Indians in Port Louis: the 2026 guide to Quatre Bornes, Rose Hill, Curepipe, Vacoas-Phoenix, Ebène and Grand Baie

About 892,000 overseas Indians live in Mauritius: 891,697 in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs' estimate for January 2026, made up of 26,786 Indian citizens and 864,911 people of Indian origin. That is a national figure, not one for Port Louis alone, and no official source counts Indians in the city. Mauritius's census has not counted ethnicity since 1972, so the figures that exist are for religion and for the language of one's forefathers; the community section sets them out. Port Louis district had 106,332 residents at the 2022 census, on an island of 1,189,493 people and in a republic of 1,233,097 (Statistics Mauritius).

Port Louis is the capital, the port and the financial centre, but it is not where most Indo-Mauritian families live. In the 2022 census 19.5% of the district's residents were Hindu and 40.9% Muslim; the Hindu shares are highest in the north and east of the island, and Plaines Wilhems, the district of Quatre Bornes, Vacoas-Phoenix, Rose Hill and Curepipe, has the most Hindus of any district (149,521). Port Louis and Ebène Cybercity are where many offices are, but no source breaks Indian nationals down by town, so this guide does not say where they live. Mauritius is small, and the Metro Express runs 20 stations from Place d'Armes in Port Louis to Curepipe, so the guide covers the whole island where people live and commute: Port Louis, Quatre Bornes, Rose Hill, Curepipe, Vacoas-Phoenix, Ebène, Moka and the north around Grand Baie. It is written for two groups who share the streets, temples and festivals but not much else: Mauritian citizens of Indian origin, most of them descended from indentured labourers, and Indian nationals who have moved for work. Rs and MUR both mean the Mauritian rupee.

Three things happened in 2026 that shape what follows. The Budget speech of 19 June 2026 announced a merger of the two professional permit categories at a floor of MUR 50,000, the abolition of the Family Occupation Permit, new income tax bands and a rule that a public holiday falling on a Sunday is replaced by the following Monday. India's notification of the 2024 protocol to the India–Mauritius tax treaty, dated 13 October 2026, brought a principal purpose test into force from 10 August 2026. And in October the island saw unrest after a police shooting, with evening curfews from 12 to 18 October; the safety section has the sources.

This site has no Mauritius topic guides yet, so permits, tax and passports are on this page. The Mauritius page is the country-level entry point on Namaste Community.

Mauritius counts people by religion and by the language their forefathers spoke, not by ethnicity. The last census to ask for a person's community was that of 1972; a UN committee was told in 1996 that later forms dropped the question under a policy of "one people, one nation", and that religion in the 1990 census more or less tallied with the old Hindu, Muslim, Sino-Mauritian and general population groups. The 2022 Population Census, fieldwork June to August 2022, lists religion and the "linguistic group (language spoken by forefathers)" among its topics, with no ethnic group among them. So there is no census count of Indo-Mauritians, and anyone who quotes one is estimating. One housekeeping note on totals: the tables below call 1,233,097 the Republic of Mauritius, which is the island of Mauritius plus Rodrigues; Volume III's total of 1,233,427 residents also takes in the 330 people of Agalega.

The numbers we have

These measure different things, and they do not add up to one number. Religion is "as reported by respondent", so Statistics Mauritius files Hindus under many labels: plain "Hindu", but also "Tamil", "Telugu" and "Marathi", which people gave as a religion, and smaller ones such as Vedic, Arya Samajist and Sanatanist. The six named Indian languages in Table D7 (Bhojpuri, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Marathi, Telugu) add to 466,317, or 37.8% of residents (our sum), but the table also has mixed entries such as "Creole & Hindi" (6,676), and 569,874 people gave Creole as their forefathers' language, among them families of Indian descent. The High Commission's "nearly 70%" is its own estimate. The contrast between Table D7 and Table D8 is the most useful result: 329,674 residents name Bhojpuri as their forefathers' tongue, and 29,827 say they usually speak it at home. Creole is the home language of 78.6% of residents, whatever their origins. Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Urdu survive mainly as languages of prayer, school and culture, and they are examined as ancestral languages at the end of Grade 9 (see the schools section).

Where Hindus and Muslims live: the 2022 census by area

The shares are our arithmetic from Table D6; "Hindu" adds the five Hindu columns. The town rows are the parts of each town tabulated inside the district, and a few wards straddle a boundary. Three things stand out. Port Louis is the most Muslim district on the island and one of the least Hindu: ward 5 of the town is 97% Muslim (17,058 of 17,620 residents), and the Jummah Mosque stands in the centre. Hindus are a majority in Quatre Bornes, Vacoas-Phoenix and the northern and eastern districts. And Rose Hill and Curepipe are mixed: Rose Hill has more Catholics than Hindus, and in Curepipe the two are about level.

Where people came from in India, and the languages

Wikipedia's article on Hinduism in Mauritius says the indentured labourers came mainly from what are now Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha, and from Nepal's Madhesh province. The Bhojpuri speakers came from the Gangetic plain; the Tamil, Telugu and Marathi communities kept their own temples, festivals and public holidays, which the festival section lists. No source says which Indian states recent arrivals come from; the permit figures in the work section are the only count of Indian nationals that we found.

The first indentured labourers to Mauritius under British rule were 36 people who landed on 2 November 1834 from a ship called the Atlas; the High Commission's brief says the day is now kept as Aapravasi Diwas. The Government of India's estimate is that about half a million Indian indentured workers were brought to the island between 1834 and the early decades of the 20th century, and that about two-thirds of them stayed. Estimates differ with the years counted: a Le Mauricien article of July 2024, written around the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund's anniversary events, says more than 350,000 labourers were recruited in India and passed through the Ghat between 1849 and 1910, while Wikipedia's article on Indo-Mauritians says nearly 700,000 arrived by 1920. This guide uses the round figure of half a million and does not claim more precision than the sources have.

The Aapravasi Ghat

The Aapravasi Ghat, "the landing place of the indentured labourers", is in Port Louis harbour, where the Immigration Depot, once called the Coolie Ghat, registered and processed labourers before they went to the sugar estates. It was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List on 16 July 2006 under criterion vi, the first Mauritian site on the list, and the Le Mauricien article describes it as the only indentured-labour site on it. The Beekrumsingh Ramlallah Interpretation Centre opened on 2 November 2014, at a cost to the government of Rs 60 million, and the article calls it the only centre in the world to tell the history of indentured labour in one country. The Trust Fund's own website could not be used for this guide (the address now serves unrelated pages), so confirm opening times with the Trust Fund before you go.

