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Earlier this year, a video by a popular travel content creator expressing frustration over India's weak passport went viral on social media.

The influencer stated that while neighbouring countries such as Bhutan and Sri Lanka offered easier access of travelers from India, securing travel permits for visiting many nations in Europe and the West remained a challenge.

This dissatisfaction with 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, five spots lower compared to the previous year.

Officials in India has not commented regarding these findings yet.

Countries including Ghana, Rwanda and Azerbaijan with much smaller economies than India – a nation that is the world's fifth biggest economy – are ranked higher in the ranking at the 78th, 74th and 72nd spots, in that order.

Actually, India's rank in the past decade has remained around the eighties, even dipping to the 90th spot two years ago. These rankings are dismal compared to Asian nations like Japan, South Korea and Singapore, which have consistently held top positions.

What Passport Strength Measures

The power of a passport indicates a nation's soft power and international standing. This leads to enhanced travel freedom for passport holders, boosting business and educational prospects. A weak passport results in additional documentation, higher visa costs, reduced travel benefits and longer waiting times when journeying.

But despite the decline in the rank, the count of nations providing visa-free travel for Indian citizens has grown over the last ten years.

As an instance, in 2014 – when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party came to power – fifty-two nations provided visa-free access to Indians with the passport ranked 76th on the index.

A year later, it tumbled to eighty-fifth place, then rose to eightieth in 2023 and 2024, declining once more to the 85th position this year. At the same time, countries allowing visa-free travel to Indian citizens increased from 52 in 2015 to sixty last year and sixty-two this year.

The Competitive Global Mobility Landscape

The count of visa-free destinations this year (57) is higher than what it was in 2015 (52), but the country's position during both periods is 85. What explains this situation?

Analysts note that a primary factor is the increasingly competitive landscape in global mobility – indicating that countries are forming additional travel agreements for their populations' advantage and economic growth. According to a 2025 report, the global average count of countries people can visit 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 destinations its citizens can travel to from 50 to 82 in the past decade. As a result, its position in the ranking has improved from 94th to 60th in that same duration.

In comparison, India – which was ranked at seventy-seventh place during summer – dropped to the 85th position this autumn following the loss of two nations.

Additional Factors Impacting Passport Power

A former Indian ambassador notes multiple elements that affect the strength of a country's passport, like its economic and political stability as well as its openness to welcoming citizens from abroad.

For instance, the American passport has dropped out from the top ten and now occupies twelfth place – its lowest ever – due to its increasingly insular stance in global affairs.

The former ambassador recalls that during the seventies, Indians enjoyed visa-free access to many Western and European countries, but that changed after the Sikh separatist movement in the 1980s. Subsequent political upheavals have continued to damage at India's image as a stable democracy.

"Numerous nations are also becoming more cautious of immigrants," he stated. "The country possesses a high number of citizens emigrating overseas or overstaying their visas affecting the country's reputation."

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

Enhanced Security Measures

India's passport remains vulnerable to security risks. In 2024, law enforcement arrested 203 people for alleged visa and passport fraud. India is also known for cumbersome immigration procedures with lengthy timelines of visa processing.

The former ambassador says that new technologies, like India's recently-launched digital passport or e-passport, can improve security and streamline immigration. The e-passport includes a small chip that stores biometric data, increasing difficulty to forge or tamper with the passport.

But, increased diplomatic efforts and travel partnerships remain key to boosting the global mobility for Indian citizens and, by extension, India's passport ranking.