🔗 Share this article

Earlier this year, a video by a popular travel content creator expressing frustration over the limited power of the Indian passport gained massive traction on social media.

He mentioned that while nearby nations such as Sri Lanka and Bhutan were more welcoming of travelers from India, obtaining visas for visiting many nations in Europe and the West remained a challenge.

This dissatisfaction with the limited global access of Indian passports found confirmation in the latest Henley Passport Index, ranking the country in the 85th spot among nearly two hundred nations, a decline of five positions than last year.

The Indian government have not issued a statement regarding these findings yet.

Nations like Ghana, Rwanda and Azerbaijan despite smaller economic size than India – which is the world's fifth biggest economy – hold better positions on the index in the seventies range, in that order.

Actually, India's rank in the past decade has remained in the 80s, even dipping to the 90th spot in 2021. Such standings are dismal compared to other Asian countries like Japan, South Korea and Singapore, all maintaining top positions.

What Passport Strength Measures

The power of a passport reflects a nation's soft power and global influence. This leads to enhanced travel freedom for passport holders, improving commercial and educational prospects. Limited passport power results in more paperwork, higher visa costs, fewer travel privileges and extended processing periods for travel.

However, even with the drop in position, the number of countries providing visa-free travel for Indian citizens has grown over the last ten years.

For example, in 2014 – the year the current administration's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power – 52 countries offered visa-free access to Indians and its passport at seventy-sixth position in the ranking.

The following year, it tumbled to the 85th position, then improved to eightieth in 2023 and 2024, dropping again to the 85th position currently. At the same time, visa-free destinations for Indians grew from 52 in 2015 to 60 in 2023 and sixty-two this year.

Increasing Worldwide Travel Competition

The number of visa-free destinations this year (fifty-seven) is higher than what it was eight years ago (fifty-two), but the country's position for both these years remains at eighty-fifth. What explains this situation?

Analysts note that a primary factor is the increasingly competitive landscape in international travel – indicating that countries are entering into more travel partnerships for their populations' advantage and economic growth. According to a 2025 report, the worldwide mean count of countries people can visit visa-free has almost doubled from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2025.

For example, The Chinese passport has increased the number of visa-free countries available to its citizens from fifty to eighty-two in the past decade. As a result, its rank on the index has improved from ninety-fourth to sixtieth during the same time period.

Meanwhile, India – previously positioned at seventy-seventh place during summer – dropped to eighty-fifth place in October following the loss of two nations.

Other Influences Impacting Passport Power

An ex-diplomat from India notes multiple elements that affect the strength of a country's passport, like economic and political conditions as well as its openness to welcoming citizens from other countries.

For instance, the American passport has fallen from the top ten and now occupies twelfth place – its lowest ever – because of its increasingly insular stance in world politics.

The diplomat recalls how in the 1970s, Indian citizens had visa-free travel to numerous European and Western nations, though this shifted after the Sikh separatist movement during the eighties. Later political disturbances have continued to damage at India's image as a stable, democratic country.

"Numerous nations are growing more cautious of immigrants," the diplomat added. "The country possesses a large quantity of citizens emigrating to other countries or remaining beyond visa limits and that interferes with the country's reputation."

Elements such as the security level a country's passport is and its immigration procedures also play a role in gaining visa-free access to foreign nations.

Enhanced Security Measures

The Indian passport remains vulnerable to security threats. In 2024, authorities arrested 203 people for suspected passport and visa irregularities. India is also known for complex immigration processes and a slow pace of visa processing.

The diplomat says that technological advances, like India's recently-launched digital passport or e-passport, can improve security and streamline immigration. This electronic document includes a small chip holding biometric information, increasing difficulty to forge or tamper with the document.

But, increased diplomatic efforts and travel agreements continue essential for enhancing international travel freedom of Indians and consequently, the Indian passport's global position.