The holiday, and what it means now

The Prime Minister's Office lists 2 November as "Arrival of Indentured Labourers", a public holiday that falls on Monday 2 November in 2026, six days before Divali. The Le Mauricien article estimates that more than 80% of the ancestors of today's Mauritians arrived as indentured immigrants and passed through the Ghat; that is its estimate, not a census figure, and it is a reminder that the story is not only a Hindu one.

The links with India

India and Mauritius established relations in 1948, before independence in 1968; India had a Commission until 1968 and a High Commission since. Mahatma Gandhi stopped in Mauritius from 29 October to 15 November 1901, and Mauritius's National Day, 12 March, honours the date of the Dandi Salt March. The two countries signed a Comprehensive Economic and Commercial Partnership Agreement on 22 February 2021 (in force from 1 April 2021), and the High Commission's brief lists the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, the Rabindranath Tagore Institute, the Indira Gandhi Centre for Indian Culture (set up in 1987) and the World Hindi Secretariat as institutions built with Indian assistance or hosted in Mauritius. The associations section says what they offer.

A Mauritian citizen of Indian origin needs none of this; an Indian passport holder does. The rules below are from the Economic Development Board (EDB) and its residency portal, the Passport and Immigration Office (PIO) and the Budget summaries, read on 23 October 2026. The Budget of 19 June 2026 announced further changes, and where a rule is only announced the text says so.

Entry: no visa for Indian passport holders, and no job on a visitor's entry

The PIO's country-by-country list for 2025 says "No visa required" for India. A tourist visa can run to six months in a calendar year, case by case; a business visa allows 120 days a year, no more than 90 on any one trip, and the holder must not be paid in Mauritius; and the immigration officer at the airport decides how long a person may stay, since a visa does not guarantee admission. The PIO is explicit about work: anyone who wishes to seek employment may not be allowed to enter unless they hold a residence permit from the PIO and a work permit from the Ministry of Labour, and an applicant who entered on a tourist or business visa is not entitled to take a job. The Budget announced a paid electronic travel authorisation before travel and a digital e-visa for non-citizens; we found no start date, so ask the airline before booking.

The Occupation Permit for professionals

The EDB's July 2026 newsletter says the MUR 50,000 floor is harmonised across all sectors; Forvis Mazars' summary of the Budget says the ProPass and Expert Pass categories are merged into one, with a transition for existing holders, and that the Family Occupation Permit is abolished. The residency portal adds that a professional on the earlier criterion of MUR 30,000 is eligible for one more renewal under it. The employer, not the worker, starts the application online through the National Electronic Licensing System, and the professional attends the appointment with the director or an HR representative. A regulated profession (banking, engineering, medicine, veterinary and allied health, among others) needs a licence or clearance from the relevant body, and the EDB says it is a requirement for the permit. The portal's fee table lists USD 300 for a short-term permit of up to 9 months, USD 400 for up to two years, USD 800 for three to five years and USD 1,000 for five to ten years, and a banner says a non-refundable application fee of USD 50 applies to every Occupation Permit application from 1 December 2025; the same pages say that applying on the electronic system is free and that only successful applicants pay the statutory permit fees. The Budget proposes to extend the USD 50 fee to spouses and dependants. Ask the employer to confirm the total and who pays it. One discrepancy: the EDB's newsletter gives the self-employed renewal test from year 5 as MUR 3 million, and Forvis Mazars' summary of the Budget says MUR 5 million.

Work permits for everyone else

Most foreign workers are not on Occupation Permits. The Prime Minister told Parliament that on 27 March 2026 there were 64,165 foreign workers: 50,234 on work permits under the Non-Citizens (Employment Restriction) Act and 13,931 on Occupation Permits, working in manufacturing, construction, agriculture, tourism and small firms. The work permit comes from the Ministry of Labour and the residence permit from the PIO, which since the Finance Act 2025 charges the employer Rs 500 a year per non-citizen worker. The PIO's residence permit counter is on the 8th floor of Sterling House, Lislet Geoffrey Road, Port Louis. We found no Labour Ministry page with the salary terms, so ask the employer for the contract and the permit category in writing.

The medical tests, which include one only Indian nationals take

Every non-citizen applying for a permit must have a medical certificate less than six months old, based on a set of tests: blood tests for haemoglobin and full blood count, hepatitis B surface antigen, HIV and VDRL; urine tests; a stool test; a chest X-ray; and tests for lymphatic filariasis and leprosy. The EDB says the leprosy test "is restricted to Indian nationals only", with the doctor adding a line on the certificate; the filariasis test applies to people coming from India and fifteen other countries. Hepatitis B, HIV and the chest X-ray must be done in Mauritius at a laboratory or clinic registered with the Ministry of Health and Wellness; the rest may be done in India beforehand.

Family

Dependants of an Occupation Permit holder are the spouse (including a common-law partner of the opposite sex), the parents, and children who are unmarried and not working; each applies to the PIO for a residence permit for the same duration as the main holder. A dependant may not work without a work permit of their own.

The Premium Visa, for remote work

India is on the list of countries whose citizens can apply for the Premium Visa, which lasts more than six months and up to one year, is renewable and is applied for online with no processing fee. Its conditions are the opposite of an Occupation Permit's: the holder must not enter the Mauritian labour market, the main place of business and source of income must be outside Mauritius, and the holder needs travel and health insurance for the stay. It is required for anyone staying more than 180 days in a calendar year.

Residence through property

A foreigner who buys a home under the Real Estate Scheme (RES) for at least USD 375,000 can obtain a residence permit for themselves and their dependants, may let the property and become tax resident; a non-citizen with a residence permit under the RES, IRS or PDS schemes does not need an Occupation or work permit to invest and work. Foreigners may also buy an apartment in a building of at least ground plus two floors. This is a route for people with capital, not a job route.

Permanent residence, and a proposal

The 20-year Permanent Residence Permit (PRP) is open to a professional who has held an Occupation Permit or a valid work permit for at least five years on a basic salary of at least MUR 400,000 a month for five consecutive years, and to investors, self-employed people and retirees on their own tests; applications go to the Residence Permit Section of the Prime Minister's Office, 4th floor, New Government Centre, Port Louis. The Budget also proposed a Golden Visa for people committing USD 1 million within 12 months to sectors such as fintech, AI and renewable energy; it was a proposal when we checked.

Students

The Prime Minister said that 6,656 foreign students held a valid residence permit in March 2026 and may work up to 20 hours a week without a work permit, a policy under review. Graduates of Mauritian institutions are the target of the YPOP, and the EDB says foreign graduates may apply for an Occupation Permit valid for up to 10 years.

