British Indian Empire

British Indian passports were issued to British subjects of the British Indian Empire, as well as to British subjects from other parts of the British Empire, and subjects of the British protected states in India (i.e. British protected persons of the 'princely states').^[5] These passports were introduced in British India after the First World War.^[6] The Indian Passport Act of 1920 required the use of passports, established controls on the foreign travel of Indians, and foreigners travelling to and within India.^[7] The passport was based on the format agreed upon by the 1920 League of Nations International Conference on Passports.^[8] However, the British Indian passport had very limited usage, being valid for travel only within the British Empire, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Holland.^[9]

Dominion of India

The use of the passport was discontinued after the establishment of the Dominion of India and Dominion of Pakistan in 1947, and its bearers were entitled to opt for Indian, Pakistani or British nationality.

Passport laws were made strict in both the countries in 1952. Initially, Indian passports were granted only to "respectable" people. A literacy test was required, and passports were denied to Communist Party of India members.^[10] Only in 1967 did the Supreme Court rule that every citizen had the right to a passport.^[11]

Tatkaal and SVP

Tatkaal Passports (for urgent needs),^[14] and Short Validity Passport (SVP)^[15] are also available and these are likely considered Ordinary Passports once issued.

e-Passports

The need for e-Passports (or Biometric passport) in India was realised in the late 2010s. Till early 2022, the government issued 20,000 official and diplomatic e-passports, but not to ordinary citizens of India. The government had issued the first e-passport to former President of India, Pratibha Patil in 2008.^[16]

The Union government officially announced to roll out e-passports on the lines of international standards for Indian citizens in the 2022-23 fiscal year. The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the same during the Union Budget 2022 address to the Lok Sabha. ICAO compliant passports with embedded electronic chip and digital inlays have been aimed for speedy immigration checks and high security. For the roll out of e-Passports, the Ministry of External Affairs entered into a contract with the Tata Consultancy Services. This has been officially termed as Passport Seva Programme V2.0.^[17]

Identity Information Page

• The Bio data page contains the following information:
  • Type: P- Stands for "Personal", if it's a Diplomatic or Service passport then it listed as "D" or "S"
  • Code: (listed as IND for "India")
  • Nationality: भारतीय / INDIAN
  • Passport number
  • Surname
  • Given name(s)
  • Date of birth
  • Sex
  • Place of birth
  • Place of issue
  • Date of issue
  • Date of expiry
  • Photo of passport holder
  • Ghost picture of the passport holder (only passports issued since 2013)
  • Signature of the passport holder
  • The information page ends with the Machine Readable Passport Zone (MRZ).
• The Demographics page at the end of the passport book contains the following information:
  • Name of father or legal guardian
  • Name of mother
  • Name of spouse
  • Address
  • Old passport no. with date and place of issue
  • File number

Languages

The text of Indian Passport is printed in Hindi and English, two of the twenty-two scheduled official languages (as per Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India) at the Union level.

Emigration check

Holders of Emigration Check Required (ECR) type passports need a clearance called an Emigration Check from the Government of India's Protector of Emigrants when going to selected countries on a work visa. This is to prevent the exploitation of Indian workers (especially the unskilled and less-educated) when going abroad, particularly to Middle Eastern countries. ECR type passport holders travelling on a tourist visa do not need a clearance; this is known as an Emigration Check Suspension.

Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) status passports are granted to:

• Indian nationals born abroad;
• Indian nationals holding at least a matriculation certificate;
• All holders of diplomatic or official passports.
• All gazetted government servants;
• All income-tax payers (including agricultural income-tax payers) in their individual capacity;
• All graduate and professional degree holders (such as architects, doctors, engineers, chartered accountants, scientists, lawyers, etc.);
• Spouses and dependent children of category of certain holders of ECNR passports;
• Seamen in possession of a continuous discharge certificate;
• Sea Cadets and Deck Cadets who have:
  • Passed their final examination on a three-year BSc Nautical Sciences Course at TS Chanakya, Mumbai; and
  • Undergone three months' pre-sea training at any of the government-approved training institutes such as TS Chanakya, TS Jawahar, TS Rehman, Maritime Training Institute (SCI), or National Institute of Personnel Management, Chennai, after production of identity cards issued by the Shipping Master at Mumbai, Kolkata, or Chennai;
• Persons holding a Permanent Immigration Visa, such as visas issued by the UK, USA, or Australia;
• Persons possessing a two years' diploma from any institute recognized by the National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) or the State Council of Vocational Training (SCVT), or persons holding a three years' diploma or equivalent degree from an institution such as a polytechnic recognized by the union or a state government;
• Nurses possessing qualifications recognised under the Indian Nursing Council Act, 1947;
• All persons above the age of 50 years;
• All persons who have been staying abroad for more than three years (whether in one continuous period or in aggregate), as well as their spouses;
• All children up to the age of 18 years.

