Carry every prescription medicine in its original labelled packaging, with a prescription naming each drug by its generic name, and check the destination’s rules before you pack, because several medicines sold over the counter in India are controlled or prohibited elsewhere. The document set barely changes from country to country: a prescription, a doctor’s letter, and quantities matching the length of the trip.
This guide is maintained by Zurich Kotak General Insurance, an IRDAI-registered general insurer in India and part of the Zurich Insurance Group.
How Zurich Kotak fits in: Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel plans cover the part a well-packed medicine kit cannot prevent: emergency hospital treatment abroad, medical evacuation and repatriation, up to the limits of the plan you buy, on a policy bought per trip and issued online once your dates are fixed. The prescription and the doctor’s letter you are carrying for customs are also the papers that make a medical claim straightforward, so keep them in your cabin bag rather than in the hold. A pre-existing condition is covered only where it was declared when the policy was taken, accepted and recorded in the schedule, which is worth settling while you are packing rather than at a hospital desk.
Last verified: 2026-08-27.
The three things to carry, every trip
A prescription, a doctor’s letter and the original packaging clear almost every customs desk in the world.
What to carry | What it must show | Why it matters |
The prescription | Your name, each drug by its generic name, the strength, the dose and the duration | Brand names differ between countries. An officer in Bangkok or Dubai will not recognise an Indian brand, but will recognise the molecule |
A doctor’s letter | Your name, your travel dates, the medicines with quantities, doses and strengths, and the prescriber’s signature | This is the specification the UK sets for travellers arriving with medicines ( GOV.UK , travelling with controlled medicines, accessed 2026-08-27), and it satisfies most other countries too |
Original packaging | The pharmacy label, the batch number and the expiry date | Loose strips in a pill organiser have nothing linking them to you |
Ask your doctor to write the generic name next to the brand. It costs nothing and it is the single change that most reduces friction at a foreign customs desk.
What customs actually asks
Most travellers are never asked anything. The ones who are, are asked to prove the medicine is theirs and prescribed.
Several countries formally require the original prescription to be produced at customs on arrival, so medicines belong in your cabin bag, never in checked baggage you cannot reach. Expect some or all of the following:
1. Declare medicines on the arrival or customs form if it asks about them. Under-declaring turns a formality into a problem.
2. Produce the prescription and the doctor’s letter.
3. Explain, in a sentence, what the medicine treats.
4. Show that the quantity is consistent with the length of your stay.
Carrying medicine for someone else, or with no prescription at all, is where travellers get into genuine trouble. Do not do it.
Medicines that are legal in India but restricted abroad
This is the part that catches careful travellers: an ordinary Indian cold tablet, cough syrup or sleeping pill can be a controlled substance at the other end.
The figures below come from the regulations each government has filed with the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB, regulations for travellers carrying medicines containing controlled substances, accessed 2026-08-27). The “position filed” column matters: an older filing is likelier to have moved, so read it as a prompt to check with the embassy rather than as a guarantee.
Destination | Narcotic medicines | Psychotropic medicines | Prohibited or needs prior approval | Position filed |
Japan | Quantity must not exceed the usual daily dose | 30 days’ supply | Heroin, opium powder, methamphetamine, amphetamine, cannabis, and stimulant raw materials including ephedrine and pseudoephedrine and their pharmaceutical forms | 2014 |
Singapore | Per the prescription, and not more than 3 months’ doses | Per the prescription, and not more than 3 months’ doses | Cannabis, cannabis extracts, cannabinol derivatives, mescaline and psilocybin. Medicated chewing gum is also prohibited. An HSA approval letter may be required | 2025 |
Thailand | 90 days | 90 days, and no permit needed if the stay is under 30 days | Category 1 narcotics (amphetamine, dexamfetamine, methamphetamine) and Category 1 psychotropics including THC. A permit is applied for online at least 15 days before arrival | 2024 |
UAE | The period of stay or 3 months’ use, whichever is less | The period of stay or 3 months’ use, whichever is less | No published prohibited list. A valid medical report is accepted where a prescription is not available | 2024 |
Saudi Arabia | 30 days | 30 days | A detailed medical report, issued within the last six months. Travellers are advised to seek pre-approval clearance before arrival | 2025 |
Malaysia | 30 days | 30 days | Substances in Parts I and II of the First Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 | 2024 |
Qatar | 10 days | 60 days | No published prohibited list | 2013 |
Oman | 30 days | 30 days | A medical report no more than six months old | 2016 |
Germany | 30 days | 30 days | Schengen rules apply | 2024 |
France | 28 days (injectable morphine 7 days, oral methadone syrup 14 days) | 3 months, but 28 days for high-dose buprenorphine, clorazepate 20 mg, tianeptine and zolpidem | No published prohibited list | 2024 |
United Kingdom | Up to 3 months’ personal supply | Up to 3 months’ personal supply | Schedule 1 drugs cannot be brought in without a licence. Excess supply is confiscated on arrival | 2024 |
Japan is the row to read twice. Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are prohibited there in their pharmaceutical forms, and a large share of Indian over-the-counter cold and sinus tablets contain one of them. Read the ingredient panel before you pack a strip, not after.
The categories that cause trouble
Six kinds of medicine account for nearly every problem, and five of them are ordinary.