A professional working in Mauritius files a return of income with the Mauritius Revenue Authority every year and pays tax where it is due, according to the EDB; a person on secondment who has declared pay in the home country must produce a tax certificate when the permit is renewed. Ask the employer who handles registration and whether tax is deducted from pay.

Income tax in 2026–27

The Budget of 19 June 2026, in Forvis Mazars' summary, sets these bands for individuals: nothing on the first MUR 500,000 of chargeable income, 10% on the next MUR 500,000, 20% from MUR 1,000,001 to MUR 12 million and 35% above that. A professional on the minimum basic salary of MUR 50,000 earns MUR 600,000 in a year, and on those bands the tax would be Rs 10,000 (10% of the last Rs 100,000), before any deduction or relief and before the pension contributions described below; this is our arithmetic and no substitute for the Authority's calculator. The Mazars and EY summaries both say the Budget repeals the Fair Share Contribution, so that Mauritian-sourced dividends are no longer taxed. We have not confirmed the date the bands took effect, because the Budget measures need a Finance Act: ask the employer or the Authority.

Pensions

From 1 July 2027 a new defined-contribution scheme is to replace the CSG and PRGF. For employees earning up to MUR 50,000 a month the employee pays 1.5% of basic salary and the employer 7.5%; between MUR 50,000 and eight times median earnings (MUR 225,000 a month, in Mazars' summary) the figures are 3% and 10.5%. We do not know how the scheme will apply to foreign professionals.

Banks

The EDB says non-residents can open a savings account and foreign residents a current account in rupees or in a foreign currency; the minimum deposit differs by bank. Indian banks are in Mauritius: Bank of Baroda's building is at 32 Sir William Newton Street in Port Louis, and SBI (Mauritius) Ltd is in the SBI Tower at Mindspace in Ebène Cybercity. The Mauritius Commercial Bank is at 9 to 15 Sir William Newton Street and SBM Bank in the State Bank Tower, 1 Queen Elizabeth II Avenue. Habib Bank Limited has an office at 30 Louis Pasteur Street. The EDB's list is undated, so check each address. We found no official list of what each bank asks for, so ask before you go.

The India–Mauritius treaty, and what changed in 2026

Mauritius was the largest source of foreign direct investment equity into India in 2017–18 (USD 15.94 billion, in the High Commission's brief). Under the treaty, as Khaitan & Co recounts, capital gains that a Mauritian resident made on Indian shares were not taxable in India, until a protocol signed on 10 May 2016 withdrew the exemption for shares acquired after 31 March 2017, without adding an anti-abuse test. A second protocol signed on 7 March 2024 adds a principal purpose test (PPT): a treaty benefit is refused if obtaining it was one of the principal purposes of an arrangement, unless granting it fits the object and purpose of the treaty. India notified the protocol on 13 October 2026 (S.O. 5611(E)) and the notification says it entered into force on 10 August 2026, so transactions from that date face the test; the tax board's Circular 1 of 2025 had said the PPT would apply only from the date of entry into force. That is the position set out in Khaitan & Co's alert of 15 October 2026.

For an employee the point is narrower. These changes are about investment structures, and we found nothing in them that changes how a salary earned in Mauritius is taxed. An Indian national who keeps Indian income, an NRI account or property should read the treaty text and take advice; this guide does not cover NRE and NRO accounts or remittances.

The order below is the one the EDB's and the PIO's rules imply, for an Indian national arriving to take a job on an Occupation Permit; a work-permit worker follows the same steps with the employer and the Ministry of Labour. A Mauritian citizen needs only the housing, transport and health items.

1. Before you fly, hold the approval. The employer applies online and gets an approval in principle; the PIO says a person seeking employment may not be allowed to enter without a residence permit and a work permit. Carry the letter and a copy of the contract, which must name your full name as on your birth certificate, the company, the job title, the contract's duration and the monthly basic salary.
2. Do the medical tests. The certificate must be under six months old. Hepatitis B, HIV and the chest X-ray must be done in Mauritius at a registered laboratory; the rest, including the leprosy test for Indian nationals, can be done at home. The permits section has the list.
3. Go to the appointment with your employer. For an Occupation Permit the professional attends with the director or an HR representative, with originals of the documents, the medical certificate, your passport and a recent passport photograph of 3.5 by 4.5 cm.
4. Open a bank account. The tax and banking section names the banks; ask which documents each wants before you queue.
5. Take a short let, then the flat. A furnished room or serviced flat for two weeks lets you learn the commute before you sign a lease. Ask in writing what the deposit and any agency fee are, since the EDB notes that some offers require separate deposits and fees. The renting section has the dated figures.
6. Buy a MECard if you will use the Metro Express, and learn the bus station for your route; the transport section has the fares.
7. Arrange health cover. Public hospitals are free for citizens and permanent residents but not guaranteed to be free for other permit holders; see the health section and ask the employer what the cover includes.
8. Tell the High Commission you are here, and save its numbers. A directory listing says the mission's site links a registration form for Indian nationals; the consulate section has the address.
9. Ask who files your tax. The tax section has the bands.
10. Find your people. Join the local group on the app and go to one event in the first fortnight: a Sunday at a temple or an evening at the Indira Gandhi Centre.

Two kinds of number exist, and they are far apart. The census gives the median rent that households actually pay, mostly on older tenancies; the listing market gives what a flat is advertised at today. A newcomer pays something close to the second. The census figures are the official ones; the asking-rent figures are from L'Express and PropertyCloud, are labelled as such, and describe what flats are advertised at, not what a landlord accepts.

What renters paid in 2022 (Statistics Mauritius, Housing Census, Table HHH03)

The shares are our arithmetic from the same table. Most households own their home, so these medians describe a small group, and they include long-running family and local arrangements. Small samples give odd figures: the western part of Grand Baie shows Rs 19,200 on 130 renting households.