In accordance with a ruling by the Ministry of External Affairs, passports issued from 2007 onwards do not have the ECNR stamp affixed; instead, a blank page 2 of the passport is deemed to have been ECNR endorsed. As a result, only ECR stamps are now affixed to Indian passports. For passports issued before January 2007, no notation in the passport means ECR. For passports issued in or after January 2007, no notation in the passport means ECNR. If Emigration Check is Required, there will be an endorsement in the passport regarding ECR.

Features

Since 25 November 2015, Indian passports that are handwritten or with an original date of expiry extending to 20 years have not been valid under ICAO travel regulations.^[20] With more recent Indian passports the personal particulars of the passport holder, that were hitherto printed on the inner cover page, are printed on the second page of the document. Another added security feature in the newer non-handwritten passports is a ghost picture of the holder found on the right side of the second page. Apart from stymieing criminals from printing fake passports, recent changes also help prevent smudging of the document because of inkjet printers.^[21][22]

Passport Seva Kendra

In September 2007, the Indian Union Council of Ministers approved a new passport issuance system under the Passport Seva Project. As per the project, front-end activities of passport issuance, dispatch of passports, online linking with police, and Central Printing Unit for centralised printing of passports will be put in place. The new system is trying to be 'timely, transparent, more accessible and reliable manner' for passport issuance. The applicant has to apply for fresh/reissue of passport through the Passport Seva system at one of the 77 Passport offices known as "Passport Seva Kendra"s operating throughout the country.

Biometric passport

India initiated the first phase of biometric e-passport for Diplomatic passport holders in India and abroad. The new passports have been designed locally by the Central Passport Organisation, the India Security Press and IIT Kanpur. It contains a security chip with all personal data and digital images. In the first phase new passports will have a 64KB chip carrying a photograph of the passport holder and in subsequent phases it will have a fingerprint. The new passport has already been tested with passport readers in the United States and has 4-second response time, while the US Passport has 10-second response time. It need not be carried in a metal jacket for security reasons. It will first need to be skimmed through a reader, after which it would generate an access code which then unlocks the chip for reader access.^[24]

In India, the e-passport is under its first phase of deployment and is restricted to Diplomatic passport holders. On 25 June 2008 the Indian Passport Authority issued the e-passport to the then President of India Pratibha Patil.^[25] As of 2016, the Government has plans to issue e-passports to all of its citizens. Also the Government has authorized Indian Security Press to float a global three-stage tender for procurement of ICAO-compliant electronic contactless inlays along with its operating system, which is required for the manufacture of Biometric Passports.^[26] The necessary procurement have been initiated by India Security Press, Nasik by calling for Global tender for the supply of electronic contactless inlays.^[27] The actual transition to the new age passport is expected to commence on the successful completion of the tendering and procurement process.^[28] The Biometric E-Passport work is currently in progress/pipeline and is yet to be available for Ordinary Passport holders.^[29]

During the 2022 Union budget of India speech, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that e-Passports with embedded chip and futuristic technology will be rolled out in 2022–23. It contains microchips that would have important security data stored in them, which enhances the convenience of citizens in their overseas travel. The Ministry of External Affairs has stated that the digital passport will allow greater security for personal data as well as smoother immigration process.^[30][31]

Passport Power Ranking and visa-free travel

As of January 2024^[update], Henley Passport Index ranks Indian passport at 85th place, moving down one place from last year's rank, with visa-free or visa on arrival access to 62 nations and territories to Indian citizens.^[32]

The Passport Index currently ranks Indian passport at 67th place out of 93 countries on global ranking with 73rd mobility ranking (based on visa-free or visa on arrival access to nations or territories).

Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan in his reply to an unstarred question in Rajya Sabha in November 2019 stated that the rank of the Indian passport on the Henley Passport Index is expected to improve.^{[33][34] [35]}

Indian citizens can live and work freely in Nepal under the generous terms of the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship.

Foreign travel statistics

According to the statistics these are the numbers of Indian visitors to various countries in 2017 (unless otherwise noted)

More information Destination, Number of visitors ...

Foreign travel statistics

Destination	Number of visitors
American Samoa[note 1][36]	63
Angola[37]	9,170
Antarctica[note 2][38]	292
Antigua and Barbuda[note 2][39]	366
Australia[note 2][40]	302,200
Austria[note 3][note 1][41]	147,300
Azerbaijan[note 1][42]	6,012
Barbados[note 3][note 1][43]	900
Belgium[note 1][44]	44,898
Bhutan[note 2][45]	172,751
Bolivia[note 1][46]	1,338
Bosnia and Herzegovina[note 2][47]	1,700
Botswana[48]	17,413
Brazil[note 2][49]	16,916
Cambodia[note 1][50]	46,131
Canada[note 2][51]	261,801
Cayman Islands[note 2][note 4][52]	292
Chile[note 2][53]	4,468
China[note 1][54][55]	799,100
Colombia[56]	5,402
Congo[note 5][57]	2,373
Costa Rica[note 2][58]	7,415
Croatia[note 2][59]	55,745
Cuba[note 2][59]	2
Dominica[60]	97
Dominican Republic[note 2][61]	4,649
Eswatini[note 1][62]	6,867
France[63]	524,055
French Polynesia[note 2][64]	379
Georgia[note 2][65]	59,732
Germany[note 1][66]	231,244
Guam[note 2][note 4][67]	8
Hong Kong[note 2][68]	392,853
Hungary[note 3][note 1][69]	33,134
Indonesia[note 1][70]	422,045
Israel[note 2][71]	58,000
Italy[note 1][72]	225,000
Jamaica[note 2][73]	1,834
Japan[74]	103,084
Jordan[note 1][75]	57,720
Kazakhstan[note 2][76]	21,890
Kyrgyzstan[note 2][77]	19,600
Laos[note 2][78]	4,343
Latvia[note 3][note 2][79]	5,476
Lebanon[note 1][80]	15,610
Macao[note 2][81]	148,121
Madagascar[82]	2,234
Malaysia[note 2][83]	552,739
Maldives[note 2][84]	83,019
Mali[note 6][85]	1,500
Mauritius[note 2][84]	86,294
Mexico[note 1][86]	59,020
Mongolia[note 2][87]	1,888
Montenegro[note 6][note 3][88]	1,131
Myanmar[89]	34,628
Nepal[note 7][90]	75,124
Netherlands[note 2][91]	155,000
New Zealand[note 2][92]	61,440
Oman[note 2][93]	321,161
Panama[94]	6,748
Papua New Guinea[note 1][95]	4,293
Peru[note 2][96]	7,201
Philippines[note 2][97]	107,278
Qatar[note 2][98]	333,708
Romania[note 1][99]	16,753
Russia[note 2][100]	130,400
Seychelles[note 2][101]	13,518
Singapore[note 2][102]	1,272,069
Slovakia[note 1][note 3][103]	6,805
South Africa[104]	85,639
South Korea[note 2][105]	123,416
Spain[note 2][106]	141,122
Sri Lanka[note 1][107]	356,729
Suriname[note 2][108]	1,045
Taiwan[note 2][109]	40,846
Tanzania[note 1][110]	69,876
Thailand[note 2][111][112]	1,595,754
Timor-Leste[note 6][note 7][113]	799
Turkey[note 2][114]	86,996
Ukraine[note 2][115]	23,173
United Arab Emirates[note 2][116]	2,073,000
United Kingdom[note 2][117]	525,000
United States[note 2][note 8][118]	2,055,480
Uzbekistan[note 9][119]	18,100
Zambia[120]	25,517
Zimbabwe[121]	5,421

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