and can differ from Fiji's by a day, as Diwali does in 2026.

Diwali on Monday 9 November 2026

Diwali is a public holiday in Fiji on Monday 9 November 2026, a day after most countries keep it on Sunday 8 November. Cabinet endorsed the date among the year's eleven public holidays, and the site's festival calendar records that the Government Gazette of 9 October 2026 confirmed it. The Suva panchang puts Dhanteras on Friday 6 November, Naraka Chaturdashi on Sunday 8 November, Lakshmi Puja on the Monday and Govardhan Puja on Tuesday 10 November. The day is kept at temples, at home and in offices and schools: in 2025 crowds filled a Sri Siva Subramaniya Temple, as the Fiji Times reported on 22 October 2025, and offices and schools held their own programmes. The festival calendar notes that no council, temple or Sabha programme for Suva or Lautoka had been published by 23 October. The Diwali in Fiji page, with its Suva and Lautoka pages, carries what is announced.

On 22 October 2026 the Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji asked businesses, Government bodies and organisers of functions presented as traditional Diwali celebrations to keep to the festival's spiritual meaning and to serve no alcohol or meat. The same calendar records the fireworks rules under the Explosives Act: fireworks from 5pm to 10pm, until midnight on Diwali in recent years, buyers aged 18 or more, a trader licence from the Mineral Resources Department and no homemade fireworks, with a 2026 notice not yet found.

The firewalking

The annual firewalking at the Sri Raja Maha Mariamman Temple on Howell Road, Suva, is led by its head priest, Prakash Sivam; the Fiji Times of 2 September 2025 called it the 99th consecutive year and said hundreds gathered, and its 2019 account put attendance at 4,000 to 5,000 people. The Sangam counts 2026 as the hundredth year. We found no report of the 2026 ceremony, so check the temple for the date of the next one, and ask whether visitors can watch.

Holi and Ram Navami

Holi falls on Wednesday 4 March 2026 on the High Commission's list; in Suva the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation's Hindi radio stations ran a "Nonstop Holi Masti" event at the Damodar City car park on the Saturday after, with hundreds of families (Fiji Times, 9 March 2026). In 2027 the High Commission lists Holi on Tuesday 23 March and Ram Navami on Thursday 15 April. Ram Navami is a festival of the Ramayan mandalis rather than a holiday: the Fiji Times reported on 11 April 2022 that the Satsang Ramayan Mandali in Nadawa marked it with a charity collection.

The rest of the Indian year

Navaratri, Janmashtami, Guru Nanak's birthday and the Muslim festivals are kept by their own communities. The events page lists events as organisers post them, with Suva and Lautoka pages, and the groups are where smaller programmes appear.

Most day-to-day information in a community like this moves through WhatsApp groups organised by temple, language, village, school, workplace and suburb: which clinic takes which insurance, which landlord is honest, which recruiting agent is real. The High Commission's list of ten organisations, from the Sabha and the Sangam to the Ramayan mandalis, shows how organised the community is, and we found no public list of the groups themselves.

What the groups are good at, and what they are not

They are quick when they work: a question about which Nadi clinic has a Hindi-speaking doctor gets answers from people who have used it. But you need to know someone to get the link; links go stale; most groups show your phone number to every member; and answers scroll away, so the same questions about work permits and the TIN come up every week. A job offer can circulate unchecked in a group, and the High Commission's advisory of 10 July 2026 describes exactly that: fake job offers from unregistered agents. A job offer can be checked against the employer and the Ministry of Immigration; a flat against a signed tenancy; a consular service against the High Commission's own page.

What Namaste Community adds

Namaste Community's app and website have groups, events and a directory of Indian businesses, and Ask, a place to put a question to members. The groups for Fiji are at /groups/in/fiji, the events page lists Indian events in the country, the Fiji directory lists businesses, and the Diwali in Fiji page carries the festival dates. The groups are location-bound and moderated, and the app has an anonymous mode if you would rather not ask under your name.

Your first week, in practice

1. Open the Fiji groups and join the general one and the one for your area; read before you post, because the permit and TIN questions are usually already answered.
2. Go to one event in the first fortnight: a temple on a Sunday, a Girmit Council evening, a Ramayan mandali satsang.
3. Say in your question whether you are a Fiji citizen of Indian descent, on a work permit or visiting, because the answers differ: hospital fees, school places, the TIN and what you can do on a visitor permit all depend on it.
4. When you have found your flat, clinic and grocer, leave a review or an answer for the next person arriving from Hyderabad, Chennai or Lucknow.

The groups near you are listed below. If the one you need is not there yet, ask in the general group.