What flats are advertised at in 2025–26

• L'Express, 6 April 2026, quoting PropertyCloud's Mauritius Real Estate Index: average rent about Rs 70,000 in 2026, down 6.7% across the market; Rs 90,000 for houses and Rs 50,000 for apartments; a fall of 16.7% for properties open to foreign buyers; and a rise of 47.5% in Port Louis. Agents told the paper that expatriates often pay much more than Mauritians.
• L'Express Property, reported on 15 October 2025: median monthly apartment rents of Rs 30,000 in Quatre Bornes, Rs 45,000 in Grand Baie and Rs 35,000 in Flic en Flac.
• PropertyCloud's rent pages, 2026, as shown in a search result on 23 October 2026 (the site refused our own fetch): average apartment rent Rs 40,000 in the "Centre" region, with Rs 35,000 for one bedroom, Rs 45,000 for two and Rs 52,500 for three; Rs 42,000 for Rose Hill and Quatre Bornes; Rs 55,000 for Vacoas and Phoenix; Rs 36,500 for Curepipe and Rs 70,000 for Moka.
• The EDB's indicative figures (undated page): USD 500 to 1,000 a month for a house of two to four bedrooms on 100 to 200 square metres, and USD 1,200 to 2,400 for a large villa with a pool.

Do not average these. The first and third are market-wide or regional figures from one index and the second is a median of listings; the census medians are for sitting tenants. They disagree on detail but agree on two things: Moka and the north around Grand Baie cost more than the central towns, and every asking rent is several times the census median.

The areas

• Port Louis (106,332 residents; 19.5% Hindu, 40.9% Muslim, 30.4% Catholic) has the offices, the port, the Central Market and the Metro terminus at Place d'Armes, and a 47.5% rise in the PropertyCloud index above.
• Rose Hill and Beau Bassin (Hindu 30.6%, Catholic 36.1%) have two Metro stops, Beau Bassin and Rose Hill Central, and Rose Hill Central is where the line to Ebène branches off.
• Quatre Bornes (Hindu 57.7%) has the Metro at Quatre Bornes Central. Ebène is a suburb of Quatre Bornes, about 15 km south of Port Louis, built from 2001 as an IT and office district; the EDB, banks and SBI (Mauritius) are there.
• Vacoas-Phoenix (Hindu 50.4%, Muslim 28.9%) has the stations of Phoenix, Phoenix Mall, Palmerston and Vacoas Central. Curepipe (Hindu 37.0%, Catholic 35.1%) is the Metro terminus at Curepipe Central, with Floréal and Curepipe North before it.
• Moka and Réduit (Hindu 55.1% in the district) hold the international schools of Moka and the C-Care Welkin hospital.
• The north: Rivière du Rempart district is 63.8% Hindu and Pamplemousses 54.9%. Triolet is the site of the Maheswarnath Mandir; Grand Baie, which is 40.4% Hindu and 28.4% Catholic in its eastern council area, is one of the three localities most searched for apartments in L'Express Property's data, and a tourist area according to the UK government's advice.

Agents and caution

The EDB's list of real-estate agents includes offices in Ebène (Habitat Immobilier at Ebène Heights), Quatre Bornes (Elova Properties and Property Hunters), Beau Bassin-Rose Hill (GBEL Real Estate), Curepipe (Immo 23) and Grand Baie (Fine & Country, among others); it is a list, not an endorsement. Pay only against a signed lease, view the flat and meet the person named on the lease, and never pay a deposit for a flat you have not stood in. We found no official source on tenancy law, so ask a registered agent or a notary for the terms.

The Metro Express is a light rail that began commercial service in January 2020 between Port Louis and Rose Hill and has since been extended. Line 1 runs from Place d'Armes in Port Louis to Curepipe Central through 20 stations: Place d'Armes, Port Louis Victoria, St Louis, Coromandel, Barkly, Beau Bassin, Vandermeersch, Rose Hill Central, Belle Rose, Quatre Bornes Central, St Jean, Trianon, Phoenix, Phoenix Mall, Palmerston, Vacoas Central, Sadally, Floréal, Curepipe North and Curepipe Central. Line 2 branches at Rose Hill Central through Ebène Cybercity to Mahatma Gandhi. The operator's service runs from 06:00 to 19:00, according to its own site and Expat.com's guide of 24 February 2026.

Fares from Place d'Armes

The operator's fare grids give a fare by pair of stations; the rows below are read from them for a trip from the Port Louis terminus. A third-party compilation checked on 24 August 2026 gives the same band, Rs 35 to Rs 55 for a single ticket and Rs 32 to Rs 52 on an adult MECard, and Expat.com gives the card range too; we found no 2026 fare notice from the operator itself.

An adult MECard costs Rs 150 including Rs 100 of credit, a student card Rs 100, and Expat.com says seniors aged 60 and over and people with disabilities travel free; the third-party compilation says those two cards depend on Mauritian documents, so an Indian national should not count on them. The same compilation reports that you must tap in and out, that forgetting to tap out is charged a default fare, and that a journey of more than 60 minutes inside the system is charged Rs 2,000. Check the MEApp or a station notice.

Which line runs when

Expat.com says the Metro runs every day including public holidays. The compilation of August 2026 says that Line 1 does, and that Line 2 (the Ebène branch) has had no Sunday service since 2 November 2025 and no service on public holidays from 15 August 2026, with a revised Saturday timetable from 20 June 2026. If you will commute to Ebène on the Metro, confirm the timetable with the operator before you sign a lease.

Buses

Port Louis has two main bus stations: Victoria Station, for buses from the east, the south and Plaines Wilhems, and Immigration Square, also called Gare du Nord, for the northern districts of Pamplemousses and Rivière du Rempart. The network is shared by the National Transport Corporation and private operators. Expat.com lists fares by stage, from Rs 12 to Rs 17 for the first stage to Rs 37 to Rs 47 for stages 31 to 39, and a MoBis app for routes. Forty electric buses from India were delivered in 2025, of an order of 100, and run for the NTC. For Maha Shivaratree the NTC ran reinforced services day and night in 2026.

Roads and fuel

Wikipedia notes heavy traffic around Place d'Armes, and the Metro is the alternative between the capital and the central towns. Fuel is a live price: higher gasoline prices were the largest single contributor to the 1.9-point rise in the consumer price index between June and September 2026 (0.6 point), according to Statistics Mauritius. We did not find a reliable source for the exchange of an Indian driving licence or for car prices, so ask the National Land Transport Authority or the employer before buying a car.

The most complete count of foreign workers is the one the Labour Minister gave Parliament, as reported by L'Express on 28 January 2026. On 31 October 2025 Mauritius had 13,398 Occupation Permit holders and 47,678 work permit holders, 61,076 foreign workers in all; the Prime Minister's figure for 27 March 2026 was 64,165 (13,931 and 50,234). Work permits rose from 37,768 in October 2023 to 48,002 in October 2024, then eased to 47,678 in October 2025.

