Kidney transplant in India for patients from Bangladesh: cost, donor rules and stay

A kidney transplant in India for a patient from Bangladesh almost always involves a living donor from the patient's own family. That single fact shapes everything else: the papers you collect in Bangladesh, the approval meeting at the Indian hospital, and how long the family stays. Starting the paperwork early shortens the wait, because the committee cannot meet until the file is complete.

This article explains the rules as they are written in India's transplant law and in the High Commission of India's visa checklist for Dhaka. We checked them on the date shown above. Rules can change, so treat this as a map and confirm each step with the hospital you choose and with the High Commission.

Who can be the donor

India's transplant law is the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994 (often shortened to THOTA), with detailed rules from 2014. When the donor or the recipient is a foreign national, the transplant needs approval from an Authorisation Committee, a panel that reviews every such case before surgery. This applies even when the donor is a close relative.

The rules list the near relatives who are related genetically: grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, grandson and granddaughter. A husband or wife can also donate, with proof of the marriage.

Two limits matter for Bangladeshi families:

• An Indian citizen cannot donate to a foreign patient unless they are a near relative. Even then, the rules say the committee should examine such cases with greater caution and consider them rarely.
• The donor must be an adult. Donation by minors is not permitted except on exceptional medical grounds with special approval.

In practice, this means the donor is usually a Bangladeshi family member who travels to India with the patient.

Papers to prepare in Bangladesh

The rules require a certificate of relationship between donor and recipient, issued by a senior official of the patient's embassy in India. This is Form 21. The embassy official certifies the relationship, confirms the identity documents, and states that the donation is out of love and affection, with no payment and no pressure on the donor. The form also names the government department in the home country that recommended the case.

The High Commission of India in Dhaka, in its medical visa checklist, asks for clearance from Bangladesh's Law Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in organ transplant cases. Start this early, because both the visa and the hospital process depend on it.

The committee will also want proof that donor and recipient are related as they say. The rules mention birth certificates, a marriage certificate for a spouse, identity documents, and family photographs showing the donor and recipient with another relative. If the documents do not settle the relationship, the committee can order a DNA test at an accredited laboratory.

The hospital you choose will send its own checklist. Follow it exactly, and keep originals plus several copies of everything.

The Authorisation Committee meeting

After the first medical tests show the donor is a suitable match, the hospital places the case before its Authorisation Committee. The donor is interviewed in person, the interview is video recorded, and minutes are kept. Where the donor is a woman, the rules ask for extra care to confirm her own consent independently.

The rules ask the committee to give its decision within 24 hours of the meeting. How soon the meeting happens depends on the hospital and on how complete your file is. An incomplete file is what usually holds a case back.

Visa for the patient, donor and family

The patient travels on a medical visa and the donor on a medical attendant visa. Ministry of Home Affairs guidance allows Bangladeshi nationals up to three attendants on the regular medical visa route, which is one more than for most other countries. In Bangladesh, applications go through the Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC), which handles visas for the High Commission.

The Dhaka checklist asks for a hospital appointment letter that names the patient and the attendants with their passport details, your medical reports, proof of funds and proof of occupation.

Travelling by land or by air

Some families cross overland to Kolkata and fly on from there. Others fly from Dhaka straight to the city where the hospital is. Either works, but check that the entry route printed on your visa matches the way you plan to cross. After a transplant, a long road trip is hard on a healing wound, so ask the transplant team whether the patient should fly home instead.

How long you will stay in India

Plan for a stay of several weeks. The time breaks down roughly like this:

• tests for the donor and recipient, the committee file and the meeting
• the surgery and the hospital stay for both
• a period of frequent clinic visits and blood tests while the team adjusts the anti rejection medicines (immunosuppressants, drugs that stop the body attacking the new kidney)

The transplant team decides when the patient is fit to go home. Ask for their estimate before anyone books a return ticket.

What the cost is made of

We do not publish a single price for this treatment, because hospitals quote each case on its own reports. A quote usually covers some or all of these: evaluation tests for both people, surgery for the donor and the recipient, room and nursing, medicines in hospital, and early follow up. Things that often sit outside the quote are dialysis before surgery, treatment of complications, extra nights, and medicines after discharge.

With MediCurage, partner hospitals each quote for your case and you choose. Ask every hospital what its quote includes so you are comparing like with like.

Where we help

We request the visa invitation letter from the hospital you choose, check it against every passport, and help the patient, the donor and each attendant prepare their own visa application. We also arrange flights or onward travel from Kolkata, pickup, a stay near the hospital for the donor's family, and an interpreter if you need one. Your coordinator keeps the paperwork list for both patient and donor. When the documents are ready, send them over and we will check them against the hospital's list before anyone travels.