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Earlier this year, an online clip by a popular travel content creator expressing frustration over India's weak passport gained massive traction across digital platforms.

He mentioned although neighbouring countries such as Bhutan and Sri Lanka offered easier access of Indian tourists, securing travel permits to travel to many nations in Europe and the West remained a challenge.

Such concerns with India's poor passport strength found confirmation in recent global passport ranking, ranking India at position eighty-five among nearly two hundred nations, a decline of five positions than last year.

The Indian government have not issued a statement on the report so far.

Countries including Ghana, Rwanda and Azerbaijan despite smaller economic size than India – which is the fifth-largest economy globally – are ranked higher in the ranking in the seventies range, respectively.

Actually, the country's position over the last ten years has hovered in the 80s, even dipping to ninetieth place in 2021. Such standings are dismal when measured against other Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore, which have consistently held leading ranks.

What Passport Strength Indicates

The power of a passport reflects a nation's soft power and global influence. It also translates into enhanced travel freedom for passport holders, boosting business and learning opportunities. Limited passport power means more paperwork, increased visa expenses, reduced travel benefits and longer waiting times for travel.

However, even with the drop in position, the count of nations offering visa-free access for Indian citizens has actually increased in the past decade or so.

For example, eight years ago – the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power – 52 countries provided visa-free access to Indians and its passport at seventy-sixth position in the ranking.

A year later, it tumbled to eighty-fifth place, then improved to eightieth in 2023 and 2024, declining once more to the eighty-fifth spot currently. Meanwhile, visa-free destinations for Indians grew from fifty-two eight years ago to sixty last year and 62 in 2024.

Increasing Worldwide Travel Competition

The number of visa-free destinations this year (57) is higher than the number in 2015 (fifty-two), but India's rank for both these years remains at eighty-fifth. So, why is that?

Experts say that a major reason is the increasingly competitive landscape in global mobility – indicating that nations are entering into more travel partnerships for their populations' advantage and their economies. As per recent analysis, the global average number of destinations travellers are able to access without visas has nearly doubled from fifty-eight nineteen years ago to 109 in 2025.

As an illustration, The Chinese passport has increased the number of visa-free destinations its citizens can travel to from 50 to 82 over the last ten years. As a result, its rank in the ranking has improved from ninety-fourth to sixtieth in that same duration.

Meanwhile, India – previously positioned at seventy-seventh place in July – dropped to eighty-fifth place this autumn after losing access to two countries.

Other Influences Impacting Passport Power

An ex-diplomat from India says there are other factors that affect the strength of a country's passport, like economic and political conditions plus its receptiveness to accepting travelers from other countries.

For instance, the US passport has fallen of the top 10 and now occupies the 12th position – its lowest ever – because of its increasingly insular stance in global affairs.

The former ambassador recalls that during the seventies, Indian citizens had visa-free travel to numerous European and Western nations, though this shifted after the Khalistan movement during the eighties. Later political disturbances have further chipped away at India's image as a stable, democratic country.

"Numerous nations are also becoming increasingly wary regarding migrants," the diplomat added. "India has a large quantity of citizens emigrating to other countries or overstaying their visas and that interferes with the national image."

Factors like how secure a country's passport is and its immigration procedures also contribute in gaining visa-free entry to foreign nations.

Enhanced Security Measures

The Indian passport faces ongoing security threats. In 2024, law enforcement arrested over two hundred individuals for alleged visa and passport fraud. The country also has cumbersome immigration procedures and a slow pace of visa processing.

The diplomat indicated that technological advances, like India's recently-launched electronic passport or e-passport, may enhance safety and ease the immigration process. The e-passport contains a small chip that stores biometric information, increasing difficulty to counterfeit or alter the passport.

However, more diplomatic outreach and travel partnerships continue essential to boosting international travel freedom for Indian citizens and consequently, the Indian passport's global position.