Indian nationals on permits

Adding the two lines gives 19,580 Indian nationals on permits (our sum), against the Ministry of External Affairs' 26,786 Indian citizens in Mauritius in January 2026; the gap would be dependants, students, retirees and others, though no source says so. Of the 13,398 Occupation Permits, 12,057 were professionals, 763 investors, 455 self-employed and 123 young professionals. By sector the Occupation Permits were led by professional services (3,814), then hotels, restaurants and the airline industry (2,787), media (1,913, as the article labels it) and financial services (1,363). Work permits are in manufacturing, construction, agriculture, tourism and small firms, according to the Prime Minister.

Where the jobs are

• Ebène Cybercity is the office district: the EDB's own office is at Exchange Square on Wall Street, and the banks list shows HSBC, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered, Absa, MauBank and SBI (Mauritius) there. The EDB names ICT, financial services, healthcare and pharma, education, real estate and hospitality, freeport and logistics, renewable energy, manufacturing and the blue economy among its key sectors.
• Port Louis has the Stock Exchange of Mauritius and more than ten commercial banks, according to Wikipedia, and the port; the Caudan Waterfront has Bank of China and Investec. The Metro's Place d'Armes terminus is in the middle of it.
• Indian public-sector firms. The High Commission's brief of June 2021 names Bank of Baroda, LIC and New India Assurance as the first to arrive, followed by TCIL, Indian Oil (Mauritius), Mahanagar Telephone (Mauritius), SBI (Mauritius), NBCC, RITES and HSCC, and counts ten Indian public-sector enterprises. That list is five years old and says nothing about hiring; check each firm's own site.

We could not confirm a current list of employers hiring from India from any official page, so this guide names none beyond those.

What it pays

Forvis Mazars' Budget summary gives eight times median earnings as MUR 225,000 a month, which, if that is the cap, implies a median of about MUR 28,125 a month (our arithmetic). The professional floor of MUR 50,000 is therefore about 1.8 times the median. Statistics Mauritius earnings tables would give the sector figures; we did not find one for 2026.

The rules and the risks

The employer applies; you do not pay anyone for a permit or an offer. The Prime Minister said that 6,926 foreign workers were overstaying in March 2026 and that employers had reported 2,819 as missing, which cancels their permits; he said a combined work-and-residence permit with a QR code and a system of accredited employers is planned. A job on a visitor's entry is not lawful, as the PIO says. For white-collar offers check the employer's registration, the permit category and the salary clause before you resign anywhere.

We could not use Numbeo's page for Port Louis, which refused our request, so this section rests on official and press figures, each dated. Statistics Mauritius reported on 14 October 2026 that the consumer price index stood at 114.1 in September 2026, up 1.7% since June, that headline inflation in the twelve months to September was 4.1% (3.4% a year earlier), and that it expects about 5.0% for calendar 2026. Gasoline, tobacco and alcohol, food and private university fees drove the quarter's rise.

What the Budget did about prices

The Budget summaries (EY's synopsis of the 2026–27 Budget) list a MUR 12 billion price-stabilisation allocation, up from MUR 10 billion the year before, subsidies extended to a wider basket of goods (macaroni, luncheon meat and corned mutton among them), a MUR 2 billion programme for low-income social housing and Rs 175 million for household water tanks. These are aimed at lower-income households, so they matter less to a newcomer's budget; they are also part of the background to the October unrest, which Al Jazeera ties to water shortages and the cost of living.

Indicative costs

• The EDB's indicative figures (an undated page whose footer says 2021, in US dollars, so likely lower than today): electricity USD 20 to 100 a month for a household, water USD 3 to 6 for a family of three or four, internet USD 30 for 20 Mbps, a loaf of bread USD 0.25, a dozen eggs USD 1.80, a litre of milk USD 1.25 and a kilo of potatoes or onions USD 2.
• Private health care (Westimmo's 2026 guide, which says no regulated fee schedule exists): a GP consultation Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500, a specialist Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 and a private hospital room Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000 a day. The guide used a Bank of Mauritius rate of about 54.5 rupees to the euro for August 2026.
• Rent: see the renting section; a one-bedroom flat in PropertyCloud's "Centre" region averages Rs 35,000, and an apartment in Quatre Bornes Rs 30,000 at the median of listings.
• Transport: a Metro trip is Rs 32 to Rs 55 and a bus fare Rs 12 to Rs 47.

Where the costs bite

Rent and a car, if you need one, are the large lines for a newcomer, and private health insurance if the employer does not provide it. A professional on MUR 50,000 a month who rents a flat at Rs 30,000 to 40,000 has 60% to 80% of basic pay committed to housing, so negotiate housing or an allowance with the offer; the permit salary is the basic pay, and the EDB's test looks at the basic salary on the contract. Education adds more if a child needs an international school, and the schools list in the schools section names them without fees, since we found no fee source.

Money back to India

Remittances, NRE and NRO accounts and the Indian tax position are not specific to Mauritius and this guide does not cover them; the treaty changes in the tax section concern investment structures, not salary transfers.

Mauritius has a public system and a private one, and which you use depends on your status. The EDB describes five regional hospitals, specialised institutions for cardiology, cancer, eyes, ear, nose and throat, mental health and respiratory diseases, area health centres, and an emergency service called SAMU, alongside 29 private clinics, diagnostic centres and specialist facilities. Westimmo's 2026 guide names the five regional hospitals as Dr A. G. Jeetoo Hospital in Port Louis, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam National Hospital, Sir Anerood Jugnauth Hospital, Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital and Victoria Hospital.

Who pays

Care in public hospitals is free for Mauritian citizens and permanent residents. For others the position is unclear. The UK government's guidance for people living in Mauritius says foreign nationals can attend a public hospital but would be expected to pay, and Westimmo says that for holders of an ordinary residence permit free access "is not systematically guaranteed by the official texts" and that some services may be charged. We found no Ministry of Health fee schedule for non-citizens, so ask the hospital what it charges before you rely on it for anything but an emergency. The same sources say private care is the usual choice for expatriates, and the Premium Visa requires health and travel insurance.

Private clinics near the places this guide covers

The list below is from the EDB's list of private clinics (undated; confirm by phone). It is not a ranking. - Port Louis: City Clinic, 102 to 106 Sir Edgar Laurent Street (+230 206 1600); Chisty Shifa Clinic, 4 Shan-E-Islam Street, Impasse Labourdonnais. - Ebène and the central towns: Dr Agarwal's Eye Hospital, 51B Rue du Savoir, Ebène Cybercity; Candos Clinic opposite Victoria Hospital and Medisave Medical Centre in Quatre Bornes; Nouvelle Clinique du Bon Pasteur in Rose Hill; Premium Care Clinic in Vacoas-Phoenix; Artemis Curepipe Hospital, Clinique Muller and Nouvelle Clinique Ferrière in Curepipe. - Floréal and Moka: C-Care's Clinique Darné at Georges Guibert Street, Floréal (+230 601 2300), and C-Care Welkin Hospital at Moka (+230 605 1000), which Westimmo calls the island's largest private hospital. - The north: Clinique du Nord at Tombeau Bay, Clinique de Grand Baie and C-Care Grand Baie at Mont Choisy Smart City.