· Cold and sinus tablets containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine. Freely sold in India, prohibited in Japan.
· Cough syrups and painkillers containing codeine. Codeine is a narcotic, so it falls under the narcotic limits above wherever you are going.
· Tramadol. Controlled in India and in most of the destinations Indians travel to. It needs the full document set.
· Sleep and anxiety medicines in the benzodiazepine family, such as alprazolam, diazepam and zolpidem. These are psychotropics, and France caps zolpidem at 28 days where its general psychotropic allowance is three months.
· ADHD medicines based on amphetamine salts or methylphenidate. Amphetamine is on Japan’s prohibited list and in Thailand’s Category 1. This is the category most likely to be refused outright, so clear it with the embassy well in advance.
· CBD, cannabis and hemp products, including oils and gummies bought legally elsewhere. Singapore prohibits cannabinol derivatives, Japan prohibits cannabis, Thailand lists THC as a Category 1 psychotropic. Legal status at home has no bearing on it.
Where you cannot find a clear answer, write to that country’s embassy in India before you travel and keep the reply.
Travelling with a condition you manage day to day? The medicines you can pack. What a hospital abroad charges, you cannot. International travel insurance takes a couple of minutes and belongs on the same checklist as the prescription.
A sensible kit for a two-week trip
Pack for what is annoying to source abroad, not for every possibility.
Category | What to include | Note |
Prescription medicines | Your full course, plus a week’s buffer | Split across two bags in case one goes missing |
Pain and fever | Your usual paracetamol or ibuprofen | Indian brands rarely exist abroad; know the generic name |
Stomach | Oral rehydration salts, an antacid, an anti-diarrhoeal | ORS is the most useful item in the bag and the hardest to buy in a hurry |
Allergy | A non-drowsy antihistamine | Also covers insect bites and unfamiliar food |
Motion sickness | Whatever works for you at home | Long transfers and boats |
Wound care | Plasters, antiseptic cream, a crepe bandage | A pharmacy run in an unfamiliar city costs an afternoon |
Personal | Contraceptives, spare spectacles or lenses, a spare inhaler | Awkward to replace abroad |
Two rules for the kit. Do not decant into unlabelled containers, because the label is the evidence. And do not take another traveller’s prescription medicine, however sensible it seems.
Packing, screening and storage
Medicines go in the cabin, in their packaging, with the paperwork in the same bag.
Split your supply between the cabin bag and one other, so a lost bag is an inconvenience rather than an emergency. Keep insulin, biologics and anything temperature-sensitive in the cabin, in an insulated pouch, and check the storage range before you rely on a hotel minibar. Airport screening rules for liquid medicines are set country by country, so declare medically necessary liquids at the security check rather than pushing them through in a toiletries bag.
If you run out, or lose your medicines
A foreign pharmacy will not dispense against an Indian prescription, and an Indian brand name will usually mean nothing to it.
Two things make this recoverable: the generic name on your prescription, which lets a local doctor write an equivalent, and a doctor’s letter stating the condition, because most countries need a local prescription before anything controlled can be dispensed.
Where insurance fits, honestly
No travel policy pays for the medicines you packed. It pays for what happens when the plan fails.
Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel plans cover emergency medical treatment abroad, hospitalisation and medical evacuation up to plan limits, which is the exposure that matters when a managed condition becomes an admission in a country where you do not speak the language. A declared pre-existing condition is covered in life-threatening situations up to 10% of the sum insured or USD 10,000, whichever is lower, and an optional pre-existing disease add-on is available. Cover applies only where the condition was declared when the policy was taken, accepted, and recorded in the policy schedule, which our guide to travel insurance for pre-existing conditions explains in full.
Frequently asked questions
Can I carry medicines in my hand luggage on an international flight? Yes, and you should. Several countries require the original prescription to be produced at customs on arrival, and checked baggage can be delayed or lost, so medicines belong in the cabin bag with the paperwork in the same bag.
Do I need a doctor’s letter for ordinary tablets? For a paracetamol strip, no. For anything prescribed, and for anything in the narcotic, psychotropic, opioid or stimulant families, carry both the prescription and a letter naming the condition, the medicines, the quantities and your travel dates.
Which common Indian medicines are banned abroad? Japan prohibits ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in their pharmaceutical forms, which covers a large share of Indian over-the-counter cold and sinus tablets, and also prohibits amphetamine and cannabis. Singapore prohibits cannabis, cannabinol derivatives and medicated chewing gum. Thailand places amphetamine, dexamfetamine, methamphetamine and THC in its most restricted categories.
How much medicine am I allowed to carry? It varies by country and by drug class. Thailand allows 90 days, Singapore up to three months’ doses, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Oman and Germany 30 days, France 28 days for narcotics, and Qatar just 10 days for narcotics. Check your destination before you pack more than a month’s supply.
What happens if customs finds a medicine I should not have? The outcome ranges from confiscation to a formal offence, depending on the country and the substance. Declaring it, with a prescription and a doctor’s letter, is what separates the two. Never carry a controlled medicine that is not prescribed to you.
Does travel insurance cover my regular medicines? No. A travel policy covers emergency medical treatment, hospitalisation and evacuation abroad, not the routine medication you packed. It is the treatment you did not plan for that it is there for.