Fiji's South Asian communities have been there since 1879, and most are citizens whose families have lived in Fiji for generations. Wikipedia's article on Indo-Fijians says free migration from about 1900 brought Gujarati families, from Gujarat including Kutch, and Punjabi families, and the High Commission says that Gujarati businesspeople own many local companies; the Sikh community, which came largely from Punjab, keeps the gurdwaras listed in the worship section. Muslims were among the girmitiyas from the first ship, and Wikipedia's article on Islam in Fiji says the Leonidas carried about 22% Muslims. That is a Wikipedia figure we have not seen in a primary record; treat it as an estimate.

Bangladeshi, Nepali, Pakistani and Sri Lankan residents

We found no source that counts Bangladeshi, Nepali, Pakistani or Sri Lankan residents of Fiji, and none on the Bangladeshi, Nepali or Sri Lankan communities there. The Ministry of Immigration's visa-exempt list shows how different the entry rules are: the copy we read names India and Bangladesh among the Asian countries whose citizens need no visa and does not name Pakistan, Nepal or Sri Lanka, so on that list a Pakistani, Nepali or Sri Lankan citizen would need a visa first; the Ministry's visa page says a single-entry visa is valid for three months and costs FJ$95. That is a fact about paperwork, not about where people live.

What is shared

The same Immigration Act applies to every non-citizen: work permit categories, medical and police requirements, the bond, the rule that a visitor permit does not allow work and the risk of being left stranded by an unregistered agent. The Fiji directory and the local groups are open to everyone, and the Fiji directory is where an Indian, Nepali or Bangladeshi restaurant owner can add a business.

A note on Indian citizens and other Indians in Fiji

Do not confuse Indian nationals in Fiji (2,283) with Indo-Fijians (about 295,000 to 316,000): they have different passports, different permits and different protections, and the High Commission's passport and registration services are for the former. Fiji nationals of Indian origin use its visa and OCI services, and its fee table lists the tourist visa as free for Fiji nationals.

The High Commission of India

The High Commission is at the LICI Building, Levels 5 and 7, Butt Street, Suva, with the consular counter on the fifth floor, according to its contact and visa pages; the 10 July advisory prints Level 7. Its number is +679 330 1125 and the consular email is cons.suva@mea.gov.in. For a consular emergency its mobile line is +679 992 1474. The Mission works Monday to Friday; passport, visa and other consular applications are submitted from 9:30 to 12:30 and passports collected from 16:00 to 16:30, and fees are paid in cash in Fiji dollars. It is also accredited to Kiribati, Tonga and Tuvalu.

Passports

The fees on the High Commission's page are in effect from 28 September 2026. A fresh or reissued 36-page, ten-year passport is FJ$281 and a 60-page one FJ$391; a replacement for a lost or damaged passport is FJ$557 or FJ$667; an emergency certificate is FJ$39; a police clearance certificate is FJ$94. Adult reissue takes about 30 working days, subject to clearance from India, and is accepted within six months of expiry. The 20-year option has been discontinued. You complete the form online, print it and submit it with four photographs, copies of the passport and the permit page, a letter from Fiji Immigration saying no Fiji citizenship has been taken or applied for, and the original passport. A child born in Fiji to Indian parents is registered within a year at indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in. If the passport is lost, report it to the police and contact Fiji Immigration for a special pass first.

OCI

The High Commission's e-OCI page says that from 8 July 2026 only digital e-OCI cards are issued to new OCI applicants; the physical card an existing holder carries remains valid. The application is on the OCI services portal. The portal's rule is that a foreign national qualifies if they were a citizen of India on or after 26 January 1950, were eligible to become one then, or belonged to a territory that became Indian after 15 August 1947, or are a child, grandchild or great-grandchild of such a person; a person who has been, or whose parent, grandparent or great-grandparent has been, a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh is barred. The portal's FAQ also speaks of an ancestor born in India and living abroad on 26 January 1950.

For Indo-Fijians the question is documents and generations, not community. The girmitiyas arrived between 1879 and 1916, so families are by now several generations from India, and eligibility depends on a documented ancestor's status around 1950 and how many generations separate you from them. India has extended OCI to the sixth generation for Suriname in 2023 and for Trinidad and Tobago in the joint statement of July 2025, and a 2024 report said India was considering Fiji; we found no such announcement for Fiji and none on the High Commission's pages, and its OCI pages do not describe a route for descendants of indentured labourers. Ask the consular section, in writing, before paying for apostilled documents.

Safety in 2026

The UK government's advice, updated on 10 August 2026, says serious crime is generally low but incidents happen, and urges care walking at night in towns and cities, especially for women alone, and attention at cash machines. It warns of drink spiking and methanol-contaminated alcohol, advises avoiding protests and gatherings and notes that possession of any amount of marijuana carries a three-month prison sentence. It adds that Fiji is in an earthquake zone and that the cyclone season normally runs from November to April, though cyclones can occur at any time, and recommends rip-tide caution and swimming at patrolled beaches. For an ambulance dial 911. The Indian High Commission's advisories of 10 July and 28 September 2026 on job offers and money are above. Elections are due by 6 February 2027, and the UK advice is that protests can start with little warning.