Which doctor speaks Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bhojpuri or Urdu is a question for the groups; the census says Creole is the home language of 78.6% of residents.

Cover and what it leaves out

Westimmo reports that international policies can impose a wait of 10 to 12 months before maternity cover applies, that local policies often wait around three months for hospital stays and up to 24 months for specific conditions, and that a pregnancy under way at purchase is excluded. Serious cases are flown to Réunion or South Africa, and local policies often exclude that transfer. If your employer's plan does not cover evacuation, ask why. The Budget promises 2,220 more health staff and foreign medical specialists, which will matter more to the wait for a public hospital than to a private one.

Emergencies, and two things to know

For an ambulance dial 114 or 999, according to the UK government's advice, which also says private and public ambulance quality and speed vary and that going directly to the hospital is sometimes quicker. Dengue and chikungunya are on that advice's list of health risks. For a permit, every non-citizen needs the medical certificate described in the permits section, including the leprosy test for Indian nationals.

Mauritius has a free state system, a private network that follows British, International Baccalaureate or French curricula, and a tradition of teaching Indian languages in school. The UK government's guidance says education is free and mandatory up to the age of 16, with teaching in English, Creole and French and examination papers in English. The EDB says public schools were modelled on the British system with English as the main language of instruction, that primary and secondary education in them is free, and that the curriculum is accredited with Cambridge. We found no ministry page saying whether a non-citizen child has a right to a place in a state school, so ask the Ministry of Education before you assume one.

The ancestral languages

Wikipedia's article on Indo-Mauritians says that from age six every child learns a third language beyond French and English, with Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Chinese, Marathi and Telugu on offer and Kreol Morisien for Creoles. L'Express reported on 20 July 2026 that the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate set the Grade 9 National Certificate of Education assessment for 2 to 16 October 2026, with Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Modern Chinese, Arabic and Kreol Morisien examined together on 13 October. An Indian family whose children will grow up here should know that the school route, not the home, keeps these languages alive: only 29,827 residents say they usually speak Bhojpuri at home, and 1,035 Tamil, 364 Marathi, 362 Telugu and 413 Urdu.

The reform to watch

After the national education consultations of 2025, the Education Ministry put two options in December 2025: admit pupils to Grade 7 national and regional schools on their PSAC results and abolish the NCE, or keep the NCE and admit to national schools at Grade 10. In both, a regional-school place at Grade 7 would be guaranteed, and about 2,400 pupils might enter one of 21 national schools. A public consultation ran from 8 December 2025 to 20 January 2026. We found no announced decision, and the NCE was still sat in October 2026, so check the Ministry's current rules.

Private and international schools

The EDB's list gives these, with curricula mostly British, International Baccalaureate or French: - Primary: Clavis International Baccalaureate Primary School (Mount Ory, Moka); Dukesbridge (Soreze); Ecole du Nord and the International Preparatory School (Mapou); Greencoast International Schools (Pamplemousses); Lighthouse Primary (Calebasses); Lycée Labourdonnais (Forest Side); Paul et Virginie (Tamarin); Saint Exupéry International School (Grand Baie); Telfair and Westcoast International Primary schools. - Secondary: Le Bocage International School (Moka); Lighthouse Secondary; Lycée des Mascareignes (Saint Pierre); Lycée Labourdonnais; Northfields International High School (Mapou); Westcoast International Secondary (Médine).

The list has no Indian-board school, and we did not search the CBSE's affiliation list for Mauritius; if that matters to you, check it. We found no fee source, so ask each school for its current fees before accepting an offer, since fees are likely to be the largest education cost.

Young children, universities and Indian students

The EDB says day-care centres and pre-schools exist across the island. For tertiary study, the EDB's list of branch campuses includes Amity Institute of Higher Education at the Mindspace building in Ebène Cybercity, Curtin Mauritius at Moka, Middlesex University at Flic en Flac and Honoris at Highlands, Vacoas-Phoenix. Foreign students (6,656 with residence permits in March 2026) can work up to 20 hours a week, and the High Commission's brief says India ranks fourth among destinations for Mauritian students abroad, with 97 ICCR scholarships a year and about 200 Mauritian students enrolling in Indian universities each year (June 2021).

We could not confirm a list of Indian grocers or restaurants in Port Louis from a single current source, and this guide names only what a source confirms. The most useful fact for a newcomer is that Mauritian food is itself heavily Indian, so much of what a household needs is sold in ordinary markets and supermarkets. A South African food writer's July 2023 account of a walking tour calls dholl puri, a flatbread served with yellow dal, the favourite street food of Mauritians, and notes that dholl is the Mauritian word for dal, in a version close to South African Indian dal.

Port Louis

• The Central Market (Marché Central) is the main food and produce market. The same account describes a fresh-produce side with cut pineapple eaten with chilli salt, and a stall called Coco Cabbanna pressing sugar-cane juice to order.
• Ramsahye Maraz Palace had a long queue of locals for dholl puri and farata, a roti roll with vegetarian curry that included tamarind, when the writer went in 2023. Check that it still trades and its hours before you go; the article gives no address.
• Chinatown, east of the Central Market with a "friendship" gate, has small shops and restaurants, according to Wikipedia; it is the quarter east of the market.

The other towns

We found no source naming a particular Indian grocer or restaurant in Quatre Bornes, Rose Hill, Curepipe, Vacoas-Phoenix or Grand Baie, so ask in the groups and look at the directory below, which lists the businesses near Port Louis on Namaste Community. Quatre Bornes and Vacoas-Phoenix, where Hindus are 57.7% and 50.4% of residents, are the places to ask first, but we have no source naming a shop there.

Festival food and fasting

The Hindu fasts shape the market calendar. Maha Shivaratree is a night of fasting, with pilgrims preparing for days, and families break the fast at dawn with a shared meal. Volunteers set up tents along the pilgrims' route with water and food, according to L'Express's report of 11 February 2026, so a visitor on the road is likely to be fed. At Divali families share sweets with neighbours and relatives.

