🔗 Share this article

In recent months, an online clip by an Indian travel influencer complaining about the limited power of the Indian passport went viral on social media.

He mentioned although nearby nations such as Bhutan and Sri Lanka were more welcoming of travelers from India, securing travel permits for visiting many nations in Europe and the West remained a challenge.

This dissatisfaction with the limited global access of Indian passports was reflected in the latest global passport ranking, ranking India at position eighty-five among 199 countries, a decline of five positions than last year.

Officials in India has not commented regarding these findings yet.

Nations like Ghana, Rwanda and Azerbaijan with much smaller economies compared to India – which is the fifth-largest economy globally – are ranked higher on the index at the 78th, 74th and 72nd spots, respectively.

Actually, the country's position in the past decade has remained around the eighties, even dipping to the 90th spot two years ago. Such standings are dismal when measured against Asian nations such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore, all maintaining leading ranks.

What Passport Strength Indicates

The power of a passport reflects a nation's soft power and international standing. This leads to better mobility for its citizens, improving commercial and educational prospects. Limited passport power means additional documentation, increased visa expenses, fewer travel privileges and longer waiting times when journeying.

However, even with the decline in the rank, the number of countries providing visa-free travel to Indians has grown in the past decade or so.

As an instance, in 2014 – the year the current administration's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power – fifty-two nations provided visa-free access for Indian passport holders and its passport at seventy-sixth position in the ranking.

A year later, it tumbled to eighty-fifth place, then improved to 80th over the past two years, declining once more to the eighty-fifth spot this year. Meanwhile, visa-free destinations to Indian citizens increased from fifty-two eight years ago to 60 in 2023 and 62 in 2024.

The Competitive Global Mobility Landscape

The count of nations allowing visa-free entry in 2025 (57) exceeds the number in 2015 (52), but the country's position for both these years remains at eighty-fifth. So, why is that?

Analysts note that a major reason involves growing competition in international travel – indicating that countries are entering into more travel partnerships to benefit their citizens and economic growth. As per a 2025 report, the worldwide mean number of destinations people can visit without visas has nearly doubled from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2025.

As an illustration, The Chinese passport has expanded its count of visa-free destinations its citizens can travel to from 50 to 82 in the past decade. As a result, its position on the index has enhanced from 94th to 60th during the same time period.

Meanwhile, The Indian passport – previously positioned at seventy-seventh place during summer – dropped to the 85th position in October following the loss to two countries.

Additional Factors Affecting Passport Strength

An ex-diplomat from India says there are other factors that affect the strength of a country's passport, like its economic and political stability as well as its receptiveness to welcoming citizens from other countries.

For example, the US passport has dropped out from the top ten currently holding the 12th position – a historic low – due to its increasingly insular stance in world politics.

The former ambassador recalls that during the seventies, Indian citizens had visa-free access to numerous European and Western nations, though this shifted after the Sikh separatist movement during the eighties. Subsequent political upheavals have continued to damage the country's reputation as a stable, democratic country.

"Numerous nations are growing more cautious of immigrants," the diplomat added. "India has a large quantity of citizens emigrating to other countries or overstaying their visas affecting the national image."

Elements such as the security level of a national passport and immigration processes also contribute to obtaining visa-free entry to foreign nations.

Security and Technological Improvements

The Indian passport faces ongoing security threats. Last year, law enforcement detained over two hundred individuals for suspected visa and passport fraud. The country also has complex immigration processes and a slow pace of visa processing.

The diplomat says that new technologies, such as the newly introduced electronic passport or e-passport, can improve security and ease the immigration process. This electronic document includes a microchip holding biometric data, increasing difficulty to counterfeit or alter the passport.

But, more diplomatic outreach and travel agreements continue essential to boosting international travel freedom for Indian citizens and, by extension, the Indian passport's global position.