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Earlier this year, a video by a popular travel content creator expressing frustration over India's weak passport went viral across digital platforms.

He mentioned that while nearby nations like Sri Lanka and Bhutan offered easier access of travelers from India, securing travel permits for visiting many nations in Europe and the West remained a challenge.

Such concerns regarding India's poor passport strength found confirmation in the latest global passport ranking, which placed the country at position eighty-five among nearly two hundred nations, a decline of five positions compared to the previous year.

Officials in India has not commented regarding these findings so far.

Nations like Ghana, Rwanda and Azerbaijan despite smaller economic size compared to India – a nation that is the fifth-largest economy globally – are ranked higher on the index at the 78th, 74th and 72nd spots, respectively.

In fact, the country's position in the past decade has remained in the 80s, even dipping to the 90th spot two years ago. These rankings appear poor when measured against Asian nations such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea, which have consistently held top positions.

What Passport Strength Indicates

Passport strength indicates a nation's soft power and global influence. This leads to enhanced travel freedom for passport holders, improving commercial and learning opportunities. Limited passport power means more paperwork, increased visa expenses, reduced travel benefits and extended processing periods when journeying.

However, even with the decline in the rank, the number of countries offering visa-free access to Indians has grown over the last ten years.

As an instance, in 2014 – the year the current administration's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power – 52 countries offered visa-free travel for Indian passport holders with the passport ranked 76th in the ranking.

A year later, it tumbled to eighty-fifth place, then improved to eightieth in 2023 and 2024, dropping again to the eighty-fifth spot this year. At the same time, visa-free destinations to Indian citizens increased from fifty-two eight years ago to sixty last year and 62 in 2024.

The Competitive Global Mobility Landscape

The number of nations allowing visa-free entry this year (57) exceeds what it was in 2015 (52), yet the country's position for both these years is 85. What explains this situation?

Experts say that a primary factor is the increasingly competitive landscape in global mobility – meaning countries are forming more travel partnerships to benefit their citizens and their economies. According to a 2025 report, the worldwide mean count of countries travellers are able to access without visas has almost doubled from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2025.

For example, The Chinese passport has expanded the number of visa-free countries its citizens can travel to from 50 to 82 in the past decade. Consequently, its position on the index has enhanced from 94th to 60th during the same time period.

Meanwhile, India – previously positioned at seventy-seventh place during summer – dropped to the 85th position this autumn following the loss of two nations.

Additional Factors Impacting Passport Power

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

For instance, the US passport has dropped out of the top 10 and now occupies twelfth place – its lowest ever – because of its increasingly insular stance in global affairs.

The diplomat mentioned how in the 1970s, Indian citizens had visa-free travel to many Western and European countries, but that changed after the Khalistan movement in the 1980s. Subsequent political upheavals have continued to damage the country's reputation as a stable democracy.

"Many countries are also becoming more cautious of immigrants," the diplomat added. "India has a high number of people migrating to other countries or remaining beyond visa limits and that interferes with the country's reputation."

Factors like the security level a country's passport is and immigration processes also contribute to obtaining visa-free entry to foreign nations.

Security and Technological Improvements

India's passport faces ongoing security risks. In 2024, law enforcement detained 203 people for suspected visa and passport fraud. India is also known for cumbersome immigration procedures with lengthy timelines for visa approvals.

The diplomat says that new technologies, like India's recently-launched digital passport or e-passport, may enhance safety and ease the immigration process. The e-passport contains a small chip that stores biometric information, making it harder to counterfeit or alter the passport.

But, more diplomatic outreach and travel partnerships remain key for enhancing the global mobility for Indian citizens and, by extension, India's passport ranking.