Prices

The EDB's undated indicative prices (a loaf of bread USD 0.25, a dozen eggs USD 1.80, a litre of milk USD 1.25, a kilo of potatoes USD 2) are a rough guide only. Mauritius subsidises some staples under the Budget, and the price index shows food rising.

Hindu temples are the most common places of worship in Mauritius, and the island's pilgrimage is to a crater lake. The places below were confirmed from at least one named source; hours are not given where we could not confirm them, so check before you go.

Grand Bassin and Maha Shivaratree

The lake's tradition goes back to the 1880s, when a priest from Triolet, Pandit Jhummun Giri, is said to have had a vision of the Ganges flowing from the lake, and the first group of pilgrims walked from Triolet in 1898, according to Wikipedia. In 1972 Ganges water was mixed with the lake's, and the lake was renamed Ganga Talao. Each year, in the days before the Great Night of Shiva, thousands of Hindus in white walk from all over the island carrying kanwars, decorated frames, to bring lake water back to the Shivling in their local temple. In 2026 the festival was on Sunday 15 February and L'Express reported an estimated 350,000 devotees; we found no count afterwards.

The rules matter if you are going. For 2026 a kanwar could be at most 3 m high, 2 m wide and 5.5 m long; electric generators were banned except 12-volt lead batteries; sleeping inside a kanwar was forbidden; and a breach could bring a fine of up to Rs 10,000 and seizure by the police. Police, health services and councils concentrated on La Marie, Plaine-Sophie, Pétrin and the lake, with temporary medical posts, and the National Transport Corporation ran extra buses day and night. The Mauritius Sanatan Dharma Temples Federation asked parents to supervise children and asked that kanwars not be thrown into rivers afterwards. Expect closed roads and heavy traffic across the south-west on the days before, and note that the PIO's visa page says non-citizens travelling for religious purposes should obtain a social visa beforehand; ask the PIO whether that applies to an Indian pilgrim, since the country list says Indian passport holders need no visa.

The Arya Samaj

The Arya Samaj movement in Mauritius dates from 1911, was registered in 1913 and has its headquarters, the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, in Port Louis, according to Wikipedia. It opened the first Hindi school in Mauritius on 18 July 1918, ran 75 Hindi schools by 1920, formed women's associations and a youth union, and was split between several bodies in the 1920s and 1930s. We could not open the Sabha's website (the address Wikipedia gives now shows a parked page), so we cannot give a current address or programme; ask at a temple or in the groups.

Muslims and Christians

Port Louis district has 43,463 Muslims, 40.9% of its residents, and 32,350 Roman Catholics, 30.4%; Wikipedia says Mauritian Muslims of Indian descent usually choose Urdu as their school language. As anywhere, dress modestly and remove your shoes in a Hindu or Muslim place of worship, and ask before photographing.

Indian culture in Mauritius is taught through institutions that the two governments built together and through the religious bodies that run the temples. The High Commission's brief of June 2021 lists the main ones.

• The Indira Gandhi Centre for Indian Culture, set up in 1987, is one of the largest centres of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). The brief says it holds classes in Hindustani music, Kathak, tabla and yoga for Mauritian students. A directory listing places it at Phoenix with a telephone number of +230 697 3437; call to confirm the address, timings and fees.
• The Mahatma Gandhi Institute, a joint venture of the two governments for the promotion of Indian culture and education, hosts the ICCR Chair in Sanskrit and Indian Philosophy. The Rabindranath Tagore Institute, built with Indian assistance in 2000, is a centre of studies on Indian culture and traditions.
• The World Hindi Secretariat is a bilateral organisation hosted in Mauritius and was inaugurated during the President's visit in March 2018; the 11th World Hindi Conference was held in Mauritius from 18 to 20 August 2018.
• The Mauritius Sanatan Dharma Temples Federation is the body L'Express quoted in February 2026 on the Maha Shivaratree rules; its president named in that report is Bhojraj Ghoorbin.
• The Arya Samaj runs Hindi education, women's associations and a youth union, according to Wikipedia's history; see the temples section.

Language classes for children

The state's third-language course is the main route: Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi are taught as ancestral or oriental languages and examined at Grade 9. For adults, the Gandhi Institute and the Indian cultural centre are the places to ask about Hindi, Sanskrit, music and dance. We did not find a published timetable or fee for either, and the High Commission's own list of Indian community associations was not available to us, so ask at the mission or in the groups for associations of Indian nationals by state or language.

What the brief says about the scale

The brief says Mauritius is the largest beneficiary of Africa scholarships under the India–Africa Forum Summit, with 97 ICCR scholarships a year for Mauritian students, and that India ranks fourth for Mauritian students studying abroad. It describes ten Indian public-sector enterprises in the country. All of these figures are from June 2021 and may have changed.

Five Hindu festivals are public holidays in Mauritius, and so are the Arrival of Indentured Labourers, Eid and the Christian and Chinese holidays. The dates for 2026 below are from the Prime Minister's Office list, read on 23 October 2026. The Office had not published a 2027 list, so the 2027 rows are third-party calendars and marked expected.

Divali in Port Louis

Divali is a public holiday. Hindu families light oil lamps (diyas) at their doors and in the temples on the evening, perform the Lakshmi puja at dusk and share sweets with neighbours and relatives. Temples and Hindu associations announce their programmes only a few days ahead, and none for 2026 had been found by 22 October. The Diwali in Port Louis page has what is announced.

Thaipoosam Cavadee, Ougadi and Ganesh Chaturthi

Wikipedia's article on Hinduism in Mauritius says that Thaipusam Cavadee is a holiday attributed to Tamil Hindus, Ganesh Chaturthi to the Marathi-speaking community and Ougadi (Ugadi, or Gudi Padwa) to Telugus and Marathis. In 2026 the Office put them on Sunday 1 February, Tuesday 15 September and Thursday 19 March. The 2027 dates depend on the lunar calendar. Calendarlabs lists a Mauritian Thaipoosam Cavadee on 23 January, Ganesh Chaturthi on 4 September and Ougadi on 8 April; Drik Panchang's Indian calendar has Ganesh Chaturthi on 4 September and Ugadi on 7 April. Mauritian dates can differ by a day from Indian ones (in 2026 the Office set Ganesh Chaturthi on 15 September and Drik Panchang's Indian calendar on 14 September, while Maha Shivaratri, Ugadi and Divali matched), so confirm with a temple or the Office's 2027 list when it appears.

