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In recent months, a video from an Indian travel influencer complaining about India's weak passport gained massive traction across digital platforms.

He mentioned that while neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bhutan were more welcoming of Indian tourists, obtaining visas to travel to many nations in Europe and the West remained a challenge.

Such concerns regarding the limited global access of Indian passports found confirmation in the latest global passport ranking, ranking the country in the 85th spot out of nearly two hundred nations, five spots lower compared to the previous year.

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

Nations including Ghana, Rwanda and Azerbaijan despite smaller economic size than India – a nation that is the fifth-largest economy globally – are ranked higher on the index in the seventies range, respectively.

In fact, India's rank over the last ten years has hovered in the 80s, falling to the 90th spot two years ago. Such standings appear poor when measured against Asian nations like Singapore, Japan and South Korea, which have consistently held leading ranks.

What Passport Strength Indicates

Passport strength indicates a nation's soft power and global influence. This leads to enhanced travel freedom for its citizens, boosting business and learning opportunities. Limited passport power results in more paperwork, higher visa costs, fewer travel privileges and longer waiting times when journeying.

But despite the decline in the rank, the count of nations offering visa-free access to Indians has actually increased in the past decade or so.

As an instance, eight years ago – the year the current administration's ruling party came to power – 52 countries provided visa-free travel for Indian passport holders and its passport at seventy-sixth position in the ranking.

The following year, it tumbled to the 85th position, then rose to 80th in 2023 and 2024, declining once more to the 85th position currently. At the same time, visa-free destinations to Indian citizens grew from 52 in 2015 to 60 in 2023 and 62 in 2024.

The Competitive Global Mobility Landscape

The count of visa-free destinations this year (57) exceeds the number eight years ago (52), but the country's position for both these years remains at eighty-fifth. So, why is that?

Analysts note that a primary factor is the increasingly competitive landscape in international travel – indicating that countries are forming more travel partnerships to benefit their citizens and their economies. As per a 2025 report, the global average count of countries people can visit visa-free has nearly doubled from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2025.

As an illustration, 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 position on the index has enhanced from 94th to 60th in that same duration.

In comparison, India – previously positioned 77th on the index during summer – fell to the 85th position this autumn following the loss to two countries.

Additional Factors Affecting Passport Strength

A former Indian ambassador says there are other factors that affect a nation's passport power, like its economic and political stability plus its openness to welcoming citizens from abroad.

For example, the US passport has dropped out of the top 10 and now occupies twelfth place – its lowest ever – because of its more inward-looking approach in global affairs.

The former ambassador mentioned that during the seventies, Indians enjoyed visa-free access to many Western and European countries, but that changed after the Khalistan movement in the 1980s. Later political disturbances have further chipped away the country's reputation as a stable, democratic country.

"Many countries are growing increasingly wary of immigrants," 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."

Elements like how secure a country's passport is and immigration processes also contribute in gaining visa-free access to foreign nations.

Security and Technological Improvements

The Indian passport faces ongoing security risks. In 2024, authorities detained over two hundred individuals for suspected visa and passport fraud. India is also known for complex immigration processes with lengthy timelines of visa processing.

The former ambassador indicated that new technologies, like India's recently-launched digital passport or e-passport, can improve security and ease the immigration process. The e-passport contains a microchip holding biometric information, increasing difficulty to counterfeit or alter the document.

However, increased diplomatic efforts and travel partnerships continue essential for enhancing the global mobility of Indians and, by extension, India's passport ranking.