Maha Shivaratree 2027

OfficeHolidays and Calendarlabs both list Saturday 6 March 2027 for Mauritius, and Drik Panchang gives the same date for Maha Shivaratri in India, but the Office's list is not out. The walk begins several days earlier, so plan for road closures in the week before and expect the National Transport Corporation to run extra buses, as in 2026.

The rest of the year

Eid, Christmas, the Chinese Spring Festival and Abolition of Slavery are public holidays too. The events page for Port Louis lists events as organisers post them, and the groups are where programmes for smaller festivals such as Navratri, Pongal and Holi appear.

Most day-to-day information in a community like this moves through WhatsApp groups organised by language, region, temple, workplace and building: which clinic takes which insurance, which agent is honest, which permit office queue is shortest. With about 26,800 Indian citizens in Mauritius, by the ministry's count, and a large Indian-origin population, there are many such groups, and we found no public list of them.

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

They are quick when they work: a question about which clinic in Quatre Bornes has a Tamil-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 the Occupation Permit and the Metro card come up every week. A job or housing offer can circulate unchecked. Anything can be verified: a permit against the EDB's rules, a flat against a signed lease, 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 local groups for this city are at /groups/in/mauritius/port-louis; the events page lists Indian events near Port Louis, the Mauritius directory lists businesses, and the Diwali in Port Louis 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 Port Louis groups and join the general one and the one for your town; read before you post, because the permit questions are usually already answered.
2. Go to one event in the first fortnight: a temple on a Sunday, a class at the Indira Gandhi Centre, a festival evening.
3. Say in your question whether you are a Mauritian citizen, on an Occupation Permit or on a work permit, because the answers differ: hospital fees, the concession cards on the Metro and your right to a state school place all depend on it.
4. When you have found your flat, clinic and grocer, leave a review or an answer for the next person from Hyderabad, Chennai or Patna.

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

South Asians in Mauritius are a mixed community, and the numbers that exist are national. On 31 October 2025 the work permit figures from the Labour Minister were: India 16,049, Nepal 12,811, Madagascar 9,189, Bangladesh 7,449 and Sri Lanka 764 (L'Express, 28 January 2026). Pakistan is not among those named. At 47,678 work permits in all, Nepal accounts for about 27% and Bangladesh about 16%, our arithmetic. So an Indian worker on a work permit shares the factory floor, the building site and the bus with Nepali, Malagasy and Bangladeshi colleagues.

Bangladeshi

The 2022 census counted 14,483 residents who usually speak Bangla at home, 11,742 of them men, and 14,594 whose forefathers' language was Bangla. A language is not a nationality, but the male skew is consistent with a workforce of men on work permits. Bangladeshi nationals need a visa before travelling to Mauritius, according to the PIO's 2025 country list.

Nepali and Sri Lankan

Nepali and Sri Lankan passport holders can get a visa for sixty days on arrival, says the same list. Nepali workers are the second-largest group on work permits. Sinhala is the home language of 463 residents.

Pakistani, and Mauritian Muslims of Indian descent

Pakistani nationals also need a visa before travel (PIO, 2025), and we found no source that counts Pakistanis in Mauritius. A reader should not confuse them with the large community of Mauritian Muslims of Indian descent: 224,885 Muslims in 2022, and 27,366 residents whose forefathers spoke Urdu. Habib Bank Limited, a bank with Pakistani roots, has an office on Louis Pasteur Street in Port Louis, according to the EDB's list of banks.

What is shared

The same permit rules apply to every non-citizen, the same medical certificate (with a leprosy test for Indian nationals only, and the filariasis test for people coming from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and a dozen other countries), the same bus and Metro fares, and the same risks of unscrupulous agents and overstaying. The Prime Minister's figures of 6,926 overstayers and 2,819 workers reported missing, in March 2026, cover all nationalities. The Port Louis directory and the local groups are open to everyone.

The High Commission of India

The High Commission's own website, hcimauritius.gov.in, returned an access error when we tried it on 23 October 2026, so the details below are from a third-party directory listing last updated on 29 April 2026, and the mission should be asked to confirm them. The listing gives the address as Plot No. 65-C, Cybercity, Ebène; reception on +230 460 6600 (Monday to Friday, 9:30 to 17:00); consular applications submitted in person from 9:30 to 12:00 on weekdays; visas collected from 16:30 to 16:45; and OCI cards and other documents collected on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 15:00 to 16:00. It gives the consular email as [email protected]. Directories disagree on the address, and the mission's own brief of June 2021 gives only "High Commission of India, Port Louis" and its website, so confirm the street before you go.

Passports and OCI

We found no source on the passport route (the mission itself, or an outside centre), so check the High Commission's site or telephone before you travel; the directory says passport and consular applications are submitted in person on weekday mornings. For OCI, the High Commission's brief says that at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in January 2017 India granted Mauritius a special carve-out: nationals of Indian origin could get OCI cards without the limit on the number of generations, and about 8,500 Mauritians held them in June 2021. The brief adds that Mauritians are entitled to a free e-tourist visa for India. The brief puts Indian nationals in Mauritius at about 10,500 in 2021; the ministry's 2026 table says 26,786.

Safety in October 2026

After a police officer shot a 27-year-old woman in the south of the capital on 9 October (the UK government's date for the incident), protests turned violent: on Monday 12 October protesters burned tyres and blocked roads, and on Tuesday 13 October the Prime Minister announced a curfew from 20:30 to 06:00 covering Port Louis and other major population centres (Al Jazeera, 13 October). The government's evening and overnight curfews, covering most of the main island, lasted from 12 to 18 October and ended at 04:30 on Monday 19 October, according to the UK government's advice, and Al Jazeera reported on 19 October that roads had reopened, schools had resumed, at least 188 people had been arrested for looting, arson and attacks on police stations, and that the protests were tied to water shortages and the cost of living. Some schools closed for a time. The UK government advises staying away from demonstrations and large gatherings and following local authorities. Check the situation before you travel, and keep your High Commission contact to hand.

Crime, cyclones and the law

The UK advice says most crime in Mauritius is non-violent, that petty crime is common in Port Louis, Grand Baie and Flic en Flac, and that you should not walk alone at night in the backstreets of Port Louis's business district. The police and the tourist police are on 999; for an ambulance dial 114 or 999. The cyclone season usually runs from November to May; Mauritius Meteorological Services has a phased warning system and a five-stage landslide warning, you may not leave your accommodation during a cyclone, and car insurance is often void. Illegal drugs, including cannabis, carry severe penalties, and a person provisionally charged cannot leave the country or renew an occupation or residence permit; the Budget proposed a legal framework for cannabis, but until a law passes nothing has changed.